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Re: CO2 Dissolver



Gordon L. Mc Lellan described a homemade internal CO2 reactor.  Nice
job.

I would add this comment:  Generally, if you can keep CO2 bubbles from
going to the the top of the aquarium water and popping, you will get
more of the CO2 into the water.  I think that'st he main value of a
reactor.  It's purely a matter of dwell time.  The longer the gas
bubble s exposed to the water, the better the chance that the CO2 will
dissovle into it.  Smaller bubbles increase exposure since they have a
greater amount of surface area for a given mass of CO2.  However, this
all holds only up to a point.  Once all the CO2 is dissolved, and all
that's left in the bubble are whatever gases it picked up from the
water, then no amount of further exposure will increase CO2 intake.

I think this is why reactors increase CO2 intake on some tanks while
high quality stones/diffusers do perfectly well on others.  What the
reactors lack in minitiaturization of bubbles they more than make up
for with containment.  This is why I find air-stones/diffusers
unnecessary inside reactors -- reactors without them will get you 100%
CO2 absorbtion.

Reactors are, imo, much less attractive than stones simply because they
are much larger and so more obtrusive.  But external reactors -- they
can  be as invisible as you tank background is opaque -- or simply
hidden in the cabinet under the aquarium -- yhou've got lots more room
there, right?

Scott H.

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