# my internal CO2 reactor



## Thibault (Dec 2, 2004)

Hi, I've been enjoying the Forum for a while but never post a message. I've thaugt that for my first participation I could share with you my home made internal CO2 reactor (yes, one more, for those who want to start a collection! ). It's made with a salt-cellar and cost me one euro (I already had the pump). It disolves one bubble of CO2 each two seconds ! I use it for a 60 L tank. i guess it could make it for a bigger tank. Any advice in order to improve the system are wellcome .

Thibault


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Nicely done.


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## Thibault (Dec 2, 2004)

Thanks Bert !


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## jaxal (Mar 23, 2004)

It's so cute >_<


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## richy (Nov 8, 2004)

Neat! It's not an eyesore to look at... Can you tell me how it works? It looks like the CO2 injection occurs directly into the powerhead and CO2 is pumped through the reactor. Is this correct? Where does the dissolved CO2 interact with H2O?


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## Thibault (Dec 2, 2004)

Hi Richy, I hope my english is good enough to make it clear . Yes, the CO2 injection occurs directly into the powerhead and CO2 is pumped through the reactor. Inside the reactor, the water spreads threw the big CO2 bubble and then go down along the glass of the salt cellar. The idea was to do the contrary of a usual CO2 reactor : instead of having the bubble moving threw the water column to be dissolved, it's the water that spreads threw the CO2 bubble to dissolve it.

here are two pictures to make it clearer :



















(PS the littles rocks are useless, there is no CO2 deperdition if you remove them)


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## Happy Camper (Jul 22, 2004)

Thibault said:


> Hi, I've been enjoying the Forum for a while but never post a message. I've thaugt that for my first participation I could share with you my home made internal CO2 reactor (yes, one more, for those who want to start a collection! ). It's made with a salt-cellar and cost me one euro (I already had the pump). It disolves one bubble of CO2 each two seconds ! I use it for a 60 L tank. i guess it could make it for a bigger tank. Any advice in order to improve the system are wellcome .


Love your work, thats a very clever bit of design.

Regards
Cameron


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## Thibault (Dec 2, 2004)

thanks Cameron,
I'm planing a new landscape for my aquarium. It's going to be hard to hide this reactor, even if it's very small. So I'm going to transform my internal in an external reactor, but still using the same idea.
I'll keep you updated,
Thibault


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## richy (Nov 8, 2004)

Thibault said:


> Hi Richy, I hope my english is good enough to make it clear . Yes, the CO2 injection occurs directly into the powerhead and CO2 is pumped through the reactor. Inside the reactor, the water spreads threw the big CO2 bubble and then go down along the glass of the salt cellar. The idea was to do the contrary of a usual CO2 reactor : instead of having the bubble moving threw the water column to be dissolved, it's the water that spreads threw the CO2 bubble to dissolve it.


That's ingenius! I do wonder, though, if it would make much of a difference if the CO2 line was injected directly into the salt cellar at the top of the bulb rather than into the powerhead.

Have you compared your reactor to other reactor designs or diffusors? I'm curious to know how effective it is. Anything you can share would be great. Thanks.

BTW, where did you get your salt cellar? If I google salt cellar, I don't find anything remotely similar to what you have.


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