DIY CO2 Diffuser

[OrangeCones]

What does the ladder do? I mean, how does it make the DIY CO2 better? And how did you make it?

The ladder just delays the time it takes for the bubble of CO2 to reach the surface. Since the water is lower in CO2, the bubble will dissolve into the water. The longer the bubble is in contact with the water, the more the water can dissolve (basically eats away at the outside edge of the bubble, making it smaller as it 'rises' in the ladder).

The ladder is a series of plastic shelves that wind around the front and back of the center plastic plate. The shelves prevent the bubble from just rising to the surface directly, but force it to stay underwater longer.

Some of my fish play with the bubbles, which is cute!

 

[Sharkee]

my gourami was checking it out earlier but now its old news. I've now placed it pretty close to the downpour of my HOB hoping that the agitated water will grab the CO2 just like it does with O2. Maybe I should take daily pics of my plants to see the progress.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Awwwww! That is cute!!!!1

 

[Sharkee]

SUCCESS! Finally! I made it work!

 

[Newman]

pics !

 

[Sharkee]

soon! plants are growing like there's no tomorrow.*BOUNCINGS

 

[lauraf]

Congrats! How soon after you introduced the CO2 system did you start to see plant growth increase?

 

[Sharkee]

a week*BOUNCINGS

 

[lauraf]

Okay, cool. BTW, how soon after you had everything set up did you notice bubbles being produced?

 

[Sharkee]

it took a while but I got impatient and shook the bottle. It fizzed like crazy for a bit but it settled after that. Just remember not to fill the bottle with water. The mixture will rise into the airline. Half-full is fine.

 

[anshuman]

not only pics, Take a vid. i am planning to do this too.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Awesome! This gives me hope, Sharkee!!!

 

[Sharkee]

oh don't do the ladder thing. Somehow the contraption built so much pressure that even the mixture went up the airline. wait for the pics that I'll be posting soon. I'd take some pics tonight but a certain someone uprooted some of the plants. bad Jani the pleco.I'll be replanting them tomorrow.*SUPERSMIL

I'll take a vid, too, as soon as I find my point-and-shoot lol.

 

[lauraf]

Do your bubbles comes out constantly, or do you get wee bursts kinda shooting out every few minutes?

 

[Sharkee]

constantly.

 

[OrangeCones]

oh don't do the ladder thing. Somehow the contraption built so much pressure that even the mixture went up the airline.

I've used the ladder thing for many years in several low-tech tanks and have NEVER had any problems with the mixture getting into the tubing.

 

[Sharkee]

Please note that the ladder I was referring to was a diy not company manufactured. I only made a note of this for the reason that I had explained how I made my diy diffuser on a previous post and neglected to update that I had to get rid of that diy ladder.

 

[anshuman]

ah, YouTube - DIY CO2 w/ Hagen/Nutrifin Ladder << This types of ladders are gaurenteed success across the net.

I wonder which would work better with DiyCO2 yeast bottle, will ladder disperse co2 more in water or really fine bubbles going all across the tank would do better?

 

[Sharkee]

Here are some pics.*twirlysmi

 

[Sharkee]

... and more pics! notice how the plants on the left are healthier than the ones on the right. I may have to rig another diffuser for that side.