# How To: Dissolving CO2 100% Fast



## yxberia (Apr 19, 2005)

If you have UP Aqua CO2 Reactor or any similiar reactor like me, you might be facing these problems: Balls won't move as if there is not enough drive from powerhead and small bubbles get away without properly diffused.

Even with more powerful powerhead, situation is not getting any better. Strong flow will still push those "undigested" bubbles through the outlet. Strong current is also not favourable for small fish and not to mention small planted tank.

So, over the time, I have been experimenting with various setup using 2 CO2 model from Up-Aqua. 40x Series and Turbo series. You can find them in older thread if you wish to dig up more.

The difference between 40x and Turbo:
Turbo is designed for those setup with small powerhead/weak canister filter. because of the V-shape design, it create great suction power when water flowing downwards via V-Chamber. But, I have tried the original setup with bio-ring inside the second chamber and findout its dissolving power is not that great anyway.

So, I decided to mod them using various config and finally come to this findings.

*40X's Series efficiency:* Lies on the top 1" portion of the cylinder.









(The original version has 4-5 balls.)
The 1st ball receives most of the momentum, thus it is then fastest moving object inside. It is also the important guy that mixes water with CO2. I used 2 balls instead of 5. This is to free up more space and help smoothen the flow. When chamber is packed with balls, tiny bubbles will get through without being porperly dissolved.

But, when there are only 2 balls, one of them will get pushed downwards, and get sticked near the outlet. This can be solved by putting another marble ball inside. So, now both balls will float.

*Turbo efficiency:* Also lies on the top 1" portion of the cylinder



















Making the balls float is the as essential as the 1st case. But since Turbo is using V-Chamber, I have to reassamble the whole piece like shown. On top of the V-chamber, there are 3 small sticks. So, just "hang" a marble ball on top solve the floating issue.

With the modified Turbo reactor, getting a low pH within small time frame is not an issue anymore, especially right after the water change. Even with just 2 bubbles/s, you can still achive pH 6.6 in one hour. This is the most efficient reactor so far compared to 40x series.



















Even you can't find these models in your country, you can always DIY. 
Just make sure the 1st ball can spin fast enough.

op2:


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## crandf (Jan 28, 2005)

Personally, I found that feeding the co2 into the inlet of the pump works pretty well. The CO2 gets chopped up into fine bubbles and goes into the reactor for further mixing. The original CO2 inlet at the top of the reactor now feeds back to the pump inlet as well, with a valve to control the flowrate. This works to reduce any CO2 buildup at the top of the reactor. In a sense, the reactor is only doing part of the dissolution work. The feedback loop provides a second path for the bubbles to travel and get chopped up over and over and over again.

I get 100% dissolving efficiency by this method. But note that the container I diyed was much wider than the UP reactor, so bubbles were much less likely to escape out from the bottom.


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## yxberia (Apr 19, 2005)

100 % is achived when there is no CO2 bubble escapes the tank.

This setup is a challange of getting 100% CO2 dissolution in *one* go versus time taken. There is not even a tiny bubble coming out so feedback to the powerhead is not required. pH is contantly monitored and controlled.

I have tried inline diffuser (into canister), I have try many crazy ideas and when I charted their efficiency versus time, this method gives the ultimate result.

Especially after 80% water change, pH bumps up to pH 7.8 . For Turbo (venturi chamber) It takes less than 1.5 hours to drop to pH 6.7 with lights on.
For 40x series, it takes much longer time.

These 2 are placed inside 2 separate 4 feet tanks, one with 300 w MH another with 224 watt FL+CF lighting.


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## mousky (Jul 6, 2006)

*100% saturation*

I get 100% saturation of my Co2 by using a dupla S reactor filled up with small cheepo bio balls. I have it hooked up inside my propagation tank with a 600lph powerhead.

I get the Co2 accumulating at the top of the reactor and the water pushes down on thes and forces the bubbles through the bio balls. I have all these tiny Co2 bubles attached to the bio balls and have never seen any bubbles even really tiny ones coming out the outlet of the reactor.

Although not a prety look, it works. I suppose a similar level can be acheived by attaching the reactor outside the tank but I'm too lazy to change it.

BTW I bought my reactor off ebay for about AU$60.

One of my next projects if to make one from plumming supplies, I hope it works as well


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## yxberia (Apr 19, 2005)

mousky said:


> I get the Co2 accumulating at the top of the reactor and the water pushes down on thes and forces the bubbles through the bio balls. I have all these tiny Co2 bubles attached to the bio balls and have never seen any bubbles even really tiny ones coming out the outlet of the reactor.


Sounds interesting, mousky. What is the pH reading?
Mind to share some picture ?


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## mousky (Jul 6, 2006)

> Sounds interesting, mousky. What is the pH reading?
> Mind to share some picture ?


The pH stays around 6.7.

I will post some pics of the whole setup soon


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