Do Ceramic Diffusers Settle Down

Hi,
before I ask my question, I know I have bought a cheapish ceramic diffuser and you only get what you pay for. However, I have fitted my diffuser, which is a glass ceramic diffuser as shown below. The problem I have is that the mist is only coming out of a small area of the disc. At the moment, I am able to get about 30ppm carbon reading in my tank. I would like to get it up to 40ppm, but if I turn the flow rate up, I get a stream of larger bubbles coming out of one point in the diffuser. These bubbles are of a size that you can hear them bubbling up through the diffuser. What I would like to know is, do these diffusers bed in after a while, where more of the disc will come into use. If so, I am hoping it will reduce the pressure behind the ceramic plate and therefore allow more bubbles through before there is enough pressure to force the larger bubbles out. If not, I will stick with the 30ppm until I can afford a better diffuser. Any advice will be very welcome.

I dont think the diffuser will 'bed in'. I've been using a small glass/ceramic diffuser for a few months and it bubbles from about 50% of the surface.
It's been like this since the start.

AFAIK it's down to the quality of the ceramic. The gas will find a way through the path of least resistance ! When you turn up the pressure the fact that it comes out of one spot, would seem to point to that area of the ceramic being the easiest route for the gas.

I've also heard (maybe others will confirm) that even ADA diffusers are not guaranteed to bubble from 100% of the disc.

As for lowering the pressure .... I dont think that make a difference, it only means you are putting less CO2 into the water, so your PPM.

You have a 200Ltr tank, what size tank is that diffuser rated for ?

It is rated for a 30 - 400 Ltr tank, so hopefully it is OK. It seems to be keeping my CO2 content at 30ppm with 2 bubbles per second. At a lower pressure the larger bubbles don't get through but as I up the pressure, the gas seems to be forced out of a larger hole in the ceramic and I get one single stream of larger bubbles coming out, as well as the finer mist that constantly leaves the disc. I was just hoping that more of the disc would start emitting a fine mist, but it sounds as though I am out of luck. Thanks for your quick answer Mr G.

I have two cheap glass diffusers and they both behave very differently
my small one does what you describe, but the larger one creates a great mist effect. I have noticed that the large one creates more of a mist after I have cleaned it with bleach (to remove the algae, and I dechlorinate and soak for ages after) not sure why just does!

The small one has got better since I added it, but still not as good. Think it might just be one of those things.

TBH if you're at 30ppm then you're fine. I assume the bubbles are in the flow of the filter outlet? Using that to push them around the tank can help diffusion and could increase the CO2 ppm without increasing the bubble rate. Just a thought.

Just out of interest. I have both my CO2 kits running at 1 bubble every 2 seconds and they are in 24lt and 90lt tanks both give reading of around 45ppm CO2, go figure!

Sam

Ive got a fish vet glass Co2 diffuser and when ( after about a week to too weeks ) the bubbles get larger and the mist is very poor, so i try every week to soak it in Milton ( like bleach but less chemicals) and when it goes back into the tank it give a really nice mist over about 50% of the ceramic plate, if you have a poor ceramic plant no cleaning or change in pressure will give you that mist.

Just for information purposes, I have found a way to use a ceramic filter which isn't perfect (some larger bubbles get through). I have set up the diffuser at a slight angle with the filter outlet pointed straight onto the ceramic plate. This has had the effect of keeping the diffuser quiet and it also breaks up the bubbles into a very fine mist which is so fine that you can hardly see it. Hopefully this info will be of use to some of you.