# Question about CO2 bubbles



## amateurfishkeeper (2 Mar 2016)

Hi everyone

So just a silly question - I'm not an expert and don't have a scientific background or anything so sorry if this offends anyone. 

If CO2 bubbles reach the surface of the water can I assume the CO2 is lost to the tank? And if that's true, if a CO2 bubble breaks or bursts under the surface of the water can I assume that the CO2 is not lost to the tank?

Just need to get my head round the chemistry a bit more.


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## Aqua360 (2 Mar 2016)

you shouldn't have to worry about offending anyone with a harmless question, if someone gets irked; thats their problem.

I'd say the co2 is lost if its breaks at the surface, but I'm new to this game; so it'll be interesting to hear the answer to this


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## darren636 (2 Mar 2016)

Co2 bubbles will diffuse in the water or reach the surface and be lost. 
 So, you want the co2 bubbles to be suspended in the water for as long as possible or use a co2 reactor - these diffuse the co2 completely.


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## Paulo Soares (2 Mar 2016)

Morning, 
The less bubbles you see the more is being dissolved in the water. The more bubbles you see the more is being wasted...

That´s why an excelent difuser (ADA or DOaqua!) is the best solution. Or a reactor of course. 

The less quality of the material the hard will be to get a proper and effective dissolution. 

As good hardware costs a lot of money, you´ll find people trying to get a good dissolution of Co2 by incrementing the flow of the filter, pointing the Outflow in the direction of the Difuser. 

Ok, they will have dissolution and drop cheker pointing good in those 30 PPM or more, but with a lot of waste of co2 of course. 
And in the end get viscous water cause of those amounts of gas being realease to te surface. 

Compliments


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## Paulo Soares (2 Mar 2016)

I have a 40 mm ADA difuser and don´t see almost any bubbles. And the few that come out of it don´t reach the surface. 
But then again...as i said quality as a price.


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## amateurfishkeeper (2 Mar 2016)

Thanks for the replies - so I was wondering about this.

The Hagen ladder yeast thing is I guess a pretty amateurish and crap way to deliver CO2 to the tank. Bubbles are big, most just rise to the surface of the water and are lost (I gather to the tank). So I was wondering about trying to make it work better - by the way, when using it normally, I measure my PH and it doesn't really change that much. Would this work? Please see photo.

So I've taken an old diffuser and removed the ceramic plate. I've turned it upside down and attached it above the exact point where the bubbles rise from the ladder. All the bubbles go up into this diffuser below the surface of the water. They break within the airpocket created. Would you expect this to lead to better distribution of CO2 in the sense of more CO2 - I know we have to consider flow as well of course but I want to leave that to one side for a second. Could this work as a way to make the ladder work better?


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## EdwinK (2 Mar 2016)

Could work but you need a bigger surface (water/CO2) area to increase efficiency i.e - 
You can cut the upper part of plastic bottle and attach it below the water near the filter outflow.


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## ian_m (2 Mar 2016)

amateurfishkeeper said:


> They break within the airpocket created. Would you expect this to lead to better distribution of CO2 in the sense of more CO2 - I know we have to consider flow as well of course but I want to leave that to one side for a second. Could this work as a way to make the ladder work


Probably not.

Why not let the bubbles enter a tiny powerhead that will then "blast" the CO2 around the tank.

For example
http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/a...umps/200-l-h-submersible-water-aquarium-pump/
or
http://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/product-submersible-pump-p7.html

Remember CO2 in the tank is an "art" rather than a "science"....


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## Paulo Soares (2 Mar 2016)

ian_m said:


> Probably not.
> 
> Why not let the bubbles enter a tiny powerhead that will then "blast" the CO2 around the tank.
> 
> ...



IAN..
Using a head of an internal filter such as SERA 60 or 120 or another pump won´t be useful at that point..
It will throw the bubbles along the way.. but then again  won´t break it. Got it?
It´s not a win win solution but a remedy 

Big hug


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## Andy Thurston (2 Mar 2016)

Paulo Soares said:


> Using a head of an internal filter such as SERA 60 or 120 or another pump won´t be useful at that point..


You would be surprised the impeller smashes the bubbles up nice and small, people with sumps use their return pump to add co2 to their tank. tom barr uses this method. my friend has a power head  connected to a spraybar in his tank and it works perfectly and I used this method as a temporary solution while I waited for my replacement inline to be sent. The only real bad point is that its very ugly


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## ian_m (3 Mar 2016)

Big clown said:


> You would be surprised the impeller smashes the bubbles up nice and small


Also if you drill fine holes in the impellor it smashes the bubbles up even more.


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## EdwinK (3 Mar 2016)

ian_m said:


> Also if you drill fine holes in the impellor it smashes the bubbles up even more.



What about impeller balance? Doesn't that affect it?


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## ian_m (3 Mar 2016)

EdwinK said:


> What about impeller balance? Doesn't that affect it?


Probably not if you drill enough holes evenly on all the impellor blades.

Found this whilst trying to locate a picture of a drilled impellor, another way of doing it. Cut slots in the blades and fit a cut piece plastic pan scrubber.


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