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External CO2 reactor or DIY

Not one that is any better than a DIY one, if your handy making a DIY one is pretty straight forward, The APS EF2 I did for my 500l are OK but think @Hanuman DIY reactor is much superior IMO and do plan to copy it soon ;)
 
This principal can been seen in this video which is for O2 but same principle applies.

Yes, seen that some time back and was the basis of the mod I did to my APS EF2

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But never got it to work as well as in the video, think the angle of the funnel I used wasn't 'acute' enough
 
Thanks all, some things to think about there!

I was going to suggest a diffuser located within the filter booster but you answered that question in one if the other threads. The super oxygen system looks interesting. Will need to see if I can find much on that! Will be an interesting DIY.

Thanks again
 
Would there be any advantage or disadvantage by adding a diffuser into the DIY reactor? I'm thinking the smaller bubbles will diffuse easier but it would obviously be harder to clean.

Smaller bubbles diffuse CO2 into water faster due to the volume to surface area ratio (smaller the better), however smaller bubbles more likely to end up in tank as not as buoyant as bigger ones
 
Would there be any advantage or disadvantage by adding a diffuser into the DIY reactor? I'm thinking the smaller bubbles will diffuse easier but it would obviously be harder to clean.

Thanks Chris
Smaller bubbles diffuse CO2 into water faster due to the volume to surface area ratio (smaller the better), however smaller bubbles more likely to end up in tank as not as buoyant as bigger ones
Exactly that. You do not want to have a diffuser either in the reactor or before. That defeats the purpose of a reactor. Small bubbles produced by a diffuser will inevitably go to the tank due to them being poorly buoyant. This is not just theory it's been tested and proven by yours truly. The fact is that when I installed the CO2 reactor I did not remove the inline diffuser in case something was to go wrong with the reactor. I did switch back to the diffuser temporarily for testing purpose. Well that reactor was absolutely useless when using a diffuser. All those tiny bubbles just passed through the reactor and ended up in the tank as if there was no reactor.
 
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I don’t know if you have watched my video but I don’t have any bubbles escaping the reactor even at 4500lph from a high pressure 90watt pump and I do use an small diffuser.

Think that was due to the great vortex you had in your setup, which was effectively trapping the bubbles in reactor. But I had a similar experience to @Hanuman with small bubbles, reducing the flow though the reactors did help reduce/stop small bubbles getting through, needed the 'Foxfish Vortex' IMO
 
Hi Hanuman, I don’t know if you have watched my video but I don’t have any bubbles escaping the reactor even at 4500lph from a high pressure 90watt pump and I do use an small diffuser.
Hi. Yes I have. Those bubbles from your diffuser are no where near the bubbles size from an inline diffuser which are very fine. In fact one can see rather large bubbles from your diffuser going straight up. I challenge you to adapt an inline diffuser before your reactor. I am pretty certain the bubbles will escape, at least partially.

edit: Bubbles from inline diffusers (at least from mine) produce bubbles that are so small that they can stay in suspension in the tank for quite sometime before escaping to the surface.
 
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I wonder if anyone’s tried modifying a large conical fermenter to run upside down inline?

View attachment 162858

You get the idea.

:)
I was actually recently looking at a way to replicate the cone from the video I posted above. You found it. Only issue is you cannot see what is happening but I suppose that's luxury.
 
I occasionally have these eureka moments, only sticking point with this idea is the smallest I saw was 11Litres so that will be tough to hide under a tank, got a fish room? no problem!

I’ve got an in-line before my Cerges/Dwell 20”, zero bubbles out the spray bar totally silent, even with my co2 cranked as pH probe is cooked at the moment and haven’t changed it yet so the controller profile is just bananaing around and is just pouring gas in and not reaching the set profile to shut the solenoid, tanks pearling like mad and it’s not o2, co2 is nucleating out of solution from points on the leaf periphery, I’m probably in excess of about 50ppm in the tank, no fish mainly just Buce and bladder snails, using same type probe that last year killed 32 Rasbora Kubotai 2 days after bringing them home because it couldn’t hold a reading and acting just like this one is now, showing a climb in pH when it’s actually dropping, haven’t kept a freshwater fish since!
 
Once you add all the sundries to get it working properly maybe looking at around £100. Need to ensure the lid is watertight for upside down use, you could silicone it shut I suppose but maintenance would be a nightmare.
 
I’ve got an in-line before my Cerges/Dwell 20”, zero bubbles
Yes at the end of the day it's all a relation between flow and gas buoyancy. I suppose I could also have no bubbles coming out of my Rex Grigg style reactor when using a diffuser but I would probably need to double the hight of the reactor OR increase the diameter OR create a bypass to slow water flow in the reactor.
 
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