How Does an External CO2 Reactor Work? (e.g., Dupla, AquaMedic)

Thanks again, will work up some suds tonight.

You'd think it wouldn't be difficult to find out where a large volume of CO2 gas is going in about 5 seconds!

To make matters worse, the ballast to my brand new Giesemann 150w Nova II pendant is heating up so much that it's actually hotter than the light fixture itself with the bulb on. Giesemann is sending a new ballast as they said this is definitely not normal.
 
I had one burn up and cause a fire in a client's home about 10 years ago.
They replaced it but it took a long time.

Other than that, I like them:)

But I prefer electronic ballast, HQI double ended(I think the Nova's are that type) bulbs and small fixtures.

You spent a big chunk on equipment I can tell.

The DIY reactor shown at Ghori's site is based off my old design which is somewhat based off the Dupla, but this cost about 10$ to make.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Giesemann does make beautiful lights, and they provide exceptional service. Yes, I have spent a chunk on equipment, but reefkeeping has taught me to buy what I feel will work best, regardless of cost.

Obviously you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a thriving system, but it helps not to skimp on things like lighting.

I'll check out the DIY reactor. Thanks.
 
Ok, I did the experiment tonight. I didn't want to leave any doubt in my mind so I immersed the entire Dupla reactor in a bucket of water, cranked up the CO2 to fill the entire chamber, shut off the CO2 once the chamber was filled, and then let the filter water run through the chamber.

The chamber did it's usual "filling up with water very quickly" routine. Result... no leaks in the reactor or CO2 line. I simply can not believe all that CO2 was forced into the water that quickly, but that must be what's happening, because absolutely no gas bubbles went back to the tank or filter lines to the reactor.

I guess the reactor's doing its job!
 
The bioballs thingys help dissolve it faster.

Now add enough CO2 to your tank to get a pH of 6.6 to 6.7 and keep it there while the lights are on.

Then you are done with CO2 except for the ocassional check or if anything seems wrong(Always check CO2 first, then........other issues).

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
When I had a reactor with bioballs and a mesh screen hooked to the input side of a canister filter and upped the CO2 to produce a burst of CO2, quite a lot of it went down into the canister and dissolved there. Now, my reactor is on the output side and if I produce a burst of CO2, some comes out the output of the filter. It doesn't really matter, its getting dissolved and thats what matters. Just my two cents on the reactor question....
 
I'd love the pH to be 6.7 or 6.8. I'm adding 2 bubbles per second right now to stay at 7.1, so I'm probably going to to crank it up to at least 4-6 bubbles per second for now. Since I have a pH controller, I could simply keep it at 8 bubbles per second until it hits the target pH and turns off.

Thanks for hanging in with this thread Tom. Although I have over a decade of intense reef experience, plants are a new game for me, although many aspects are similar.

I'm just surprised at how much CO2 it takes to get the pH down. I supposed the fact that my tank is new and doesn't have much organic matter probably helps keep the pH up.
 
Mission accomplished. pH is now holding steady at 6.8 via the controller.

My tank is a week old as of today and the plants are growing nicely. I have a baby tears plant that's sending shoots off to the sides so perhaps I'll use that as a foreground carpet. It really seems to be happy in my tank. I also have true micro e. tennellus, but it doesn't seem to be very happy. I'm trying to figure out if it's just still recovering from shipping, or if it doesn't like my halide lighting.
 
The E. tennelus in my tank seems to like my Halides. It grows very dense, but strangely seems to spread faster in my PC lit tank. What color temp/type halides do you use? I use cheapie 4000K bulbs.
 
As long as you maintain the CO2 way up, much likme the Ca++ and Alkalinity in the coral reef/marine planted tanks, you'll do fine.

The nutrients are cheap and the water changes are easy.

www.litemanu.com

For
KNO3
K2SO4
KH2PO4
Traces

These plus water changes makes the tank really do very well.

I'd do a lot of 50% water changes for the first few weeks, maybe 1-2x aweek.

Afterwards, add the KNO3, K2SO4, KH2PO4, and trace back.

This way you can keep the nutrients in a good range for the plants.

It's like making a reference solution each time you do a water change.

It prevents anything from building up, and also prevents anything from running out.

It's also easier than testing more than one item.

And it most cases it's more accurate.

Example routine for a 20 gal with high light/CO2

1/4 teaspoon of KNO3 3x a week
1/4 teaspoon K2SO4 once a week after water change
2 rice grain's worth of KH2PO4 3x a week
5mls of trace mix 3x a week.

50% weekly water change

You scale this up/down to where your tank size is.

You do this, the plants will grow very very well.

If you want to start up a tank well, use Flourite etc, add some mulm from the old tank, or the LFS,a friend's tank etc.
That's the stuff that settles in the bottom of the water after vacuuming.

Add a liter or two wet to every sq ft of tank floor space.

Add a handful of ground peat to each sq ft also.
Top with Flourite.

That, along with good CO2 will make a tank do very well.

Regards,
Tom Barr

PS if you like plants, try marine plants.


See my thread on that here.
 
AquariaCentral.com