brandonttu

Just noticed the filter is on sale until July 21st for $7.49 at Petco (sorry if this is outdated when you read).

Brendan Redler

After having used this setup for a while, I find it works better if I don't put the tubing where the flow rate slider goes, and instead cut out ONE of the slats in the side of the inflow guard and stick the tubing there. The hole where the slider goes is just too small, and as a result the tubing was pinched shut after a while. No problems since I placed the CO2 line in the side of the inflow guard.

sai_dee

You might be on to something Brendan, not only does it pinch it but sometimes at certain angles my tubing gets caught on the impeller.

Ishar

I did what Brendan Redler did without reading his post, for the same reason- the hole is just to small in the flow adjuster slot.

Anyways, this method seems to dissolve so much of the CO2, and the little bubbles leftover get swirled around my tank by my powerhead, so there is CO2 all over the place .

However, it isn't as quiet as it is made out to be for me. It sounds the same as what it did when I had my DIY going into my HOB filter. Same bubble crunching sound every time. I'll get used to it though- the price we pay for beautiful plants .

Saraja87

I have two of these in my 110 fed by 1 CO2 canister with a brass manifold and two bubble counters. Should I be seeing little bubbles? I've never done pressurized CO2 before so I don't know how fast my CO2 should be going into the tank? How many bubbles in my bubble counter?

niko

Saraja87,

For a 110 gals. tank try to set a rate of about 1 bubble per second. If things go well, no gasping fish and such then see if the plants like it. If the plants don't seem to perk up raise the bubble rate a little - about 1.5 bubbles per second (don't immediately go to 2 bps)

You will see tiny bubbles coming out of this miracle of a reactor. "Tiny" bubbles means they look more like dust and float up very slowly (cause they are too small and don't know what they are doing, you know).

It's hard to recommend a set bubble rate. If the tank handles it well - no gasping fish, plants doing well - then this is the bubble rate you should keep.

One thing to remember is to NOT let the surface of the water be without movement. The surface movement is extremely important for gas exchange. But too much movement will waste a lot of CO2.

--Nikolay

stuckintexas

Help me understand something. If I am using DIY co2 method and I am using this filter as a diffuser and I want to only put co2 in to the water during the day, how can stop diffusing co2 into the water at night? If i run the pump diffuser on a timer and it is off at night, what will the co2 that is getting put into the pump intake do? will it escape and not go into the water or am I not going to be so fortunate? thanks guys!

hoppycalif

What is supposed to happen is that, with the little pump shut off, the CO2 just bubbles to the surface of the tank, with much less of it dissolving into the water. I'm not sure how well that works, but it is just about the only way to "shut off" DIY CO2.

stuckintexas

i guess thats what i will try. thanks.

niko

Shutting off the pump at night works perfectly well. Big ol' CO2 bubbles make their way to the surface and don't solubilize in the water.

But my question is why would you want to shut off the CO2 at night. People that do that save a little CO2 from their pressurized setups, that's all. The plants don't benefit that much from lower CO2 at night.

--Nikolay