A few ideas I want run by you all !

[BHornsey]

Well, now that my living room tank is up and running I'm gonna turn my attention to my new 6'3" x 2' x 2' tank in my fish room.
It came with a weir and a 20 gallon sump so I have set it up, filled and started it to test for leaks (none found!)
I have the sump running with just poly, course, medium & fine filter sponges and heaters. The drain pipe is angled to avoid too much gassing off, although it's unavoidable to some degree.

I have an Aqua Medic Ocean Runner 3500 pump returning water through a 3/4 I/D return pipe. It gives a reasonable turnover but I may put in a bypass valve later if I think it's a bit too high.

Before I do anything else, I want to set up the CO2 systems and make sure they work before I think about lighting or adding the substrate and plants. I've had a look at several ideas.
Aqua Medic do an inline CO2 reactor for aquariums up to 500G, the Reactor 1000 External CO2 diffuser (link below): Anyone have any experience of this? Do you get Aqua Medic kit in the US?
Aqua Medic Inc. - Products - CO2 Equipment - Reactor 1000
Otherwise I was going to built two or three of the DIY venturis (if I read it right, you use them in multiple for bigger tanks)

Is it worth putting in a UV whilst I'm setting it up? I see very mixed opinions on them

I'm not planning to do the final setup and plant yet; probably going to be late January or February before I can afford it (Santa's been picking my pocket )

Brian

 

[Tom Barr]

ther AB reactors stink for a larger tank, those things cannot do more than the little tubes in/out of them and I run 2 of the reactors on a 300 gal and it barely does it with 500gph through each etc.

I'd suggest making your own sump Reactor from PVC, you can buy clear from aquatic eco and use 3/4" in and 1" out and add lava rock in there.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

Thanks Tom,

Do you have any designs / schematics for such an animal, or a link to it?
BTW, would the DIY venturi be adequate for a 100+ gal tank. It certainly OK on my 32G.

Brian

 

[Tom Barr]

Any of the external DIY plan reactors will work.

But you make the outflow larger, and the size of the tube larger, say 3x18, 3/4" barbed in, 3/4 out fed directly into then return suction pump side.

Use about 500-600gph or so.
Feed CO2 into the suction side of the reactor pump.
The CO2 bubble will get whacked to tink micro bubbles, then any larger ones will collected in the tube and get dissolved or else be sent into the return pump's impeller for more atomization and then, after lots of flow, and about 5-8 ft of travel, it'll be shot into the tank in a downward fashion.

That's pretty good and high enough flow for the tank.

Cost: about 10-15$ tops, the reactor pump: 30$ or so mail order, you'll still need one if you had the 2x AB 1000 reactors also, so this is about 10X cheaper and actually better. I saved you about 100$ or more.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

Well, Xmas is out of the way and I have set up my CO2 equipment.
I have a Dennerle regulator on a 5kg fire extinguisher, a bubble counter and a check valve leading to a DIY inline reactor.
This is 15" of 1½" waste pipe with access caps each end and Ts to reducers to allow ¾" pipe in and out. Inside are some pieces of lava rock and some bottle brushes to break up the CO2, which is fed in via a wooden diffuser (this gave a flow of fine bubbles when I checked it in a cup of water) A fine mist of CO2 is visible leaving the return pipe but it runs up to the surface before the water has travelled more than a foot.
Sadly, the result is disappointing. Running the regulator at a very high rate cannot push the CO2 level above 10ppm (a pH of 7.5 with a kH of around 140 mg/L).
I should explain that the tank is still bare bottom at the moment and has about a hundred guppy fry in it (my daughter though it would be fun to put male and female guppies in my 70L tank. This is the result!!!)
I have an Aqua Medic Ocean Runner 3500 pump returning water from the sump through a ¾" pipe (I fitted a bypass valve if need to reduce the flow) and in the tank it feeds a letter 'M' arrangement where each leg of the 'm' has half a dozen 4mm holes in and the ends are stopped up. (This was the arrangement when I saw the tank set up; He had a bare bottom setup which he kept Discus in) The underside of the top cross pipe has two 4mm holes to break the siphon if the pump stops.
Now I think this could be part of my problem. I've tried various sites to see what is the best method setting up the return outlet but can't seem to find much. There's reams of data devoted to drain arrangements but returning it to the tank isn't covered too well.
Does anyone have any recommendations for the best arrangement in a planted tank? Pictures or links to them would be useful.
Once I get CO2 satisfactory, I'll look at lighting then maybe I can put some plants in!

Brian

 

[Tom Barr]

You can do this also:

Buy a mazzi venturi, say a 3/4" one, these tend to be the cheaper sizes.
Buy a 600GPH powerhead. Feed the outflow though the venturi, then the Gas Mix directly into the Return Ocean Clear pump.
This is about 35$ for the pump and the same for the Venturi.
About the cost of the AB 1000 reactor.

You can also just feed the CO2 right into the suction side of the OC 3500 pump and the impeller will mash and the mist will come out of the return(this can be a little bit noisey and it's a good idea to have a solenoid for the CO2 supply, turn the CO2 off at night).

Also, raise the level in the over flow, make it about 3-5 cm drop only, do not allow the water to waterfall down more than this. Seal any Wet/dry section in the sump area(up duct tape etc).

Note: the larger pumps tend not to chop the gasd bubbles up as well sometimes.
So feed the CO2 into the return pump using as very fine air stones, this will reduce noise and improve the dissolution and misting.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

Thanks Tom,

Firstly, WTH is a Mazzi Injector? I've Googled it but that's not very useful. It's not something I've heard of in the UK.

I'll be getting a solenoid next month (gotta wait for pay day )

The weir has only about an 1½" drop max. I can raise it up a little more though. The sump doesn't have any wet/dry area. It has four chambers seperated by baffles, first is the return area, next has some poly media, then the next has medium and fine sponges and finally the return chamber. Are you suggesting that I need to put a cover over the whole sump?

For now, the reactor is simply in-line on the return pipe to the tank but I intend to trial different variations to see what works best. As my next trial I do intend to feed the reactor from a separate pump and feed the outlet of that to return pump intake.

Does the return pipe arrangement in the tank sound OK? I can try and borrow a camera and post a picture if my description is vague!

Brian

 

[BHornsey]

"Firstly, WTH is a Mazzi Injector? I've Googled it but that's not very useful. It's not something I've heard of in the UK."

Well, just answered my own question! I found that it's a Mazzei Injector!

Put that in Google and Bingo..
There's a place in Edinburgh that distributes them.

 

[Tom Barr]

You can try those out, no maintenance to speak of.
Sump and overflow sound fine.

You may also make a bypass loop with 2 tees and feed the CO2/venturi in line with return pump's line.

I'd put true union disconnects and a ball valve to throttle a % of the return water through the CO2 venturi system loop.




Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

You can do this also:

Buy a mazzi venturi, say a 3/4" one, these tend to be the cheaper sizes.
Buy a 600GPH powerhead. Feed the outflow though the venturi, then the Gas Mix directly into the Return Ocean Clear pump.
This is about 35$ for the pump and the same for the Venturi.
About the cost of the AB 1000 reactor.

Just been looking over this again. Do you really mean a 600 Gal pump or is it 600 Litres?
600 G is around 2500 L and, over here anyway, that size pump is £50-60 or more.
I have a 900L pond pump. Would this be adequate?

I have checked out Mazzei Injectors in the UK. Are these what you meant (they're shown as Ozone injectors) Dryden Aqua Ltd
If so, the UK mark up is present. Nearly £50 plus tax, then any other fittings required. This isn't going to be cheap

 

[BHornsey]

Well, had a chat very a very knowledgeable chap at Dryden Aqua, who are the UK distributors for Mazzei Injectors. It seems they have set up some very large public aquarium systems so I was able to get into a good discussion about my needs. After discussing the tank size, pump flow rate, etc, we selected a suitable ¾" injector.
It's still not as cheap as you can get it in the US, though; after the injector, two ¾" hose barbs, carriage and tax it's about £55. Hopefully it'll be worth it. I'll let you know.

 

[Tom Barr]

Given the cost etc,

I'd likely just makle a PCV tube about 3x18 and feed that, or a fine air stone, right into the return pump.

That's pretty simple but it works well.
And it's much cheaper.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

I've got something like that already, a DIY inline reactor, using 1¼" pipe and a wooden air block to diffuse CO2, and some lava rock pieces in there to help break it up further.

It produces a mist of CO2 but I'm struggling to get enough in the tank. I have a kH of around 7.5 and I can't get pH below 7.2 at the moment. My 190L corner tank uses the same water and I have no trouble getting CO2 into it.