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DIY CO2 Reactor


evilknieval69

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I have an idea to make a Co2 reactor...

The idea of it is the same as most others which have the co2 bubbles travel up and around the spiral 'staircase' but these ones just go straight up a staircase.

The bubbles get piped into the bottom of it, where it travels up the diagonal lines to the top.... the unit itself will consist of 2 pieces of perspex, or glass, as the front and back, and then thin 'slithens' around the sides, about 5 mm wide, creating a rectangular box. BUT, inside the box will be more pieces of thin perspex (or glass) that are 5mm wide traveling up in a staircase...then there is simply a hole in the top where anything left of the bubble will disperse out into the water...

Heres a pic of what i mean, see if you can decipher it.... :roll: its a bit small but you may be able to see the thin black lines where the staircase parts are and the thick red line is where the bubbles travel...down the airline, into the bottom, up the staircase and out the top....

fccd30e9.jpg

What do you think?? will it work??

Rogan

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i have one of those co2 'ladders' - i must say the one that comes in that pack isn't all that bad as far as bubble ladders go

it is double sided, so the bubbles pass between front and back - nothing overly special there. i had a single sided one about the same size that didn't have as much of a run for the bubbles.

the nutrafin kit pictured is actually pretty neat - they are about $20 wholesale from memory, and for that you get a whole pile of stuff, most impressive of all being the brewing canister - beats messing around with old coke bottles etc. not trying to get you to buy one - but as the kit is sold as a going concern i will use it for comparative purposes.

the down-side to the bubble ladder included in the kit is that it isn't big enough - something i'm sure you can improve on in your experimentations!

when using the brewing canister with a 100% effective reactor, it could raise co2 levels to near toxic levels in a 600l, heavily planted tank. that give you an idea of how much co2 you can get from a 1/8 teaspoon of yeast and 5 tablespoons of sugar...

the kit, however, is rated at only 120 litres (memory...). the reason for this is that the ladder isn't all that effective - the bubbles do diffuse, but most of the co2 ends up leaving the ladder un-dissolved.

if you still want to make a ladder, my advice is to make it as large as you can - the one in 'the kit' is about 10cm wide and 20cm tall (memory...) i would suggest going about 4 times that to get good results...

then all you have to do is make it look pretty :)

alternatively, i can show you how to make a cyclone reactor from old undergravel filter parts :wink:

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I made a good simple diffuser using a piece of plastic UGF uplift tube and air line. the air line went from the CO2 regulator (or reactor) down the centre of the UGF tube then sprialed round the outside of the UGF tube. At the lowest part of the air tube I cut a small hole, as the CO2 moved past this hole it drew in water, by the time the water/co2 exited the top of the sprial the co2 was completely dissolved. You have to adjust the 'pitch' of the sprial so the co2/water flows up it at the right speed, I only needed 4-5 turns.

Sorry I dont have the diffuser and more so can't post a picture.

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ive had a try at making one but it didnt turn out very good :oops:

Dark would you be able to show me how to make that reactor out of undergravel filter parts??

And u said that those kits cost $20 wholesale?? If you could find me one i would be happy to pay you to get me one....im sure i couldnt get one that price around here.... :)

Rogan

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i took a lot of photos when i made the last one, and i am in the process of turning it into an 'article', or at least a lot of pictures with a few explanatory words here and there :)

i'll post a link to it soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Rogan,

My CO2 distributor has a CO2 ladder like what you're after. To the best of my knowledge it's exactly as you described. The problem with the Nutrafin ladders is the lack of cover glass to prevent stuff from blocking it and making it useless. I'll have to double check but I'm pretty sure this one has the covers.

ladder4pz.jpg

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Yup, could have been on the order on the way right now but didn't think of it. I was going to get some in before but went for the in-line CO2 reactors instead. I'll drop them an e-mail to confirm covers and price and get back to you through PMs.

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