[APD] Re: Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 15, Issue 34

["Ann Viverette" <annv777 at houston_rr.com>]

Hi RJ,

I'll jump in again to say that I think that more power in a reactor is not a 
good thing. Mixing is best done by holding the two things together and 
making them rotate. Faster flow and crashing against resistance works, but 
not nearly as well, and the effectiveness will decrease with greater flow, 
not increase.

The Plant guild reactor uses only a Rio50, the bubbles gently roll around 
until they are gone. I use, in my DIY copy of that design, a Rio90 and 
depending on the sort of sponge or kitchen scrubbie I use on the end of the 
cylinder, I may get bubbles collected in the scrubbie or sponge or blown out 
the end of the tube (which is a bit shorter than it ought to be). I suspect 
that the use of a powerhead in reactors came about because that was what 
people had laying about, not because it was best suited to the job.

IMHO, a fishkeping novice with an engineering background, a slower flowing 
pump with a longer tube than mine (at 5") could allow you to churn the 
bubbles and use no sponge at all on the end, so visually, the unit would be 
even less to contend with. Offset the water inlet, for maximum rolling, and 
it ought to work pretty good. I'd do mine again, but it works OK now.

Did you ever address the thing I mentioned about the intake grid facing 
downward allowing the airlock when gas collects?

AnnV

> Message: 11
> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:24:10 -0600
> From: "RJ Skall" <rjskall2 at hotmail_com>
> Subject: [APD] RE: Setbacks Injecting co2 - need help
> To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
>
> Bob Alston and S. Hieber, thanks for the replies. Questions: do you folks
> also have this large gap of gas in the reactor body during normal 
> operation?
> Also, how far up from the bottom of the tank does your reactor sit for 
> best
> results?
> What I still can't understand is that the rio powerhead I am using is even
> the next model up (more gph) than the Vortex models like the ones you got
> from floridadriftwood.com. The cylinder body dimensions and open cell foam
> piece at the bottom are the same as well. I am running 1.5 to 2 
> bubbles/sec.
> Last night I checked the intake of the powerhead - it wasn't clogged. But
> the pH doesn't seem to be decreasing, so between that and the BBA and the
> non-pearling, I don't think the plants are benefitting. I still wonder 
> what
> I could be doing wrong. Thanks again.


_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants