# ADA show tanks and their diffusers



## trckrunrmike (Jan 31, 2005)

Does anyone noticed that their Co2 diffusers are located about half way from the top of the tank? I thought that it would be more efficient if the diffuser is located near the bottom to give the Co2 bubbles more time to diffuse. Does anyone know why this is?


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

My guess is either thats a good spot in the flow from the filter or some mechanical reason, like the tubikng is onlythat long in the kit or something.

That brings up another question to me, soory to hijack...how is the CO2 done in the ADA Gallery? Are ther eindividual canisters in each cabinet or is the whole room hardlined with a bigtank in a closet or something?

Nice photo. I have never seen that before. Where did you find that?


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## trckrunrmike (Jan 31, 2005)

Right here http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14399&highlight=ada+gallery


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

Amano has diffusers on the opposite side of the return flow in smaller tanks, and on the same side in larger tanks.

Tom Barr recently suggested that micro-sized CO2 bubbles are better to "spray" over the plants than dissolved CO2. Perhaps this is something Amano knew all along but never really shared in his speeches and writings. Since CO2 dissolves so easily, putting it on the opposite side as the flow helps keep the CO2 as micro bubbles instead of dissolving it.

I'm just guessing here but this is what the flow in the smaller Amano tanks looks like to me:










So this might also explain the vertical center positioning of the discs.


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## trckrunrmike (Jan 31, 2005)

I'm sorry but when my glass diffuser makes small bubbles it actually rises instead of falls into the tank.


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## aquaessentials (Dec 15, 2004)

trckrunrmike said:


> Does anyone noticed that their Co2 diffusers are located about half way from the top of the tank? I thought that it would be more efficient if the diffuser is located near the bottom to give the Co2 bubbles more time to diffuse. Does anyone know why this is?


I have often wondered that myself. The positioning of the diffuser seems very odd to me. Surely if a diffuser was placed that close to the surface most of the C02 would not be absorbed? The lily pipe would not generate enough flow to disperse the C02 so one can only conclude that Amano knows something about C02 absorption rates that we do not...

I can't believe it's a case of not sufficient tubing but I am certainly intrigued.


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## aquaessentials (Dec 15, 2004)

trckrunrmike said:


> I'm sorry but when my glass diffuser makes small bubbles it actually rises instead of falls into the tank.


Dito

The bubbles would have to be micro for the diagram to work as illustrated, but not only that, it still doesn't warrant having the diffuser that high up.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

Sometimes the tank does not need as much co2 so the diffuser is placed in the middle.


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

In my own tank, I have noticed that the CO2 bubbles from my diffuser disc rapidly shrink. By the time they reach the surface, many are either tiny or near invisible. So perhaps I'm way off with my "bubble" idea in the Amano tanks. Or, perhaps once the bubbles are so small that you can't see them, they can and do get pushed around from the flow on the opposite side of the tank, providing the tank isn't too big.

Personally, I put my diffuser near the tank bottom underneath the water return.

It would seem to me that in the pictures of the smaller Amano tanks, the diffuser disc and water intake ought to switch places.

Taking another look at it, if you look at the giant hairgrass on the left of the tank, it is not as dense as on the right. However, this isn't the case in all his tanks with the diffuser on the opposite side of the flow:










These pics all come from his gallery.. maybe they are trying to slow the growth somewhat so they don't have to trim as often? But then why not just turn the CO2 down?


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## detlef (Dec 24, 2004)

Hi there,

if bubbles are very tiny filter flow can push them down towards the substrate (they do! fall down). If they become bigger current will push them more sidewards into the back of the tank (which of course depends on the placement of diffusor and lily pipe) slowly moving along the backside past plants leaves. As Dennis has already mentioned the diffusor must be placed in a good spot where max. filter flow hits the device. Please note that Amano not always places his diffusors at exactly the same hight -no need to do so- rather much more important seems to be positioning about one third or less off the front glass (this is also most important for the outflow, just at the opposite side of the tank). Bubbles moving along the front glass are more or less waisted (following the mist idea) since aquarist usually grows small plants in the front. Also, many eyes don't find bubble mist too attractive. If it's moving somewhere in the back it feels much less disturbing. Current (quite strong despite the lily pipes) from ADA jet filters really pushes the CO2 mist through the plants. Main point is the mist should not be allowed to go straight up to the surface but drift either down and/or sidewards and then find its way moving through the plants to the opposite side of the tank where it finally gets sucked from the intake.

Just my observation.

Regards,
Detlef


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## AussieTanker (Mar 4, 2004)

Has anyone noticed that in most of the pics he seems to have two inlet pipes ... but only one of them seems to be a lilly pipe ... any ideas on what the other one is?


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## JaySilverman (Jun 19, 2005)

They are there for show. So you can see them. It's the same reason why all their canister filters are in the open. He wants people to see the equipment so he can sell more.


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## AussieTanker (Mar 4, 2004)

Thanks for the reply JaySilverman .....

i have been thinking about your answer .... i appreciate your viewpoint but i am not so sure that it's the total answer ... they look like they are different pipes to me? .... i think that they have a different endpiece ..... does anyone have a clearer pic of that second endpipe? ... or know if it's anything other than an equipt "advertsement" as suggested by JaySilverman


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## csfish (May 19, 2005)

They're hard to see, but that's the beauty of glass equipment- each tank has a straight lily pipe for intake http://www.adaeuro.com/articoli.asp?id_f=FILSY , a flared lily pipe for outflow and a CO2 diffuser http://www.adaeuro.com/articoli.asp?id_f=CO2SY . That's it...

Here's the rest of that series of photos....
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14399&highlight=Trip+Japan


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## Nick (Jan 12, 2005)

I've got a set of lily pipes-no mystery, one is an intake, and has a flared, spade-like end to it (narrow enough that little fish don't get sucked in I would imagine) and the other is (obviously) the outlet. As for the ceramic diffusers, Amano refers to the CO2 'pollen' they create (hence the name Pollen Beetle)-these style of diffusers just serve to create a fine mist of tiny bubbles in the aquarium. As has been pointed out these shrink as they rise. This is just the CO2 diffusing into undersaturated aquarium water. The benefit of the pollen, or mist, is that it creates a greater surface area over which the diffusion can occur-with one large bubble, the surface area is less. Per unit volume of CO2, creating many small bubbles versus one large one is more efficient at dissolving the gas into the water. I conclude this from a relatively simple observation, where keeping the same bubble count but changing the diffusor type in the tank results in a higher CO2 level from the pollen beetle type diffusor. Great-less waste gas!

Nick


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