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RE:Yeast and Gas
>I guess I just got lucky. My tank has a pH of 6.8 and a KH of 4. According to
>the chart (George Booth's?), that gives me a CO2 level of about 18ppm. The
>reason I attribute this to luck is that I don't think I have any control over
>my CO2 level. I have a 75 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump. I inject my CO2
>into a reactor in the sump right next to the return-to-tank pipe so that all
>the carbonic acid pretty much has to get into the tank. My reactor is a
>homemade one, a fott long 1 1/2 inch diameter clear tube sealed at the top
>except for a tube connected to a powerhead that delivers a flow of water. The
>tube is open at the bottom, which is where the CO2 comes in. My CO2 flow rate
>(from yeast-20 pound tank on order) runs anywhere from 1/2 to 3 bubbles per
>second.
But this doesn't seem to matter since the reactor always has gas in
>it.
It's not all CO2 though...............there are other gases that build up in
there. When you add the canned stuff you'll notice you'll need far less to
do the same thing with the Ph. Also, the gas will dissolve faster, I suppose
because it is purer.
Therefore I assume the water leaving the reactor is always at saturation
>and that the water loses most of the CO2 back into the air as it flows back
>into the sump through the wet/dry filter. Is this assumption correct?
No it is not. Flow rate, surface contact, gas purity etc will play a factor.
You can have a small little pump pushing water resulting in not enough flow
to adequately supply the tank. Or all gases (gas build up) but no or little
CO2 gas in there. There are other gases that may get in there from the yeast
brew and from the water too. It is a good idea to have a vent to release
this excess gases to remove this problem. I have designed such a reactor
that solves this problem. You can blow it out at night to remove this
manually too.
Wet/dry filters do not cause CO2 losses any more than most filters. See old
recent post about this or check out Mr. Booth's test on this subject, oh not
so long ago.........(perhaps a month or two.....check archives). If you have
a lot of light you will likely use about a bubble or two a second on your
new gas tank. Maybe a little more or a little less. Bubbles per second might
not be the greatest standard but bubbles/sec will give you an estimate
range.
Are
>thre any foreseeable problem to this set up?
No,as long as your getting the Ph's your after and feel happy with the
amount of refills your doing. Sounds like it will work great when you add
the CO2 tanks. You'll have better control over the Ph.
>
>Craig
Regards,
Tom Barr