Vortex thoughts

["Bodin Family" <bodin.family at verizon_net>]

John Wheeler mentioned issues with his vortex-type reactor...

John,

A couple of modifications you may want to make:

On the Vortex type reactor I made I have a "return-to-power-head" half-way
down that I feed to back to the venturi of my powerhead (see:
http://home1.gte.net/bodin1/CO2.htm for the shorter venturi tube return).
The little bubbles float around for a second in the vortex - then most of
them get sucked into that small tube and pulverized by the powerhead into
micro-bubbles which go back into the vortex chamber and either dissolve - or
go another route through the powerhead (and so on...).

One thing I have mentioned, and cannot really explain it - When the flow of
my powerhead is reduced the dissolution of CO2 diminishes and I get
accumulation of CO2 in the chamber. When I get accumulation of CO2 in the
chamber the efficiency drops significantly - I get no dissolution of the CO2
into the water column (which I can note via pH test). You should have a real
good flow through the chamber (I think more is better regardless of what I
wrote a year ago). If the CO2 is dissolving you should not get a "vortex".

FWIW - I run between 3-5 bps (that's a lot) and when there is free flow from
the powerhead I get almost 100% dissolution of the into the water.

- Jeff

p.s. the one on the web-page is a little big for a 20G. For my 20G at work I
used a 1" riser tube about 7" long and stuffed it in the corner - 1 bps and
I have a pH of 6.6.