Glass CO2 diffuser w/ ceramic discs - cleaning

F

fabsroman

AC Members
Sep 30, 2008
434
0
0
West Friendship, MD
I'm about to try some glass CO2 diffusers for my 75. I am just sick and tired of cleaning out my Red Sea 500 reactors every week, and I don't think the Red Sea reactors are dissolving the CO2 quick enough.

Before I order a couple of these glass diffusers with the ceramic discs in them, I was wondering if anybody had any feedback on them. Also wondering how often they need to be cleaned, how they are cleaned, and if the ceramic disc ever needs to be replaced. If the ceramic disc needs to be replaced, where would I get a new one?
 
i dont have any experience with them. i think that i had read that you should buy 2 and when 1 clogs up you replace it and soak the dirty one in bleach or something. but you'd be better ask someone who knows for sure.

do you have bubbles coming out of your reactor?
 
timwag2001 said:
i dont have any experience with them. i think that i had read that you should buy 2 and when 1 clogs up you replace it and soak the dirty one in bleach or something. but you'd be better ask someone who knows for sure.

do you have bubbles coming out of your reactor?
Click to expand...

It depends on what kind of bubbles you are talking about. If I crank up the CO2, I get a lot of very small bubbles coming out of the bottom and I can see the CO2 vortex in the reactor get pretty huge.

Then, there are the huge bubbles that I get when the 3 little holes at the bottom of the reactor get clogged. That is when it is a pain in the rear. On top of that, the reactors will not stay in place because the suction cups hardly work anymore. When I first got them they were great. 18 months later they are a pain.
 
i only just started liking my glass diffuser. i use it dirctly above a powerhead so that the kind of small bubbles get efficiently sucked into the powerhead and the cut up even finer. i tank now has a fog of co2 in it. i really want a co2 reactor, or to finish making the one i am working on.
 
Glass diffusers aren't as effective as reactors but they're small and don't take up a power socket.

Cleaning is easy, just pour some Flourish Excel into the cup containing the diffusing disk and let it sit for a few minutes. If you need to clean the whole thing then give it a bleach bath. The disk cannot be removed so if it is damaged then you'll need to get another diffuser.
 
I use Cermaic Diffusers in all my tanks, looks elegant and reduces clutter inside the tank.

The frequency of cleaning varies, there is no fixed time frame, usually the disc gets brown or green over a period of time and this is when it needs to be cleaned. I pour Liquid Bleach into the cup, let it sit as long as it takes for me to clean my tank, sometimes even upto 45 min. Then give it a good wash and its ready to use. In some tanks i have been using the same diffuser for 2 years + now and every time i clean it, the disc becomes sparkling white and works like the first day i got it!

The Disc cannot be replaced, if you regularly maintain it, you will never need to change it.

One thing you need to be careful about is the stem of the diffuser to which you connect your CO2 pipe is quite delicate and can be easily broken if you apply a lot of pressure on it. What i have seen is that usually this happens when trying to remove the pipe from the stem to clean it as the pipe grabs on and sits pretty snug. For this just give the pipe a push and then pull back, you will see the pipe comes off easily.
 
Tilex worked better than Bleach which worked better than H2O2 which worked better than Excel.

Just take a small cup, squirt lots on it, let it sit for 10-15min or so, Rinse 2-3x good, add water to cup, then add dechlor, return to service.

Clean often if in an area that gets light and if it's nice and white clean, then it's good. Keeping them nice and clean will keep the CO2 consistent.

I think tilex works about as good as we can ask for and it's faster/more complete IME.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
I clean my diffuser about once per year. I use to use bleach, but now I use Excel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom