Hi all,
A couple days ago I set up a DIY inline CO2 reactor for my 30G using Ghazanfar Ghori's plans -- basically a 10"-long, 2"-diameter PVC pipe filled with bio-balls and sporting a hose connector on each end. Your run-of-the-mill DIY reactor. My only variation from Ghori's plan was that instead of gluing the airline connector directly into the pipe, I just drilled a small hole and pulled some airline tubing through. (It still forms an air-tight, gas-tight seal.) Otherwise I followed the prototype in the link exactly.
After testing for leaks, I put the reactor on the intake line of my Eheim 2213.
The CO2 is being produced by a DIY setup (2 x 2-liter soda bottles) and generates about 1.5 bubbles per second.
I was surprised to find that over about a day of operation, the noise from the reactor went from silence to a slight trickling noise, to something approaching a waterfall. Finally I turned off the Eheim to let the trapped gas escape -- causing a _lot_ of large bubbles to shoot out the intake hose!
After getting all the gas out of the reactor and the intake line, I started things up again. And once again, the trickle noise is slowwwwly getting louder.
Since Ghori states in his plans that he has one of these reactors hooked up to the intake of an Eheim 2213, I didn't think flow rate would be a problem. Nor did I expect that 1.5 bps would be excessive CO2 input.
I don't have anything between the intake and the reactor -- in fact, there's no other non-standard equipment anywhere on the filter line. So what am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
A couple days ago I set up a DIY inline CO2 reactor for my 30G using Ghazanfar Ghori's plans -- basically a 10"-long, 2"-diameter PVC pipe filled with bio-balls and sporting a hose connector on each end. Your run-of-the-mill DIY reactor. My only variation from Ghori's plan was that instead of gluing the airline connector directly into the pipe, I just drilled a small hole and pulled some airline tubing through. (It still forms an air-tight, gas-tight seal.) Otherwise I followed the prototype in the link exactly.
After testing for leaks, I put the reactor on the intake line of my Eheim 2213.
The CO2 is being produced by a DIY setup (2 x 2-liter soda bottles) and generates about 1.5 bubbles per second.
I was surprised to find that over about a day of operation, the noise from the reactor went from silence to a slight trickling noise, to something approaching a waterfall. Finally I turned off the Eheim to let the trapped gas escape -- causing a _lot_ of large bubbles to shoot out the intake hose!
After getting all the gas out of the reactor and the intake line, I started things up again. And once again, the trickle noise is slowwwwly getting louder.
Since Ghori states in his plans that he has one of these reactors hooked up to the intake of an Eheim 2213, I didn't think flow rate would be a problem. Nor did I expect that 1.5 bps would be excessive CO2 input.
I don't have anything between the intake and the reactor -- in fact, there's no other non-standard equipment anywhere on the filter line. So what am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!