Co2 Diffuser/atomizer

[Andypalf]

hi folks. I have a DIY CO2 set up (1.5 litre bottle with yeast and sugar). It's been ticking over nicely and made a different to my plants. I started it using a small airstone which has innevitably worn away. I purchased a small CO2 diffuser from the auction site (search for it, it's the common one you see shipped over from trh Far East). Frankly it's just faulty....no CO2 gets through the ceramic disc. The pressure just builds and builds so it's definate;y bloccked or something.

Before I buy another (that hopefully isn't faulty) have other had a similar experience? Are they all rubbish or do people have recommendations for me?

Much appreciated, Andy

 

[shrimply]

I imagine the problem is the pressure, they are designed to work with pressurised systems, and I can confirm that they do need a lot of pressure so air can escape, I can't blow air through mine but the pressurised CO2 makes it through.

Some do work with DIY CO2 though, I imagine someone with experience can recommend one, for just now you could try running the CO2 into a filter intake.

Also might be worth considering a reactor instead of diffuser where pressure isn't relied on for distribution.

 

[keenonfish]

yep I had the same problem. you could add a second bottle or reactor as above.

Oh and all connections must be tight as hell too

 

[Andypalf]

Cheers for the pointes guys. Sounds like the item is not faulty but just not too suitable. Not sure I like the idea of a home made system with that much pressure inside it. I'd prefer to have something similar to when I was using an air stone. Does anyone know of something that would do the same job but CO2 doesn't degrade?

 

[mooey65]

Cheers for the pointes guys. Sounds like the item is not faulty but just not too suitable. Not sure I like the idea of a home made system with that much pressure inside it. I'd prefer to have something similar to when I was using an air stone. Does anyone know of something that would do the same job but CO2 doesn't degrade?

wooden air stone maybe?

 

[keenonfish]

you can get ceramic air stones which don't disintegrate with co2. Put one of these under a power-head and you should get an effective solution.

However, I wouldn't worry about the pressure. It is nothing that the bottles can't handle and the worse that will happen is something will give and you might get some fermented sugar mix over the carpet!

 

[Neo8223]

OK just getting back into the fish scene again so dont know how out of date my advice will be... but here goes

I used to go down this route too. I had the same problem so i siliconed up every connection and it worked perfectly with the ceramic diffuser. Sometimes took about 3 hours to come out but eventually did. Other things you can try is adding another bottle... but 1.5l is quite a bit, add bicarbonate of soda (is a catalyst and regulates the mix if i remember correctly) and make sure that you are using luke warm water to get the mix going (not too high as you will denature the yeast). The only annoying thing with this is that you keep on needing to change the mix every 10 days or so.

If you are doing EI then in my opinion, just add a bit of flourish excel and dont bother with the DIY jobby. Sure its quite a novel idea and is fun for the first few months... but becomes a tedious task and is probably more expensive than the flourish excel route with all the sugar and yeast u have to keep buying.

I used to buy the biggest containers of flourish excel i could find and it would last my 14 gall tank forever. Every day i added my ei, id just add some flourish excel. Never suffered from BBA... or any algae for that matter and plants grew so fast with 2.5WPG that i sold the excess on here and made enough cash to keep my tank running on its own! Better still, it took less time to look after!