# DIY CO2 Reactor



## Carlos1583 (Jul 7, 2006)

I am going to attempt to make a Co2 reactor because even with 2 2L bottles and air stones, I'm not getting enough CO2 in the water. I am going to try to make this type of reactor from this site http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/DIY-CO2-Reactor/2/

However, one of the equipment listed is foam. What type of foam do they mean? Where could I purchase one? Also, the website says that the total cost of this is between 30-40 dollars. I already have the gravel cleaner and a DIY CO2 bottle but I would need a powerhead (20 bucks at petsmart/petco) and foam. Is it more feasible to go ahead and buy a ceramic diffuser of some sort? Thanks for the help....


----------



## scitz (Mar 16, 2004)

I have used the replacement foam for aquaclear brand filters as well as the filter floss, aka synthetic pillow stuffing, used long ago in the dark ages of fishkeeping to stuff air driven box and corner filters. Petco sells both for less than $5 a pack, I would assume thats an average to average-high price on such goods, based on petco's other prices. Any other kind/brand of replacement mechanical filter replacement material would likely work. Grab a few, experiment and report you're findings with the group 

Oh yeah, and as always, Don't Support Petco.


----------



## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

Save yourself a lot of time and money and just get the Hagen ladder. The ladder works just as well as the gravel vac reactor and takes up a lot less room in the tank.


----------



## erik Loza (Feb 6, 2006)

No, don't play around with that design too much. Everything required to get adequate diffusion is there and trying to add an airstone or something might actually impede things. Trust me: There will be PLENTY of agitation inside that chamber from the powerhead. 

Just go to your local fish store and buy a replacement foam block for a Hagen Aquaclear filter, then trim as needed with a sharp knife to fit. Shouldn't cost more than $3-$4. 

What's the complaint with Petco, by the way? Some of my best fish and plants I have gotten there, just like at Petsmart and my favorite local specialty fish store.


----------



## scitz (Mar 16, 2004)

erik, I used to work there.

Petco's mission statement "Animals Come First, Our People Make It Happen" is a flat-faced lie. Ment to make employees and customers feel all warm and fuzzy about the company. Sure, they donate lots of money to the SPCA and other animal rescue organizations... but petco generates those funds from selling substandard quality pets by totally uninformed (unless your knowledge on animal care comes from outside the petco store walls) employees. Will that iguana be fine in a 10g aquarium? Sure! Think that polka-dot grouper looks really cute? well with our 29g saltwater starters kit, you too can take that little guy home.

Almost 90% of the 'aquatic plants' they carry are not species suitable for long-term submersion. Those little plant tubes things they started carrying a year or so ago... 4 of the 10 or so we carried when I quit were non-aquatic species. Salt-water pushes... when petco gets a really good deal on saltwater fish and so sends about 40 or so fish to a store unordered. And these pushes are usually of things like triggers and groupers and really expensive tangs. Even if said store has a weekly saltwater sale total of about $20, and a weekly deadfish total of around $200.

I could go on and on. Petsmart is no different, as far as I can tell talking to former employees whom I know. No store at that scale can ever give you the same care and knowledge as a small independant store, or even some of the small regional chains that I have seen pop up in my area. Sorta like expecting good things from wal-mart, please don't get me started on that rant  sorry to hijack the thread

Re: Hagen Ladder...

Check out this thread


----------



## erik Loza (Feb 6, 2006)

I used to work there, too. I was a manager, as a matter of fact, and trained a good percentage of the aquatics staff during my eight-year tenure in northern California. 

One of the things I always told my employees was to ignore the politics and just do your job. Are there bad stores? Sure. But there are good stores, too. Did you have a hard go of it? Not for me to comment but I can tell you that each of the issues you have mentioned has more to do with store-level management than with the company, itself. If the tube plants weren't truly aquatic, then sell them to people for their anole and fire-bellied toad terrariums and sell the assorted potted or loose plants from Horizon, which definitely were aquatic, to the aquarium customer. 

The only push you really ever got on marine stuff was a few Purple Tangs here or there, but mostly aquacultured ORA clowns and Pseudochromis. Really didn't have the space or clientele to support them? Call the CAC and have some picked up and transferred to a neighboring store, like I would do. Or, if the store manager was on it and really could show the lack of activity in that department, have him kill the push ahead of time, which is do-able. Too many livebearers or whatever on Department 84 auto-replentish? Only if your cycle counts are way off and don't reflect accurate on-hand status. Max stocking levels for the MARS tanks and even the DAS ones were not unrealistic. 

Well, I suppose this is all semantics and farbeit from me to try to change anyone's mind, but it's been several years since I worked in the industry and things haven't changed: The Petco and Petsmart near my office have very nicely kept fish rooms and I have no hesitations about spending money there. The Petco nearer my house has a, well, less nicely kept fish room and nothing there motivate me to spend money. Draw whatever conclusion you care to, but I knew lots of Aquatics Specialists and Companion Animal Specialists and the ones with the worst looking rooms always happened to be, ironically, the biggest complainers and finger-pointers.

Speaking only for myself, my home tanks look great, there are many options in terms of where to buy things, I do my talking with my wallet, and blanket statements have never helped me. Good luck with your fish keeping.


----------



## scitz (Mar 16, 2004)

Well, when the tube plants have 'aquatic' written all over them, that is a company problem, not a store-level problem. We also frequently recieved borneo swords, scientific name escapes me at the moment, and such labeled with aquatic tags. When I would seperate them to our terrarium geared plants, that would totally mess up our shelf counts. I was told by our DM that I was to put them in the fish tanks all the same, as it was not my place to violate POS's. It was also regular policy, enforced by our CAC and DM, that all sick tanks have the quarantine signs pulled the second that no visable signs of illness remained. Selling 'healthy looking' fish from a tank containing was also something I was regularly told to do. The thinking was that when fish are under observation, its impossible to make any money. My CAS in aquatic and reptiles training... lol. Each was 6 mini-books for those who don't know. The first book describes the Companion Animal Specialist program. The next book describes extremely basic animal care. The following book describes your maintanance of the animal systems. The rest of the books tell you things like what a Plan O'Gram is, what terms are used to describe store shelving and signage. Where to find the SOP's on the back office terminals. All the books were about 50 pages. The reptile one was the best. This program was intending to teach you most everything you needed to know to run those departments, or at least thats how it was marketed when I participated in it. I had 100% scores on both those tests btw, i think each was around 100-150 questions. I ran a decent looking department for a long time. Towards the end, you are correct, I was having trouble getting quality hires for my department amongst other store-level events that led to me quiting. I have worked enough places, and have been out in the world enough to know what can be controlled and what can't. I worked in a store with a 6 year streak of double digit annual growth, only our excellent dog groomer's shop had a higher sales per week figure

Big box stores of any kind, Lowes, Home Depot, Petco, Kmart, Walmart, etc run on lowest common denominator styles of business. 

*shrug* I live in the DC/Baltimore/Philly area and have been to at least a dozen petco's, some in my region, and some in another, and none struck me as a place I would spend a dime. I won't get into what it took for us to get a real reptile vet to look at our animals, not the local small mammal and agricultural vets. You're experiance with the company seems at polar opposites with mine. Were you a store manager, or by manager you mean team lead?


----------



## capn_kirkl (Jul 4, 2006)

*quit b*tching*

Im Sick Of Everyone Bitching About Big Stores, And How Great Their Lfs Is... In My Experience My "beloved Lfs" Sold Me A Tank, Filter, Etc... That Was Way Overpriced, Their Fish Are Five Dollars More Expensive Than The Big Stores And Those Fish Are The Worst As Far As Im Concerned. Granted Walmarts Tanks Look Like **** The Fish Seem To Do Fine Once They Are Brought Home Maybe That Hostile Environment Makes Them Stronger Somehow.... This Rant Is Pointless As Fish Snobs Wil Preach About How Great And Lala Alalaand How Bad And Shame On You Etc.


----------



## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

I personally have found a limewood airstone to be as effective as (and possibly more effective than) a reactor in delivering CO2 to the system. 

Only real issue is if you're okay with bubbles flying around the tank.


----------



## scitz (Mar 16, 2004)

If you are planning on using a limewood airstone, or even those glass diffusors, which work about the same in my experiance, and running with a yeast generator... Add a gas seperator to your setup. Basically you add a small soda bottle in line between your yeast mix bottles and your aquarium. Drill 2 holes in the top and add a piece of ridgid airline that extends pretty far into the soda bottle. Cut a smaller piece that only sticks about an inch or so into the bottle. Allow enough airline sticking up out of the cap to slide the line running to your yeast and to your aquarium. Fill the bottle about half full of water, screw the cap on with the tubing sticking into the water and you are ready to hook it up.

Now, when the co2 bubbles in the small bottles water, the sugar and yeast rich vapors get dissolved in the water, instead of clogging your diffusor and growing that whitish slime all over it.

Poke around the DIY forum, I think someone posted an illustrated step-by-step and a more indepth description of this device about 6-9 months ago.


----------



## Carlos1583 (Jul 7, 2006)

I may try that then...I do notice a white slime on one of the air stones. I'm heading to houston tomorrow and so does anyone recommend some stores to check out? Where could I get the limestone or glass diffusor?


----------



## erik Loza (Feb 6, 2006)

scitz said:


> You're experiance with the company seems at polar opposites with mine. Were you a store manager, or by manager you mean team lead?


Perhaps the west coast and the east coast are differently run, then. Could only comment on District 8. I was a salaried Assistant Store Manager, though I don't know what they call that position now, by the way.


----------



## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

limewood.. not limestone  Coralife makes them and most fish stores probably carry them... mine does.


----------

