# Mazzei injector setup questions.



## tefsom85 (Jan 27, 2007)

I just bought a Mazzei Injector to experiment with for CO2 delivery. However, I am not exactly sure how to hook it up. First off, it comes stock with a large 1/4" hose barb. I went to the hardware store to try to find a reducer to allow it to work with Clippard tubing but did not find anything there. I will keep looking but am curious if anyone else has hooked one of these up before and can tell me how they have done it. Also, I am curious how people are driving these. I'm hoping that I can hook it up to a small power head, say a RIO180. Anyone have any experience here with these? Thanks in advance!


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## IUnknown (Feb 24, 2004)

Which model Mazzei did you get. Finding fittings is always a pain. My 
Co2 tubing was soft enough that I stretched it to fit over the 1/4" 
barb. You wont find those fittings at the large hardware stores, but I 
found them at a small local mom & pop hardware store in town. You can 
get that stuff at ryanherco.com, but that would kill you with shipping.

I experimented a lot with different pumps to get the Mazzei's to work 
(I'll look up previous threads and post them). What size is your tank 
and how were you planning on setting things up? I've got mine in-line 
with my canister filter. The problem is finding a pump that will deal 
with the backpressure. Canister filters are already designed this way 
because they have to overcome filter media. And the other thing is 
getting the pressure difference from the inlet to the outlet of the 
injector, so I've got mine right before the outlet pipe (I'll take a picture 
tonight).

My next step is to play around with modifying the injector to get 
slightly bigger bubbles. You don't want them too big that the buoyancy 
sends them to the top, but mine might be just too fine that they are 
getting dissolved (not enough time under the leaf surface). I also wanted to 
get the models before and after the one I've got to see if they are 
really any different. I'm using the 584 and I'm wondering what range of 
canisters would work with that injector.


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## tefsom85 (Jan 27, 2007)

I got the 384x but haven't hooked it up yet. I will be setting it up on a 120G. 

I think I may have seen a pic of your inline setup and I like the way you have hooked it up. I am torn between getting another canister filter/external pump just for this or trying to find a way to run it using a powerhead. I am definitely interested in seeing any add'l pics.

Wrt the fittings, Mazzei also pointed me to Ryan Herco. I'm sure that I'll be able to find something in time with that... just gonna take some searching.

I'm curious what you think about the performance of the injector. I currently am running a reactor driven by a smaller Eheim 2213 and it barely keeps the CO2 levels at the right level (according to the drop checker). If I want anymore CO2, I can't turn up the bubble rate anymore as it just fills the reactor and blows out the outlet. My idea was to add the venturi to the tank in addition to the reactor or if it was good enough, replace the reactor completely.

In any case, thanks for the reply. I'll keep you posted on my progress.


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## tefsom85 (Jan 27, 2007)

Update on this.. have given up on the idea of using a power head to drive this. I just ordered a big Eheim 2250 to be the main filter and am going to hook the venturi up on the outlet side of things of my Eheim 2028. One question I have is where on the outlet side of things to put the venturi. I believe there needs to be a pressure differential inlet to outlet and am wondering if I place the venturi too low will the water pressure on the outlet side be too high to work efficiently?


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## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

Couldn't you just increase the tubing size after the mazzei injector. That would decrease the pressure. This might not work with your plumbing set up but its an idea.


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## IUnknown (Feb 24, 2004)

tefsom85: You'll have to play around with it. You might find that placing it up high will be your best option, because you will mostly want to get the most suction out of the venturi. I guess there would be situations where you are getting too much injection (your Co2 line actually compresses from the sucking), but then you could just get rigid Co2 tubing.

As for performance. I put it in-between a glass diffuser and an in line reactor, and you get the benefit of the Co2 bubbles.

slickwillislim: I don't think the pressure drop from an increase in pipe size would be enough to get the venturi working.


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## tefsom85 (Jan 27, 2007)

So I got an Eheim 2250 delivered this week and hooked it up on my 120G. I initially hooked it up w/o the venturi inline and it was definitely pushing a lot of water. Having deemed the filter working properly, I proceeded to splice the venturi inline - return side. I initially got mist but with severely decreased flow - too low for it to really be able to push it around the tank. I wouldn't mind if flow was reduced somewhat wrt the unrestricted flow, as it is a lot of flow for my tank, but it definitely is not working as is.

Iunknown: in another thread I read that you are using an Eheim to drive your venturi but that you switched from a 287 to a 584 based on the engineers recommendation. Can you tell me why you switched? I looked at the performance pages but I really don't know how to interpret them. I did send a note to Mazzei and asked them about using the 384x with the eheim 1250 pump (the 2250 filter is basically a bucket with a 1250 strapped on top). The response was that the pump did not have enough pressure or flow to make the venturi work.


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## IUnknown (Feb 24, 2004)

I switched because I basically had no idea on how to size these things. The 287 was way to small for the filter I was using (really restricted flow). I've ordered the 484 and 684, to see how much a difference those are. How did you end up selecting the 384? If flow restriction is a problem then maybe try the 584C. Thats the problem with this method, is that it is new, so we are all Guinea pigs figuring out which injector works with with filter. I have a feeling that the 584C is going to work with most filters that run at the flow rates we use in the aquarium.



> I did send a note to Mazzei and asked them about using the 384x with the eheim 1250 pump (the 2250 filter is basically a bucket with a 1250 strapped on top).


I don't know if it is the design of the canister, if it really is just a 1250 pump then maybe there isn't enough back pressure? You have more flow and head pressure than I do. He told me the same thing, but ended with if you wanted to try, the 584C would be your best bet.

2250
Pump output approx I/h 1200 
Del.head approx Hmax m 2,0

2224
Pump output approx I/h 700 
Del.head approx Hmax m 1,5

I get the two new models next week, I'll let you know what I find out. I wish I had a flow meter to see what a difference the different models have on flow.


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## tefsom85 (Jan 27, 2007)

I ordered the 384 simply because it was 1/2". I had looked at the venturi performance sheets but wasn't able to deduce from there which venturi would be appropriate so I went with one that was sized the same as my filter return tubing 

I guess thinking about it, it makes sense that if the venturi is too small, it will restrict the flow too much. So maybe the 584, although at first counterintuitive to me, may be better since its bigger... I'll let you know what I come up with.

Edit: 
[I did some searching and found a good post by guaic_boy on basic fluid dynamics which related fluids to electricity. I don't know why it didn't dawn on me earlier to look at the size of the restriction (i.e. the resistance to flow) but in hind sight its a little more than obvious that this is a major factor here. I "measured" the opening of the restriction on the 384 and it is 7/64"! (Measured by seeing what size of drill bit would go through the restriction.) This would explain the extreme flow restriction - going from 1/2" to 1/8" would definitely tend to put a damper on things. I am curious about how the restriction size varies from model to model. I'll query Mazzei about this.]

I'm also posting about this on Tom's site, so I'll keep this up to date there as well.


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