• 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.

Bhu said:
+1 on that! Was lovely to see the tank free of fine co2 bubbles but the sera is a pita. Needed cleaning to often, a separate pump and took way too much co2 (pps) for some reason.
Click to expand...
Hi Bhu,
How is your BBA doing now?

I took my plants out and brushed the BBA off with an old toothbrush then sprayed with hydrogen peroxide and let to stand for a few minutes before placing back into the tank. The result for me was yes the BBA has all gone, but after a few days my crypts melted and I have noticeable leaf damage so it my toothbrush method clearly damaged the table of the leaf. I did not have the heart to throw away my crypts. I am now waiting to them to grow back. I have also switched to Tropica fert as I was finding my EI may have been uneffectiev perhaps my dosage wa too weak but since I have started to use Tropica there is a noticeable change in my plants. I just hope that I am not paying for 94% water in the solution
 
Zak Rafik said:
Came across this diffuser on the web.
Looks kind of interesting.
Click to expand...

Hey Zak,
What you have decided to go for?

I still have my sera 1000 in its box and seriously thinking about selling it as I have gone back to my inlne. My mist is not bad at all perhaps that is because I have a full length spray bar
 
Carl Whitbread said:
Hey Zak,
What you have decided to go for?

I still have my sera 1000 in its box and seriously thinking about selling it as I have gone back to my inlne. My mist is not bad at all perhaps that is because I have a full length spray bar
Click to expand...
Hi Carl,🙂
Nah, I gave on the reactor thing. I'm using inline diffusers. So far so good.
As for giving up on EI, do some research to find the right balance. All readymade fertz are just 90-95% water. But then if your tank is small, maybe these will be ok but if mid to big sized tanks, it'll get expensive over the long run.

Maybe these links for EI will help you:
http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...ndex/2938-ei-light-for-those-less-techy-folks
http://gwapa.org/wordpress/articles/fertilizing-the-planted-aquarium/
and the most easy to understand written by Clive: http://www.ukaps.org/index.php?page=dosing-with-dry-salts

Cheers.
 
Carl Whitbread said:
then sprayed with hydrogen peroxide and let to stand for a few minutes before placing back into the tank.
Click to expand...
I don't think any plant out of water can handle hydrogen peroxide direct on its leaves even if for 1/2 a minute. What was the strength of the solution.? 3%, 6%.....?

Even in water, some plants are sensitive. Next time try on a small smaple first.

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html
http://theaquariumwiki.com/Hydrogen_peroxide
 
This sera reactor is really not bad, cant even see a single co2 bubble come out, much better then direct feeding into canister
 
Unfortunately my experience with this reactor was disappointing. I found it didn't fully dissolve the co2 so I still had micro bubbles escaping into the tank. Maybe due to high bubble rate (5-6/sec) and strong flow (eheim 2178/600T). It also reduced my flow by about 50% which was more than I had expected.
In anycase I've switched back to my Aquamedic 1000 which, although also allows mini bubbles to escape, has much less negative effect on flow.
 
Mr.Manjushri said:
Unfortunately my experience with this reactor was disappointing. I found it didn't fully dissolve the co2 so I still had micro bubbles escaping into the tank. Maybe due to high bubble rate (5-6/sec) and strong flow (eheim 2178/600T). It also reduced my flow by about 50% which was more than I had expected.
In anycase I've switched back to my Aquamedic 1000 which, although also allows mini bubbles to escape, has much less negative effect on flow.
Click to expand...
Hi
What's your tank volume?
 
Mr.Manjushri said:
Unfortunately my experience with this reactor was disappointing. I found it didn't fully dissolve the co2 so I still had micro bubbles escaping into the tank. Maybe due to high bubble rate (5-6/sec) and strong flow (eheim 2178/600T). It also reduced my flow by about 50% which was more than I had expected.
In anycase I've switched back to my Aquamedic 1000 which, although also allows mini bubbles to escape, has much less negative effect on flow.
Click to expand...

Strange... I found this reactor dissolved all the co2 at really high bps, beyond being able to count how many and gave no 7 up effect into my aquarium. My problems were that it need much more co2 than say the UP inline to do the same job and cleaning it was a big hassle which needed to be done once a week to keep the co2 constant. But horses for courses hey!
 
Hi All,

I have been reading this thread from start to finish with avid interest, only took me about four hours, especially going back and forward to photobucket to see the photographs.

After reading the first few reviews on this Sera Reactor I was all set to jump on the net, get my credit card out and order the thing triple pronto! I am so glad I read the whole thread, but disappointed to see that everyone is back to square 1, and I am mystified as to where all that Co2 disappeared to!

I too am disappointed with the UP Aqua inline diffuser, it works great for the first week, a nice fine mist at first, and then back to 7 up bubbles and poor Co2 dissolution. I have gone back to my old in tank glass diffuser and put it deep down in the far left corner. Above it in the top left corner is an Aquaclear Powerhead which pumps about 500 litres per hour, but it is not just the power head, I bought the water polishing filter attachment that is designed to go with it. I removed the very fine membrane it comes with and replaced it with a piece of Fluval foam sponge pad which does not get clogged up as quick.

The Co2 rises from the glass diffuser and gets sucked in to the polishing filter up through the impeller in the Powerhead mashed up and blown out around the tank. This is a temporary fix until I can find something better. Plus I have got a huge Amazon Sword plant in the corner which covers everything up nicely.

In the meantime I will keep my eye on this thread to see which genius is going to come up with the next great idea to get around this problem..

That said, I was interested to see the bit about back in the old days, when we had low to virtually no flow and used the old style circular ladder type Co2 diffusers. If you see some of the planted tanks in Germany they still have low flow and use some of the older Co2 diffusers, even some of Jim's tanks at the Green Machine have the same and they look amazing.

I thing we are all getting a bit obsessed over flow rates and spoiling the natural look of our tanks by adding more and more plastic spray bars in my humble opinion.

Cheers,

Steve
 
Hi all,

From my time spent in Germany I got to know the products supplied by Dupla, always dead expensive but there was never any doubt about the quality. Also the first diffuser I bought from Dupla at least 25 years ago, possibly 30, is still available in exactly the same design. That has to mean something, and that is, 'if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it'. I have seen these on eBay from a supplier in Germany, postage is high but I think you can get them from Aquaessentials as well.

I am thinking of getting the diffuser rather than the reactor. Some pictures in the links below.

Cheers,

Steve


http://www.shopsolution.nl/shop/home.asp?shopid=seameuk&deptid=dupla2

http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...n-about-flow-through-diy-external-co2-reactor

http://www.shopsolution.nl/shop/home.asp?shopid=seameuk&deptid=dupla2
 
Hi All,

Some of you have probably researched this to death already, but I found this video on Youtube which made a lot of sense, we probably knew most of it but I think this guy explains a lot even though English is clearly not his first language, he does it really simple with pictures and diagrams showing charts in relation to PH - KH and Co2 dissolution levels. He acknowldges that most of his research is from the Tom Barr report but th ewy he puts it across I thought was really good.




Cheers,

Steve.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top