MiamiAG

So has a best CO2 diffuser been designed yet?

tsunami

Do you mean the usually sintered glass pieces? I use one by aquarium landscapes for my 20g long. I don't think it is very good, although it is small and very pretty.

This is the best one out there, that I have seen. It is made by a company in Japan and produces ultra fine bubbles you can barely see! 100$ a pop. Not available in the USA.



Carlos

Sir_BlackhOle

Wow those bubbles really are small! Why do you think that it is not very good?

MiamiAG

Carlos,

Is that stainless steel? It is tiny.

I have the ADA blown glass ones and they work well for tanks up to about a 50g. I know someone, maybe plantbrain, had come up with some CO2 diffuser designs that you could DIY.

Most people can't afford the expensive Japanese versions.

tsunami

I have one made of pure glass by Aquarium Landscapes. I got it from petwarehouse. The bubbles, IMO, are quite large.

I'm not sure. The one in the picture isn't mine. As I said, it's not available in the USA.

Carlos

Steve Pituch

The think the Eheim diffuser works very well. I saw it for $15.99 at Drs. Foster & Smith. I bet all diffusers use the same glass sintered disk. My pH is normally about 7.8 and I get it down to 6.7 in my 75 gallon tank at a kH of 6. In the 125 gallon tank it is not quite enough, but two Eheims would be perfect. I have built several reactors and they where all inferior to the little Eheim. The last reactor I built is three feet long and 3 inch diameter. I am using it on the 125 gallon right now and it is slightly better tha one Eheim diffuser, but a three foot reactor is pretty hard to hide. I would much rather go with two Eheim diffusers.

The Eheim diffuser comes with a high pressure check valve. I think it must be pressured to about 15 psi for it even to open up. It has a metal spring in it, and overall I had a lot of trouble with the diffuser until I threw the check valve in the garbage. I replaced it with a cheap Tetra check valve from Petsmart, and I put a $12 Clippard needle valve in the line for regulation. I think this is the secret to using the Eheim diffuser.

In fact for you reactor affectionados, I will buy your used Eheim diffuser if you think your reactor is better.
Regards,
Steve Pituch

Jay Reeves

Steve, how often do you need to clean the Eheim diffuser. I have one in storage that I gave up for a Plant Guild "in the tank" reactor. It works well in my 75 but it is another piece of hardware that is visible and now I want a cleaner view. I suppose I could pop the Eheim back on and see how it works. Used to not have a glass cover - now am using one.

Regards,
Jay Reeves

Steve Pituch

Hi Jay,

It looks like they could clog up with slime, but mine seem to clog up on the top surface with algae. I have algae problems in both my 75 and 125 and until this week the back of the tanks were getting a lot of light from the windows. I just painted the back glass of the tanks to eliminate this light. The algae builds up in about three weeks. The diffuser still works but I notice that the bubbles are larger so I clean the disk then. I think the CO2 encourages algae to form on the disk.

I clean the disk with a 50% bleach solution in a small drinking glass. Its clean in about 20 minutes.

The one thing I like about the Eheim diffuser is that it is small. I compare it to my big reactor which you can see at:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve&...O2/DIYco2.html
Talk about a pain-in-the-*ss, this thing is a bear to dissconect to take outside to clean. The view ports at the top and bottom which I use to see the bubbles scum up with brown algae slime and then I can't count the bubbles.
l would rather clean the eheims every few weeks when I wipe the glass clean, than struggle with the bear every couple of months.
Besides, based on the much larger surface area of the smaller bubbles I still disagree with most of the aquarium community and still feel that the diffuser is more efficient than a reactor.

litesky

Thanks for the info steve. Wow your co2 reactor is a monster. DO you have a picture of the eheim diffuser? I searched drfosterandsmiths and couldn't find a closeup pic of the diffuser. Would like to check it out. Did you place the diffuser directly infront of a filter/powerhead for the current to disturb and take the co2?

Steve Pituch

I don't think it matters where you put a diffuser. Of course the lower it is the longer it will take for the few bubbles left to reach the surface. Even if some of the bubbles reach the surface, if you discount those bubbles, I've stilll estimated that there was more surface area of the dissolved bubbles than the one big bubble going into a reactor. The best thing would be to put a diffuser beneath a reactor but I don't think that is necessary.

The top right picture at the previously referred page at:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve&...O2/DIYco2.html
shows my eheim diffuser in the bottom right corner of the tank. The co2 is fed at the bottom of a clear bubble counter chamber and the sintered glass disk is in the gray plastic top. It is also shown in the picture at the second row from the bottom of the page when I was trying to feed a smaller reactor with the fine eheim bubbles in order to increase the efficiency of the reactor. The bottom bubble chamber is blocked by the black suction cup. As it turns out the eheim worked better just by itself.

Also a good picture is on the box at:
http://www.wcf.com/co2iron/

Regards,
Steve