Diy Co2 Reactor Idea Help?

[t4ppo]

Hi guys so I am going to give CO2 a go, going to try diy before I go pressurised to see if its for me, So I have attached a quick sketch, Not to scale.. Completely crap sketch but you should get the jist of it.. Lol

Basically the phosban is acting as a diffuser the phosban will be full to the top with water flowing through it, so the co2 will hopefully travel down with the flow and up the central pipe and into to my tank giving it plenty of time to disperse? Well thats the plan what do you think?

 

[t4ppo]

Also need to mention this is a sumped tank so all the pumps phosban reactor etc are going to be in the sump out the way,

 

[Steve H.]

Pretty interesting idea. I can't help but wonder if you will end up with a co2 pocket at the top of the reactor?

I'm not sure if the water flow in will push one large co2 bubble all the way to the bottom of the reactor. You might want to consider running so airline tubing to the bottom of the reactor with an air stone on the end to get more and smaller bubbles. And hence, more surface area for co2 transfer.

The idea, especially with DIY, is to get the bubbles diffused as small as possible, and keep them in the water colum as long as possible.

It will be interesting to see if it works. Do you have a way to measure how much co2 is ending up in your water?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

With trying this I'd get a drop checker, think there will be some pockets of gas in the reactor as above.

 

[t4ppo]

Thanks for your replys, perhaps it would be easier to just either buy or make a diffuser, maybe I can utilize the phosban another way not sure how lol,
Ok, so if I take the phosban out of the equasion whats the best diy diffuser?
And what's the best diffuser to buy?

Also with the tank being a fair amount of water (500L) would two 5l bottles be good enough? And a weekly change alternating through the bottles or should I go for three 5l bottles,


Thanks in advance,

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Considering the amount of yeast your gonna get through I'd get a fire extinguisher and hook that up to an ebay reg and go pressurised, a tank your size is pointless going DIY yeast. Also there aren't really any good diffusers for yeast, where as with pressurised there's loads.

 

[t4ppo]

Considering the amount of yeast your gonna get through I'd get a fire extinguisher and hook that up to an ebay reg and go pressurised, a tank your size is pointless going DIY yeast. Also there aren't really any good diffusers for yeast, where as with pressurised there's loads.

I do plan on going pressurised but, I wanted to give it a try and see the difference with co2 first,
Maybe only run diy for a month and if I like it get a proper set up,
So what do you think would be a good diy setup for this size tank before I go pressurised
Cheers

 

[DrRob]

It'll work. I have a similar reactor that I made out of some 32mm waste pipe that simply runs counter to the flow out of the external.

Basically you've got a large external reactor there, there will be gas pocket, but it'll be in turbulent flow as the flow is entering from above so will diffuse nicely as the pocket is constantly broken up and pushed down by the incoming water.