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Best way of dissolving CO2?

I hate the 'champagne' look that my tank has taken on recently. I may try to connect the atomizer to the filter inlet hose. I am concerned about cavitation, because it's not always noticeable. If Co2 builds up around the impeller alone, the impeller could run dry, and you wouldn't realise until it had burnt out.
 
What about using a cheap external filter for Co2 (i.e no media) and another as a filter?

Just an ideal as i just use diffuser as filter is built in.
 
Sacha said:
If Co2 builds up around the impeller alone, the impeller could run dry, and you wouldn't realise until it had burnt out.
Click to expand...

Which is why I built my reactor the way I did, minimal maintenance and zero gas build up when in use. At first it can be a bit of a pig to prime if there's air in the down tube when it's all plumbed in to the canister but I found a tilt to horizontal of the unit sorts that out immediately. After cleaning the unit I now always run it on a closed line using an Eheim pump and depress the button on top to release any air in the unit and then lock the taps when it's full and instal back in place.
 
Those filter housings are expensive though, I just recently discovered a huge collection of plumbing supplies in the POND section of my local Maidenhead Aquatics and so could build a reactor like Alastair's, and use a sponge to trap the last bubbles. However it does seem the biggest problem with all of these reactors is the priming, for Alastair's style a bleed valve may be needed.
 
9bd70e23718a7a4e30be7bfa7cae8c97.jpg


Rubbish drawing but you get the idea…

One big problem with this would be it would be VERY difficult to clean, the hose tails would be unscrew-able but cleaning round those corners virtually impossible, I decided to have no bleed valve and so i'd just fill up with water to install (using double taps). This hasn't really been thought through its just a preliminary idea.[DOUBLEPOST=1408374646][/DOUBLEPOST]I think X3NiTH's design would be easiest but perhaps expensive.
 
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It's not that expensive when compared to burning out the motor on a pump. You can get the 20" housings online for £25 (possibly slimline 8" diameter 3/4"BSP port opaque unit), my clear Watts 20" (10" diameter head with 1" BSP ports) was about £70 the two double taps were about £40 and the elbowed outlets were only a few quid each, but my Canister filter was £300 and I'd rather not risk torching it. But I didn't necessarily build it to minimise risk I did it to get crystal water and 100% co2 dissolution.

The design is not mine, it's the culmination of many ideas that evolved over a very long thread over on TheBarrReport.

:)
 
hi ukaps,

this will be my first post here. i'm running a 60gal planted tank, which is about 5 months old now and it was low-tech during this period. now i had the chance to add a high-pressure co2 system to the mix, so since that few days i'm playing around with the placement of the ceramic diffuser.
as the co2 system was lent me, i have to live with what i've got :) so currently there's no possibility to change to atomiser or reactor.

the problem is coming from the fact that the tank is not paralell to the wall, it is perpendicular to it, so it is not that nice to put the diffuser at the opposite end as where the lily is placed - the tubes hanging around would ruin the view.

therefore i was thinking i'll put the diffuser close to the glass inlet - the filter is a 13gal plastic barrel with an eheim compact+ 2000 pump, running at max - so the flow would catch most bubbles and take them into the filter where they would break apart and dissolve.

i've posted this idea onto the greenaqua boards [i'm hungarian], but i've had the response that it would kill the bacteria in the filter.
and now i see that here some of you had placed the inline diffuser into the inlet tube of the filter. so the question is: is it a good idea to let the filter do the work of a reactor, or it will really reduce bacteria? did anyone who has the diffuser in the inlet have any negative effect on filtering?

thanks in advance
 
Well with co2 going into the filter the oxygen levels, oxygen being vital for the bacteria that convert ammonia-nitrite-nitrate, will be the same as without co2 and the co2 concentration should be similar to that of the rest of the tank. Anyway, in planted tanks the filter is only one of many sources of filtration, there are beneficial bacteria in the substrate and the plants use up nitrogenous waste. So as long as the gas doesn't build up in the filter, damaging the pump, it should be fine.
 
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