Co2 related question. - Fertilizing

Jason hilts · 05-30-2008, 07:11 PM

Right now iam using the hydor advance co2 system. It has a diffuser that blows out alot of tiny little bubbles into the aquarium.The question i have is a co2 reactor more effective at puting co2 into the water than a diffuser.

fastang80 · 06-01-2008, 02:54 PM

My diffuser seems to be doing a pretty good job at lowering the PH from 7.4 tap water to 6.6-6.8 in a very short time. I do not know if one is better than the other but I am very happy with my diffuser. Hope this info helps.

JamesC · 06-02-2008, 12:45 AM

Perhaps the question should be 'which method grows plants better?'. On my 55 gallon I've experimented with different CO2 methods and find I get better plant growth when I used a diffuser rather than an external reactor at the same bubble rate. But using a diffuser I needed to put a filter return over the top of the diffuser and blast the tiny bubbles around the whole of the tank creating a lot of water movement. Plants IMHO seem to prefer gaseous CO2 over dissolved CO2. Due to practicalities of the size of the tank I opt for the external reactor with 100% CO2 absorption on this tank. On smaller tanks my prefered choice is a diffuser with good water circulation.

If you just use the diffuser to try and dissolve all the CO2 without a lot of water circulation then it probably won't be as efficient as a reactor, because some of the bubbles always reach the surface.

HTH
James