What Co2 Diffuser

[Dan-CR4]

I got an fire ext co2 system but broke my co2 diffuser today (when i was rescaping my tank) and not sure I had the correct one anyway. I got an 200 litre tank so can anyone suggest a glass diffuser that would be ok for my tank. Theres so many on the auction site but no info on what size tank they are for, does it matter?

still new to co2 so any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ian]

any glass would e fine really. There are the new ish diffusers on the block the likes of the Up atomiser and the in tank atomiser. These are the best atomisers, but they do need a higher Bar pressure to work properly. I had up up my bar to 2.1 and get great diffusion from these.




Then there's good old glass, here's some decent priced glass diffusers.

http/www.tankscape.co.uk/Aquarium-CO2-Glassware/CO2-Diffuser?page=1

 

[L_Plates]

I have been using the Mist Diffuser, http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/easy-aqua-super-mist-atomiser-large-p-5572.html for the last 2 weeks and i am impressed. As Ian stated these take at least 2 bar to run though. I run mine at 2.2 bar.

Another note is that i was using a plastic bubble counter and under that pressure it went pop. Then i purchased a glass bubble counter and its been great.

LP

 

[Dan-CR4]

any glass would e fine really. There are the new ish diffusers on the block the likes of the Up atomiser and the in tank atomiser. These are the best atomisers, but they do need a higher Bar pressure to work properly. I had up up my bar to 2.1 and get great diffusion from these.

can you believe my luck, i order a new glass diffuser off of ebay (tankscape) and when unwrapping it i drop the bloody thing and the pipe breaks, im seething so much now so dont want glass again.

thanks for the replies and links guys but how would I know if my Fire Ext co2 system and regualtor would work with the in tank atomiser. heres a picture of my regulator. I have photoshopped it as my camera is flat, i moved the needles to where they are on my regulator, as you can see one on the right is just under 6 and the one on the left is around a thousand.

 

[L_Plates]

So the left is the pressure from the bottle and the right is the working pressure you set ?

If so you will be fine running a mist diffuser.

LP

 

[BigBadBurrow]

I recently bought a CO2 system from CO2Supermarket.co.uk (if anyone doesn’t have a CO2 system I can recommend getting one from there because you can use a sodastream bottle as the CO2 source) and they’ve got a couple of videos on their website where they compare the glass nano diffusers against a mixer diffuser (reactor) which I found useful:

Nano: http/www.co2supermarket.co.uk/products/co2-nano-diffuser.html

Mixer: http/www.co2supermarket.co.uk/products/co2-mixer-diffuser-set.html

It basically speaks for itself – compare the amounts of CO2 that is reaching the surface of the water in the two videos and it’s obvious that the mixer diffusers work much better than nano diffusers. I bought both to try for myself and found the same thing. Obviously it’s easier to implement a nano diffuser because you don’t need to rig it up to a pump as you do with the mixer diffuser, but if good diffusion is what you want then the mixers are the way to go. As the video says, if you see CO2 bubbles reaching the water surface then it hasn’t been diffused and you’re wasting money.

One extra modification I made to my mixer reactor was to add some course foam at the bottom of the unit which allows water through but stops any CO2, so I can confidently say I get 100% diffusion with this. The foam is quite course so it doesn’t get clogged up too quickly and restrict the water flow. With a Nano you get nowhere near that, and I’d say possibly 50% escapes out the tank without being diffused in the water.

 

[L_Plates]

If you have a powerhead above the diffuser which then blows anything near it around the tank this will decrease the loss of Co2 bubbles in the tank. I do this and hardly any bubbles go straight up and out. They are all over my tank.

LP

 

[BigBadBurrow]

They recommend that in the video, and I tried that too, but it's still by no means near 100% diffusion. A mixer/reactor is definitely
the best type of diffuser because the gas simply can't escape, it has to be diffused in the water - there's no where else for it to go.

It all just depends how much effort you want to go to in order to get maximum diffusion. I almost saw it as a challenge!

 

[ian]

that first vid is a pretty bad explanation and i wouldn't recommend diffusing C02 that way.

 

[SuperColey1]

I'm running my inline up atomiser at 1.7 bar

 

[ian]

I couldn't get a consistant enough bubble count or diffusion at 1.8 bar, with the in tank atomiser. I did try...i did have to manually up my working pressure to 2.1 and it works a treat now.

 

[BigBadBurrow]

@ianho - how else would/could you do it?

 

[ian]

The 'in thing' is the UP atomiser and the in tank bazooka atomiser. Both excellent ways of diffusion. Remember if using an in tank diffuser, it needs to be in the flow.

 

[BigBadBurrow]

The Up atomizer sounds pretty cool, but for the price I think I'll stick to my reactor diffuser as I already get 100% diffusion - can't really improve on that.

This is just a thought; do you think the Up atomizer get clogged up quite quickly? I know that the tubes from my external filter get pretty gungked up, so if the CO2 had to pass into that tube through a membrane then I think it would have trouble after a while and performance would degrade. My reactor has impellers that are constantly rotating so they never need cleaning (or haven't done in 10 months anyway).

But as you rightly say, flow is needed to diffuse CO2 in water, and I don't think you get sufficient flow from just sticking a Nano diffuser in a tank. Even if it's positioned under the outlet from the filter, there isn't enough turbulence to fully mix it - the CO2 needs to be confined so it can't escape and has not other option than to diffuse into the water - that's the only way you'll get 100% diffusion.

So, my vote is definitely for a mixer/reactor diffuser.

 

[ian]

you'll never get 100% diffusion, you get near but you'll struggle to get or even measure 100% diffusion. I have no experience with reactors, so can't comment on how good they are. I think they slow the flow down even more so than an UP atomiser. I have read people going about a year before having to clean the Up.

using a glass diffuser (the nano), are fine this is how your supposed to do it though.

see how the bubbles are being blown around. Thats, how the glass ones are supposed to work.