Am1000

Hi,

After thoroughly reading (and re-reading various threads), I am pretty certain that I need a much better method CO2 reaction method, and better distribution method.

Currently I am feeding my CO2 into the intake of a powerhead and blasting it along the length of the tank. If I crank the bubble rate up incredibly high, I do see definite improvements in the plants, however, I chew through a lot of CO2!

I was also having a problem with leaves drooping during the first 1-2 hours of lights on. I'm pretty sure that this is because the CO2 response time (i.e. time it takes to get a decent level of CO2 once the solenoid/timer turns the gas on 1 hour before lights on), is not fast enough.

With regards to the reaction method, I have a bit of 'fish budget', so I'm thinking of purchasing an Aqua Medic 1000 external reactor and an Aqua Medic Ocean Runner pump. I know this isn't cheap but I don't have a great deal of spare time to DIY and don't want to take the risk of having it leak on me!

Could anybody that has an AM1000 please comment on what they think of the product? Cost aside, is the product good?

Regarding distribution, I am currently discussing, in another thread, the usage of a spray bar along the substrate coupled with some general circulation powerheads as the best means of distributing the CO2 enriched mix.

Thoughts?

My tank is ~100 gallon.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Scott.

P.S. I had a look at the doco for the AM1000 and it says to use a pump of at least 1000 litres per hour flow. This doesn't really tell me much. For my size tank, what are other users using at the moment? Too slow a flow is probably better than too fast? If the flow is too fast, it might push the bubbles out of the reactor before properly disolving them? But then, if I use the spray bar approach, I need pressure to make sure I even distribution along the length of the tank.

P.P.S. Help! ;-)

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the detailed replies, much appreciated it. It is good having a bunch of interested people to talk to about this sort of stuff.

You can't pull the AM1000 apart for cleaning? Really? So the bioballs are permanently in there and cannot be removed? This seems crazy?!?!?

Does the AM1000 come with hoses or do you have to buy them seperately?

Is a dedicated external pump, like an AM Ocean Runner fine for this type of application, or would I be better off just using a regular powerhead? If a buy an external pump, like, say, an Ocean Runner (2500lph), does it come with hoses?

Scott.

 

Just a little bit worried about what pump to use with the AM1000. I'm worried that too fast and I might blast the bubbles out the bottom.

Would an Ocean Runner OR 2500 be too fast (650gph). I know the manufacturers over-estimate a bit, and when actually under water etc, it will be less than quoted.

My tank is 100g.

Scott.

 

Thanks for the info. How do you know that 500gph is the max? I have printed out the instructions for the AM1000 (from the Aqua Medic website) and it doesn't say anything about a maximum, just a minimum.

Scott.

 

Thanks guys!

The Aqua Medic team need to fix up there doco - It should say *Min* Flow is 250gph (which is ~1000 litres per hour which matches up with the handbook).

So, 300 - 400 gph is about 1100 - 1500 litres per hour. I could still use the Ocean Runner which does 650gph (2500 lph), but I'd have to bleed the line for feeding into the AM1000 at a slower rate. That's cool. I'd rather have some power in reserve than not enough.

Scott.

 

jonny_ftm,

Thanks for getting back to me with the info, appreciate it.

Tonight I purchased an AM1000 and an Ocean Runner OT 2500 pump.

Once I get them I will figure out how I am going to run the hoses. I'm thinking I might bleed some off the OT2500 for flow along the front glass and send the rest into the AM1000. I think I will split the return from the AM1000 into 3 streams directed at the back left, back centre, and back right. I'll see how that goes.

What do you think?

Scott.

 

I'll play around a bit with the outputs and see what happens.

By the way, I forgot to ask you why you put "12/16 hoses diameter" as a downside?

Scott.

 

I received my AM1000 and Ocean Runner OR2500 pump last week and have finally finished setting it up. I will take some photos and put them on here.

I ended up putting both the AM1000 and the OR2500 pump underneath my tank in the cabinet. The hardest part was routing the hoses so that they didn't kink.

I have a tube with an Eheim intake strainer fitted to it in the tank to suck up the water, this tube leads to the intake side of the OR2500 underneath in the cabinet. I ended up pulling the suction cups of the pump and screwing the pump to the timber underneath the cabinet, it was the only place I could put the pump where I could access it easily without hose kinks.

The outlet side of the pump then leads into the top of the AM1000, and the outlet from the AM1000 at the bottom leads back up to the tank. Here, I connect to a spray bar theat runs the entire length of the tank but rather than having lots of holes in it, it only has 3 holes, 1 hole at each and and 1 hole in the middle with a tap connected to each hole so that I can regulate the flow. I didn't end up having to touch the last 2 taps, I only had to close of the first tap closest to where the incoming water is to get equal flow at each output. This seems to be working quite well, the idea being that the CO2 enriched water is being equally distributed by dividing the tank into thirds and pumping an equal amount of CO2 into each third (I also have a powerhead assisting in the circulation of the water just to be thorough).

I have started pumping the CO2 into the AM1000 at a fairly slow rate, probably about 5 - 6 bps which is only just countable. I will see how things go at this rate for a week or two.

I also rigged the bleed valve on the AM1000 back to the Eheim intake strainer to reduce the back pressure on the pump and also to chop up any gas that builds up at the top of the reactor.

So far so good. My aim is to (obviously) get the CO2 dissolving in the most efficient manner so that I don't have to get my gas bottle refilled all the time and also to have excellent distribution of the CO2 enriched water.

Fingers crossed. Will put some photos on here when I get time.

Scott.

P.S. I have reduced my lighting again and I think I may dose half EI for a while to see how things go.

 

Thanks Tom, will do. All I will do over the next 2 weeks is water change and dose fertilisers, usual EI stuff.

Will 'report' back how things are going.

Scott.

 

I notice that there are the odd few smallish size bubbles (i.e. smallish but not mist sized) of CO2 coming out through my spray bar; the rate at which I am injecting CO2 is not overly high so I'm guessing that maybe the flow rate through my AM1000 might be a little fast?

Is this anything to worry about? The odd few bubbles come out maybe every 2-3 minutes.

Scott.