Easy, reliable, painless DIY CO2?!
I was at an lfs yesterday and finally found the CO2 Fizz Factory that Jungle makes. This store had it marked $26.95, but I've seen it online for $15 or so. Anyway, since I had a $10 credit there, I went for it. The lfs owner knocked off another 15% because he wants me to be his "guinea pig" to see if this stuff works. His tanks are too big, and mine's a 38-gal (it's supposed to be effective for tanks up to 40 gal.). Yes!!
Brought it home, set it up. Tried it. I had a chamber in the tank full of CO2 in about a minute and a half. It took it all night to completely disburse in the water, and took my pH from 7.8 to 7.6. This morning, I put another tab in the reaction chamber. We'll see what that does. Each chamber-full contains 350cc CO2, and the reaction chamber is designed to hold 450. One tab just about fills it up.
Here's how it works: All the parts are plastic. You use airline tubing and an airline connector (included) to connect a small, plastic "fizz" container to a "reaction chamber" inside the tank. The reaction chamber is actually a rectangle (about 2"x10"x2") with one open side which faces down in the water. So the diffusion mechanism is really a bell-type system. The airline from the fizz bottle plugs into the side of this rectangle, and as the tablet fizzes in the fizz bottle outside the tank, the CO2 runs (quickly!) down into the bell, displacing the water there. The CO2 then slowly dissolves into your tank water. When the water has eventually filled the reaction chamber back up again, the CO2 is gone and you need another tablet. All you do is reconnect the fizz bottle to the outside airline tube, drop in another tablet, close the lid, and wait two minutes for the chamber to fill again. Then you can disconnect the fizz bottle until next time. There's also an airline plug connected with a short piece of tubing to the top of the reactor, for venting if you need it. Works slick!!
The only thing I'm not thrilled about is the fact that the reaction chamber attaches with suction cups to the inside of the tank wall about two inches or so from the top of the water. Which puts it squarely in the upper middle of your tank, totally visible. It's clear plastic, and you can't really see it unless the lights are on, but when they are, it's an eyesore.
Is there any reason I couldn't just run longer airline tubing so I could move the reactor down behind my plants closer to the bottom of the tank? It would be a LOT less visible that way. Would it still work, or would the added distance create pressure problems getting the CO2 down into the reactor?
What really impresses me (especially after my pop-bottle attempt) was the speed and ease of getting the CO2 in there. Those tablets rule!!
What do you guys think of this system? Will it really work?
-- Pat
I was at an lfs yesterday and finally found the CO2 Fizz Factory that Jungle makes. This store had it marked $26.95, but I've seen it online for $15 or so. Anyway, since I had a $10 credit there, I went for it. The lfs owner knocked off another 15% because he wants me to be his "guinea pig" to see if this stuff works. His tanks are too big, and mine's a 38-gal (it's supposed to be effective for tanks up to 40 gal.). Yes!!
Brought it home, set it up. Tried it. I had a chamber in the tank full of CO2 in about a minute and a half. It took it all night to completely disburse in the water, and took my pH from 7.8 to 7.6. This morning, I put another tab in the reaction chamber. We'll see what that does. Each chamber-full contains 350cc CO2, and the reaction chamber is designed to hold 450. One tab just about fills it up.
Here's how it works: All the parts are plastic. You use airline tubing and an airline connector (included) to connect a small, plastic "fizz" container to a "reaction chamber" inside the tank. The reaction chamber is actually a rectangle (about 2"x10"x2") with one open side which faces down in the water. So the diffusion mechanism is really a bell-type system. The airline from the fizz bottle plugs into the side of this rectangle, and as the tablet fizzes in the fizz bottle outside the tank, the CO2 runs (quickly!) down into the bell, displacing the water there. The CO2 then slowly dissolves into your tank water. When the water has eventually filled the reaction chamber back up again, the CO2 is gone and you need another tablet. All you do is reconnect the fizz bottle to the outside airline tube, drop in another tablet, close the lid, and wait two minutes for the chamber to fill again. Then you can disconnect the fizz bottle until next time. There's also an airline plug connected with a short piece of tubing to the top of the reactor, for venting if you need it. Works slick!!
The only thing I'm not thrilled about is the fact that the reaction chamber attaches with suction cups to the inside of the tank wall about two inches or so from the top of the water. Which puts it squarely in the upper middle of your tank, totally visible. It's clear plastic, and you can't really see it unless the lights are on, but when they are, it's an eyesore.
Is there any reason I couldn't just run longer airline tubing so I could move the reactor down behind my plants closer to the bottom of the tank? It would be a LOT less visible that way. Would it still work, or would the added distance create pressure problems getting the CO2 down into the reactor?
What really impresses me (especially after my pop-bottle attempt) was the speed and ease of getting the CO2 in there. Those tablets rule!!
What do you guys think of this system? Will it really work?
-- Pat