• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Changed to a Sera Co2 Reactor 1000. Gave up on inline diffuser for my planted tank.

So im down to about 1.5-1.8 bar now nearly 20 psi. Im still having to use quite a high bps to get the DC light green for lights on even when the co2 starts 4 hours before. Fish seem all ok since I added an air stone so far so good. Still need to tweak it some as it could be slightly lighter in the green. The plants are all ok but im only on 50% lights and not much growth now so need to be able to increase the pressure on them to grow without any melt 😉
 
UxVL2T.jpg
UxVL2T.jpg

I5EBwA.jpg


So installed the sera 500, as per comments around 5 days delivery via German company on Amazon.
Took advice around connecting c02 pipe, soaked in hot water to soften tubing, fits fine.
As per Bhu now trying to get a balance on co2 running 1hr 30m before lights on at around 2bps.
Bit fiddly with fluval tubing, running some 16/22 tubing from filter, then from sera the existing fluval tubing with rubber connector...bit nervous may have a swimming pool one of these days...

The 206 filter not great flow and noticed a reduction with the sera, spray bar still gives good movement.
I notice more of a swirl when co2 on from the reactor, I think I need to tweak the piping as a slight kink and I have not given myself a lot of tubing to try and get rid of air trapped...

Watch this space...
 
Last edited:
Well ive got my balance good now but coming on with co2 some 4 hours before lights on! Also the bps is a constant stream lol

I am amazed you are using a jubilee clip on the sera hose section as they are plastics with a track record of being fragile. Id have used a spring one at the most.

Hope you don't get a swimming pool and that its all balanced and running good soon enough...

Here is my latest tank shot from today...

487f8d12506089628822c7fd8b1f0806_zpse1f2e27a.jpg
 
Bhu said:
Well ive got my balance good now but coming on with co2 some 4 hours before lights on! Also the bps is a constant stream lol
Click to expand...

Hi Bhu,

How's is your reactor doing so far? 🙂
As for my tank, since my Sera reactor's Co2 nozzle broke, I'm stuck with using the inline diffuser for now.
Thinking of ways to ix the broken nozzle.

Cheers
 
Hi Zak Rafik
My sera is working really well. I now get more of a yellow colour than green and my fish seem to be able to cope with it quite well so have left the bubble count as it is for now. Must mean the plants are supplying them the oxygen they need 🙂 I still do have BBA issues though 🙁 hope you can find a way to fix your sera. There must be a metal screw threaded tube you can find online somewhere to add to it... I will have a better look in the new year. 🙂
 
Bhu said:
Hi Zak Rafik
My sera is working really well.
Click to expand...
Glad to see things are working out fine.
As for BBA, I have it too in my tank even when using inline diffuser.
I bet even Takashi Amano has BBA in his tank:lol:

Have you looked at your tank flow?
I also find overdosing with Flourish Excel helps in bringing or slowing down the spread of BBA.

Thanks for the link for the Co2 nozzle.:thumbup:
In my country I can hardly find these in loose quantities. In any case fixing it water tight is another issue, I think.

I'll see what I can do.
Cheers.
 
Tank flow is great. Over 10x, (150ltr tank with minimum 2000 ltr/h) funny thing is that the worse BBA is in the highest flow! If you carefully drill the sera to the thread size then very carefully screw the grease nipple in with silicone it will be water tight. The web link I sent was just for example there must be loads of these all over to buy. Try ebay.
 
Bhu said:
Tank flow is great. Over 10x, (150ltr tank with minimum 2000 ltr/h) funny thing is that the worse BBA is in the highest flow!......... The web link I sent was just for example there must be loads of these all over to buy. Try ebay.
Click to expand...


That's what I did and there are loads of options out there. I'll try contacting them very soon.

As for BBA in high flow areas....hummm...that's interesting to know. I do notice it in my tank too! I'm baffled by this.
 
Bhu said:
They look perfect!
Click to expand...

Today I got a rude reminder on why I choose the Sera reactor in the first place.:banghead:
After return from my long trip, I had changed the inline diffuser for a "clean" one about 1 week ago. At first, the bubble were in fine mist but since yesterday, I noticed the bubble were getter bigger. To make things worse, this morning, I noticed the bubble were even bigger. From the spray bar it simply heads straight to the surface.:grumpy:
I'm seeing an increase in BBA in my tank.

I had soaked the inline diffuser in full strength bleach for more than 2 days and then soaked in Prime 50% + water 50% solution for 2 days followed by soaking in plain water for 2 days!

Now I'm desperately looking for a way to repair the broken Co2 nozzle on my Seara 1000 reactor ( which by the way is more brittle than your average butter cookies:lol:)

In the meantime I came across a thread in this forum: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/experiences-cleaning-inline-diffusers.14605/
I going to try out as mentioned below:
plantbrain said:
Tilex, toilet bowl cleaner works much better than bleach FYI.
Takes about 10 min and it will make any and all stuff growing or discoloring it go away.
Rinse 2-3 x and then soak in dechlorinator for a min, then return to service with mist
Click to expand...

It's getting a bit annoying..this Co2 thingy......
 
Come on someone make a stainless 303 life time one😀 , to repair it all you need is milliput mate. Belive me I've fixed boat hulls even a rad hose fitting on 4x4 and an n75 broken barb on our t4. Dries fast you can paint and sand it.
 
Last edited:
foxfish said:
Can you post a picture of the broken part?
Click to expand...

Hi

This is the pix of the broken nozzle.
Yesterday, I have tried to find locally RC plane fuel nozzles as mentioned by member Big clown. But they seem to be very expensive, almost half the cost of the Sear 1000 reactor.:crazy:


http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b631/Zak_Rafik/IMG_1061_zps2ff05bea.jpg

http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b631/Zak_Rafik/IMG_1058_zpsc59509b6.jpg

http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b631/Zak_Rafik/IMG_1057_zpsc9ce8495.jpg
 
So there is still a bit left in place, it is difficult to see exactly what has broken but there is still hope.
Can you push the co2 line over the threads, you may need to sand off the threads but super glue will bond PVC air line to the reactors plastic very well. The other option is to fill the hole and feed to co2 into the main flow or even into the pump inlet.
 
foxfish said:
So there is still a bit left in place, it is difficult to see exactly what has broken but there is still hope.
Can you push the co2 line over the threads, you may need to sand off the threads but super glue will bond PVC air line to the reactors plastic very well. The other option is to fill the hole and feed to co2 into the main flow or even into the pump inlet.
Click to expand...

Hi
I get what you mean. The nozzle was not that damaged at first. A few days ago I tried a second time to push in the co2 hose and when I wanted to pull off the hose, the nozzle broke even more.

I'll try again as mentioned by you. Also I was toying with idea of closing off the nozzle completely and injecting co2 into the reactor via the out put hose of my Eheim 2080 canister by connecting a Reducing T-piece. Unfortunately none of the local LFS seem to carry it. When I tried certain websites, there seem to be no reply from them or they don't do international shipping.


Tube diameter inner/outer - 16/22 mm, reduced to
inner/outer – 6/4 mm
http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums...4-AA6C-4177-B9E0-03A268B309C2_zpsvjcal5zh.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bhu
Zak Rafik said:
Today I got a rude reminder on why I choose the Sera reactor in the first place.:banghead:
After return from my long trip, I had changed the inline diffuser for a "clean" one about 1 week ago. At first, the bubble were in fine mist but since yesterday, I noticed the bubble were getter bigger. To make things worse, this morning, I noticed the bubble were even bigger. From the spray bar it simply heads straight to the surface.:grumpy:
I'm seeing an increase in BBA in my tank.

I had soaked the inline diffuser in full strength bleach for more than 2 days and then soaked in Prime 50% + water 50% solution for 2 days followed by soaking in plain water for 2 days!

Now I'm desperately looking for a way to repair the broken Co2 nozzle on my Seara 1000 reactor ( which by the way is more brittle than your average butter cookies:lol:)

In the meantime I came across a thread in this forum: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/experiences-cleaning-inline-diffusers.14605/
I going to try out as mentioned below:


It's getting a bit annoying..this Co2 thingy......
Click to expand...

Hi Zak Rafik,
Becareful with bleach. I bleached mine and all seemed ok and then I bleached my Purigen bag (the sealed one) and followed my routine as per the diffuser (similar to yours but I soak and rinse mine for longer) but when I placed my purigen bag into my filter and switched my filter on I noticed some clouding. I did not worry about it too much but within 4 hours had list 50% of my fish stock and I had ammonia and everything else going off. My Seneye tol me a great deal but there was little I could do about it. I know that I had washed that purigen bag really well and used prime so I would just say going forward I would not use bleach ever again to clean a product - It is not worth taking the risk and losing fish like I did. Instead clean it with Hydrogen Peroxide which is also good at getting rid of BBA. BUT using Hydrogen to get rid of BBA is just using a temporary solution to a long term problem. I have found that BBA is often caused by fluctuating CO2 and PH swings. I discovered that my KH was only 2 so my PH was going all over the place. I have stopped using RO water and now going back to tap water as I ralised that I was not adding a acid or alkaline buffer to my RO - Oooops so I was causing the problem myself. After two weeks my BBA is all but gone but I have let the CO2 off. My inline body was replaced by CO2 Art and no more leaks - Thanks CO2 Art - Great Service as always. But the inline has really large CO2 bubbles and I am seriously considering going back to my TMC Diffuser. I really hope you fix your Sera. Keep us posted
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top