Co2 Into Power Filter

[IovaykInD]

I'm thinking about getting into some DIY co2 stuff, and was wondering about the diffuser. At first, I was going to use the chopstick method, which creates tiny bubbles to dissolve into the water. But it doesn't seem very effective, so I'm thinking about putting the co2 line into the intake on my power filter. I've read before that this causes noise, which I really don't want. Is the noise because of large bubbles that hit the impeller? If so, can't I use the chopstick method so tiny bubbles hit the impeller, so it doesn't make noise?

Any ideas, I'm really stumped. I don't want to use the diffusion bell method and I can't think of other ways to dissolve the co2.

Isaac

 

[IovaykInD]

Is it even an efficient way to diffuse co2 into the aquarium, or will a lot of the co2 dissipate into the atmosphere because of the power filter?

 

[George Farmer]

I have ran bubbles direct from CO2 hose into my Fluval 204 inlet. Minimal noise, only audible when sitting in silence.

Smaller bubbles will obviously reduce noise.

Unless you have a high bubble rate i.e. >1 BPS then I doubt noise will be an issue.

 

[IovaykInD]

How efficient is using the power filter method? Will it dissolve a lot of the co2 into the tank, or will most of it go into the atmosphere? I think I'm going to go with this method, until I go and buy one of those Nutrafin ladders. I hear they are very good for dissolving co2.

Isaac

 

[IovaykInD]

Okay, I've set up the co2 bottle and the airline, connected it into the power filter. I tested it out by blowing into the tube, and the bubbles went under the power filter. However, because I have a sponge in the way(so my fry don't get sucked up into the filter), the bubbles are getting stuck on the bottom of the sponge. I don't see the bubbles getting smaller though, probably because its not pure co2. Is this a possible reason that the bubble doesn't get smaller? If it was co2, could I bet that the bubble would get smaller and water passes it into the power filter? I don't want to set up the entire yeast and sugar thing before I know if it works or not. So am I in business or is there something I need to work out?

Isaac

 

[IovaykInD]

I've set up the yeast and sugar already, and now its producing about 20 bpm. I'm really scared that the pH will crash, or is it usually alright? So is there any way to make sure my fish are okay? If anyone could answer the questions to my last three posts, that would be great. Thanks

Isaac

 

[ChrisP]

How efficient is using the power filter method? Will it dissolve a lot of the co2 into the tank, or will most of it go into the atmosphere? I think I'm going to go with this method, until I go and buy one of those Nutrafin ladders. I hear they are very good for dissolving co2.

Isaac

Its pretty efficient I use this method and it does the job for me. It will go ito the atomsphere if you have the output positioned up. Just position it so it creates a calm ripple and you should not loose too much CO2.

 

[ChrisP]

Okay, I've set up the co2 bottle and the airline, connected it into the power filter. I tested it out by blowing into the tube, and the bubbles went under the power filter. However, because I have a sponge in the way(so my fry don't get sucked up into the filter), the bubbles are getting stuck on the bottom of the sponge. I don't see the bubbles getting smaller though, probably because its not pure co2. Is this a possible reason that the bubble doesn't get smaller? If it was co2, could I bet that the bubble would get smaller and water passes it into the power filter? I don't want to set up the entire yeast and sugar thing before I know if it works or not. So am I in business or is there something I need to work out?

Isaac

How have you connected it to the filter? I dont see how this would happen if you have jammed the CO2 output tubing into the filter intake.

I've set up the yeast and sugar already, and now its producing about 20 bpm. I'm really scared that the pH will crash, or is it usually alright? So is there any way to make sure my fish are okay? If anyone could answer the questions to my last three posts, that would be great. Thanks

Isaac

Whats you KH? I highly doubt the pH will crash unless you have a very low KH. Regardless the pH will drop, it wont drop enough to cause a problem though as I doubt a yeast system could produce enough CO2 for this to happen.

Monitor the pH but it will be fine.

 

[IovaykInD]

I've taken the sponge out, and put in a grid to keep the fry from getting sucked into the filter. The bubbles now go into the filter and get churned up, as I can hear from the noise. I've checked the pH and it is 7.6, and I don't have a kH test kit yet. I assume however, that it is around 5.0-6.0 because usually you have 4ppm of co2 without injection. At this rate, I hope to end with a pH of around 6.8-7.0. I'm getting around one bubble every three seconds, should I worry that the pH will drop real quickly and affect the fish?

 

[fishboytoo]

I've taken the sponge out, and put in a grid to keep the fry from getting sucked into the filter. The bubbles now go into the filter and get churned up, as I can hear from the noise. I've checked the pH and it is 7.6, and I don't have a kH test kit yet. I assume however, that it is around 5.0-6.0 because usually you have 4ppm of co2 without injection. At this rate, I hope to end with a pH of around 6.8-7.0. I'm getting around one bubble every three seconds, should I worry that the pH will drop real quickly and affect the fish?

If your kH is 5-6, I wouldn't worry about pH crashing personally. I have a very similar setup with two 2L pop bottles bubbling into my filter intake. My tap water kH is about 6 and I have had to use an acid buffer to get a significant pH drop in my water. Tap water pH is 7.7 ish and I now have my tank down to 7.0-7.1. Before the buffer I was only getting to about 7.4. Although I didn't have the bubbles into the intake at that time. I had it go down to 6.8 once but I can't seem to get it to stay there.

FB2

 

[IovaykInD]

What about co2 loss while the power filter brings water back into the tank. I have a soda bottle cut out so that it doesn't hit the water causing noise, but there is still surface agitation. Is there anything that someone did to help with this? I'm afraid of losing all the co2 when the water is going back into the tank.

Also, I didn't disconnect the airline during the night, it stopped producing co2 at night, because the air temperature was a lot cooler. Guess it was too cold for it to produce. As a result, when I woke up this morning, there was no co2 being produced, and when I came home this afternoon, it was producing 3 bubbles per second as it was yesterday.

 

[IovaykInD]

But I always see microbubbles in the water, even if I don't add co2. The bubbles are created because of the surface agitation. I even stopped the co2 for a minute to see if it would stop the bubbles, and they are still coming. So those microbubbles are not co2, but regular air bubbles. Also, I have a filter current controller that I made, which stops most of the surface agitation, but I'm just not sure there is co2 in the water because of the little bit of surface agitation

Isaac

 

[IovaykInD]

Yes, its a HOB filter. My filter outflow is also less than an inch, but I get bubbles. Ehh, I guess there's really no way of helping it, so I'll keep my filter current control since it creates less surface agitation. My question now is when should I check the pH to know when it will be the lowest? Like almost at night, or during the afternoon, when is the co2 the highest point? Another question, what ppm level of co2 can I achieve with the diffusion bell? I always get mixed results with that sort of diffuser.

 

[fishboytoo]

Max CO2 levels should be in the morning before the lights come on. Plants are not using CO2 overnight but it is still being produced, by the fish at the very least and possibly your bubbler. The lowest CO2 levels should be at lights out, after the plants have been performing photosynthesis all day and using up the CO2.