Ceramic CO2 diffusor

[ingg]

Ghazanfar, let me know if you go the glass diffusor route, I may want to hitch another one into your order.

Its the misting, man, the misting! No, no idea why - I just know I can't afford to lose flow rate in my 55g by doing the inline thing.

[Ben Belton]

You have to clean them in bleach more often than not

I have a trick for this. I have one in my 20H. When I am changing the water, I pull the diffuser up a little so that the water level gets below it. Before I start refilling the tank, I pour some H2O2 onto the ceramic disk. I wait a few minutes and refill the tank. Usually within 24-48 hours it's all clean and white. Usually between the time I stop draining the tank and get everything changed over to start refillng the tank, it has been enough time to wait, and I don't wait any additional time.

[krisw]

That's really clever Ben! I'm totally using that trick next water change!

[Jonathan Kalmes]

I just know I can't afford to lose flow rate in my 55g by doing the inline thing.

If you can't afford to lose the flow rate, don't use a reactor... just plump the CO2 directly into the filter intake in the tank... by the time it gets through the canister, it'll get way more exposure and agitation than most reactors can manage. I've been doing this for two years now and it works great with my Eheim. I'd be a little leary of trying it with a Magnum (mainly because I think they're inefficient heaps of junk), but anything else should have no problems with it.

Stiff airline tubing works great for this... you can bend it to the shape of the intake by putting it in hot water and it'll solidify to whatever shape you need when you pull it out.

[John G]

I tried Ben's H2O2 trick for cleaning ceramic diffusers when I did a water change on Saturday. Today, it was as clean as it ever gets with bleach. Thanks for sharing that trick.

As for putting the CO2 directly into the filter, I have never had much luck with that. When I put it directly in the tube to my Eheim I always end up with noisy, bubbling gas in the container. Sometimes it takes a few days, sometimes a week or two, but the result is always the same.

[ingg]

The noise is why I don't do it - this tank is in my bedroom. I'm currently using the venturi port on the outbar of my Rena, but it is large enough bubbles ot hit the surface fairly quickly...