# CO2 Diffusion/Hagen ladder



## Pyro (Nov 20, 2005)

I decided to put this on the floor for discussion. Over the last few days, I've had some trouble with my Hagen ladder. I've been running the CO2 at 2 bps on my 29 gallon, and have gotten about 28-30 ppm of CO2 in the tank via the hagen ladder. Unfourtantly, the pond snails have declared war on the aquarium, and the ladder is their favorite target. I cleaned the ladder about as well as I could short of bleaching it. The bubbles still get stuck on the second rung, bunch up, and form a SUPERBUBBLE, which while sounding rather cool, is probably not good for the CO2 levels.

The crazy pond snails may be winning the battle, but I'm not going to let them win the war. I took the ladder, scrubbed the bejesus out of it, but the bubbles still get stuck...I've tried messing with it, fooling with it, but alas...do you think bleaching it would be an option? I'm not too sure what's wrong.

Now, on to the next point...I know Mat said awhile back that most SWOAPE members use the sweetwater airstones (AS10 thingies) to diffuse CO2. Has anyone compared these suckers in effiency to other means? I sent them an email, and it'd be about $8.50 to get 2 of the suckers shipped to me. I have a Maxijet powerhead, so I could put it below the powerhead...do you think that'd be worth trying? Any other methods? Advice?


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## Pyro (Nov 20, 2005)

Well, I looked back at the bubble ladder, and it's now fine, working great, clicking up the rungs like nothing ever happened. I assume the 'slime coating' or something weird on the ladder had to be re-established. Oh well, this makes me happy atleast. I'm still interested in hearing of other options though


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I have heard of similar problems with the "ladders" in the past but I have never used one so I can't give a first hand account. I think Jack uses one on his 30g...

I dn't know how amny are still using the Sweetwater Fine Pore diffusers we ordered a while back but I like mine. I have found that I can throttle back the CO2 usage a bit when using the stones versus a reactor (both DIY and Aqua Medic Reactor 1000) and still get the same concentration of CO2 in the tank. I use one in my 50g positioned under my Rio 180 powerhead and get very good CO2 levels in this tank. I have had a low reading of 5.17 pH in this tank and my rested tap has a pH of about 7.8. It works well 

$8 bucks is highway robbery for these stones. I was thinking about ordering another 20 to get the price down to $1.50 or so before shipping. I want 3 for me and you want 2, so I think I will purchase another 20. I will need a few days so I can make sure I don't need anything else from Aquatic Eco Systems before I place the order. 

If memory serves me correctly, the last 20 sontes came in around $1.89 with shipping included.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

If the ladder isn't set level against the glass using the suction cups, I've had that problem happen. Wasn't always in the same spot but my bubbles would just form one big one.

Just something to think about. My biggest problem are those darned snails!


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