The sochting carbonator ?

[kenneth_kpe]

well i went to a plant guy friend of mine and he showed me a carbonator that he is currently using in all of his tanks, he tells me that he just got it and its better then pressurized and DIY co2 because of the low maintenance aspect of the device

http/www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp...G1311&ast=&key=

anybody used one of these before ? or actually knows if it really is good ? its kinda pricey for me (compared to going DIY) but if its going to perform better then a DIY kit , then why not ?

 

[guppygirl]

I've also heard of this one... called carbo-plus...
carbo plus

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hmm do you think these work better ? is it significantly better then going DIY?

 

[Yenko]

Cool. In my opinion, nobody should use DIY CO2 unless they are using a bell jar, not a diffuser. A bell jar is any inverted container that traps the CO2. It provides a constant rate of flow into the aquarium. It's as precise as any regulator untill the supply of CO2 completely dissapears. It isn't as efficient at getting CO2 into the water, so a bell diffuser for a large, densely planted tank would have to be huge.

According to Diana Walstad, most high tech tanks with high levels of CO2, light and nutrients generally run very, very well for about 2 years then they can crash suddenly. It might be smarter to consider a less intensive method of CO2 addition. I get excellent results with a bell jar in a 10 gallon tank; no pearling, but the hygrophilia in it grows literally a centimeter a day, and has beautiful, completely perfect leaves. All that with a DIY CO2 system and a ten gallon kit bought at wal-mart. All I did to the wal-mart stuff is replace the incadescent lights with compact flourescents, which don't have an ideal spectrum but still work.

 

[Silly me]

Cool. In my opinion, nobody should use DIY CO2 unless they are using a bell jar, not a diffuser.

??

in my opinion a bell jar is not efficient enough to be used with a DIY CO2 system and a diffuser might be the only way to get more that 15ppm CO2 in a 15G tank.

I get excellent results with a bell jar in a 10 gallon tank; no pearling,

maybe a diffuser would increase the CO2 dissolve rate in the water and produce some pearling,

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hmmm wait... so nobody ever heard of the sochting diffuser before ? im not really sure on how efficient it difuses c02 into the water just want to know ?

 

[Silly me]

personally, I have never heard or seen a sochting diffuser. My dad owns a carbo-plus. I know he hates it and I think he removed it from his tank.

What is wrong with the DIY CO2..

I have both a compressed CO2/PH regulator and DIY setup, I love the compressed CO2/PH regulator but is by no-means better or less trouble than a DIY setup..

weather I have 35ppm CO2 in the mornings and 25ppm before light out, doesn't seem to harm the fish plants, nor limiting the growth.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

ic ic, i will stick to DIY then, the sochting carbonator is pretty expensive to just try out

 

[Yenko]

My objective is not to acheive super-growth rates. I want simple, sustainable aquariums that run with little mainenance. I'd hardly consider a tank where the hygrophilia grows a centimeter a day to have bad conditions for plant growth.