Me Again! Algae/plant Question.

[Jaymz]

Urgh, now it seems there's something up with the diffuser, rather than go up the spiral the bubbles are squirting out of a tiny hole and going through the diffuser disc but not up the spiral so I can't count them properly. That and the diffuser's giving off tonnes of white cloudy bubble rather than the stream it used to. I've taken it out in case it's residual bleach from cleaning (It had been very thoroughly rinsed and was soaking in dechlor for hours after I'd cleaned it anyway), just running it in a glass of water to see if it'll stop doing it.

EDIT: Ok the diffuser's broken, the spiral came away from the base inside. Pretty annoying. I've ordered a Rhinox model instead along with a bubble counter. At the moment I just have the bubbles going straight into the tank at about 2bps, in an attempt to get at least some co2 in there, I know without diffusion the absorption rate will be minimal, and unless I can get away with a day of no injection it's about all I can do at the moment.

 

[Jaymz]

Ok things aren't looking good. When the solenoid closed last night the canister had 50bar pressure left, I got up this morning and it's totally empty. All the connections are tight and it was working perfectly well last night and now it's all gone, and because the solenoid was closed, it probbaly didn't go in the tank. Anything like this ever happen to you? Anything that I can check for that I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

 

[SuperColey1]

After cleaning the output from the ceramic disc will be so small the bubbles look like smoke than microbubbles but after half an hour or so it will return to microbubbles. I wouldn't worry about bleach residue. thats why you overdose dechlor on it when you clean!!! The dechlor will also pass through the discs pores just like water does when its not injecting.

So don't worry about that. The smoke would be the ideal if it could last as it is much easier to dissolve into the water but once a little bit of the tank water layers the disc the clogging immediately commences hence why wekly cleans are so important.

AC

 

[Jaymz]

Yeah the smoke cleared up after a while, just now I've got the trouble with the fact the canister seems to have emptied overnight. The only possible thing I can think of (aside from a faulty canister) is that the regulator seems to be hissing a little bit and that I may have a loose connection somewhere. I'm going to try and check with smoke to see if it blows from anywhere. Unless this hissing is normal of course?

Thanks.

 

[SuperColey1]

hissing is a sign of leaks. I wouldn't use smoke in there may damage something. Put 1 part washing up liquid and 5 parts water in a squeezy bottle and squeeze it onto the joints, connections of thehose and round the needle valve/solenoid connection.

Do one connection at a time.

You need to turn the CO2 on to do this.

Where there is a leak you will get bubbles.

AC

 

[Jaymz]

Not smoke 'in' the thing just 'around' to see if anything is leaking, but your idea sounds better. I think it's coming from the nut on the black wheel on the regulator, I'm about to give the tank a good clean so I'll check for it then.

Many thanks.

 

[Jaymz]

Your advice continues to be excellent, turns out I had a leak between the regulator and the needle valve, so I did it another half-turn and I doubt it'll go much further, either way there's no more bubbles, everywhere else seems pretty secure when I tested. There's now only a barely-audible noise that I think it the solenoid, I noticed it vibrates a wee bit when it's on for whatever reason, I'll check for it later when it turns off.

Many thanks!

 

[aaronnorth]

If the leak persists, then get some PTFE tape, and put that on the connection and it will sort the problem out.

 

[Jaymz]

If the leak persists, then get some PTFE tape, and put that on the connection and it will sort the problem out.

Yeah my Dad mentioned using that although I'm crossing my fingers that the leak's gone, I'm going to to and check again now actually.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Jaymz]

Seems that the leak has gone, the second canister is still going at 2bps without showing any signs of stopping. I'm thinking I may need more plant mass now as the algae's coming back. Either that or I need to cut the fert dosing down.

Complete tangent question rather than make a new thread - I've been cycling this tank using my mature old filter alongside the new one, it's been about two months now, will it be safe to run solely on the new one now?

Many thanks.

 

[aaronnorth]

2 months should be long enough

 

[Jaymz]

That's good, I don't think the spraybar will be doing any good for the co2 injection, so it can go now.

Cheers.