Re: Hagen Plant-Gro CO2 Natural System

["Roy Wadey" <roy_wadey at hotmail_com>]

Rachel wrote,

>Whoa, I just saw this thing for the first time last night at my LFS, >and 
>it has got to be the coolest piece of aquarium stuff I have EVER >seen. I 
>don't know if it works, but it is a neat piece of work for >sure.

I've been using one of these for a few weeks now and it works fine.

>What it is: A CO2 system for small (<20 gal) tanks. It comes in two 
> >pieces. One is the CO2 generator, with Hagen's special CO2 mix - a >yeast 
>packet and a "stabilizer" packet, which is supposed to even out >the CO2 
>production. You add sugar and water. That is not the cool >part. The cool 
>part is the reactor.

Yes, it is abasic yeast system. I'm guessing the 'stabiliser'is baking soda.

>Have you ever seen those kids toys where you drop a marble in the top >and 
>it slides down a ramp, drops to the next ramp, and zig-zags back >and forth 
>until it reaches the bottom and rolls out. Same idea, except >the CO2 goes 
>in the bottom and the bubbles roll up the ramps. You can >actually watch 
>them get smaller as they go up! It is not 100% >efficient - the bubbles 
>don't completely disappear before they get to >the top - but I would say 
>that 75% or more of the CO2 is absorbed. And >because of the fairly large 
>size of the holes, I think it would resist >clogging better than an 
>airstone.

It is fascinating to watch Isn't it? I also use a C02 bottle system marketed 
by JBL which has a similar reactor system consisting of a coiled glass tube 
which the gas enters at the bottom and exits at the top. According to JBL 
you would not expect the bubble to dissapear completely, even if 100% 
efficient, because of exchange with other gases in the water. The Hagen 
reacor may be even more efficient because the bubbles are open to the entire 
body of aquarium water, rather than enclosed as in the JBL system.

>The packets are supposed to provide CO2 for a month. I don't know how >much 
>the refills cost, so I can't compare it to using something like >carb-plus, 
>fizz factory, or flourish excel. But watching those bubbles >go up the 
>ramps and shrink is worth the cost!

I think this is similar to the homemade systems using mixes like 2 cups of 
sugar and one teaspoon of yeast to two liters of water. I don't see any 
reason why you can't use any other source of yeast, including using some of 
the old culture to start afresh. What you get for your money is a nice solid 
and stable reaction vessel 'CO2 proof' tubing and the cool reactor. Of 
course, as we all know you could go down the DIY route for a fraction of the 
cost.

Roy.




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