RE: Dumb Luck

[Paul and Meredith Brown <racers@rt66.com>]

>How do you diffuse the CO2? Via the filter?  I am
>always looking to improve here.


I've got a DIY system going in a 125 for my plants, and went through a 
variety of different diffusion methods.  Some didn't work well at all, and 
a "real" reactor worked way too well - very dangerous without a controller 
of some sort.  I found a tank of discus lying flat on the gravel one 
morning.  Fortunately, they all came around once I turned the CO2 
off.  What I settled on turned out to be very simple - a power head and the 
big part of a small gravel vac/siphon.  The power head is set up pointing 
straight down into the vac.  I'm using a MaxiJet 750, but a smaller power 
head would probably be better.  The output for that is the same size as the 
vac, with an inch or so of clear tubing between them (the siphon tube, 
oddly enough, is just the right diameter to slip over the vac, so it also 
fits over the output of the powerhead).  At least, I remember it being this 
simple.... I've got a 20-pound CO2 bottle which only needs to be refilled 
about once every 16 months or so, a regulator, and a small needle valve.  I 
run a silicone airline tube to a rigid plastic airline tube which I melted 
to form a "U" about an inch from the end.  I use nylon tie-wraps to hold 
the rigid tube onto the tube of the gravel vac, with the "U" putting the 
output of the CO2 system into the large tube of the gravel vac.  Control is 
touchy - even at very low pressures, the needle valve has to be almost 
completely closed.  But once everything is set just right, I get a bubble 
or two per second, which seems to be about right.  Oh, I use a Tetra PHAS 
sponge filter on the input of the power head to keep from doing the 
bass-o-matic thing with my fish.

Hopefully that's clear - it really is simple, and it seems to work 
well.  And, the failure mode should be less CO2 rather than more, though it 
can pump quite a bit of CO2 into the water.



Paul and Meredith Brown

MR2:  "Not the easiest car in the world to work on"


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