Planning a 17 Gallon Aquascape - Looking for Hardware Suggestions

[theKCW]

I'm planning on getting back into the aquarium hobby after several years and properly doing a planted aquarium (ie, actually researching it). I already have the aquarium (Lifeguard R460008 Medium – 23.62″ x 11.81″ x 11.81″) and stand but everything else still needs to be purchased. I'm also planning on doing CO2 injection in a low light tank.

Goal 1 - make wife happy. My wife is very excited about having an aquascape in the bedroom, and would like as little hardware inside the aquarium as possible. So, leaning towards a canister filter with lily pipes. If an inline heater can be used as well, all the better (I know OSAE has some canister filters with heaters built in). Would also like the filter to be fairly quiet since it'll be in the bedroom.

Goal 2 - No CO2 bubbles visible. I'm planning on using a 5LB cylinder for CO2 injection (and a drop checker inside the tank to track CO2 levels). I would prefer the bubbles to not be visible so a CO2 reactor is my preference. I'm comfortable constructing one out of PVC, but outside of Tom Barr's Dual Venturi CO2 Reactor I haven't really been able to find any other designs (though it seems straightforward). Assuming a CO2 reactor is feasible for a 17 gallon aquarium, how can I determine what flow rate I would need for the reactor to function properly?

Filter suggestions - I was planning on getting the Fluval 207 at first, but as far as I can tell there's not a simple way to attach it to a lily pipe. The OSAE filters with a built in heater seem like they would be nice, but I've seen that their flow can be somewhat slow for a reactor, and possibly loud. I'm also looking at Eheim classic canister filters as well.

So, are my 2 goals realistic for a tank of this size? If yes, how can I determine what flow rate I would need for a CO2 reactor?

Thanks for the help!
Charles

 

[Allwissend]

You can attach a CO2 reactor to any canister filter given that you have the proper size for the hose. Bubbles escaping in the aquarium are a function of the filter flow rate but also the reactor construction and injection rate. Generally you do not need a lot of flow through the reactor so you will see many setups with a sort of bypass to control the flow. A larger reactor can handle a lot more water flow and more CO2 without letting any bubbles escape, so if in doubt go for a larger size. You can search for DIY Cerges CO2 for a common design, or look here https://nilocg.com/collections/co2-diffusers-reactors/products/na-cerges-style-reactor for some other designs.

A canister on a 17 gallon tank is very doable. Look for 10x the tank volume for the filter flow rate. I would put a Eheim Classic 250 or 350 at least on a planted tank. Keep an eye on the hose diameter to make sure you have the proper connection to the reactor though.

 

[Stigigemla]

In my bedroom I have a tank with exactly the same dimensions.
The CO2 injection is in a very small filter without a sponge but a 6 mm line for CO2 on the intake.
This is working with a timer so in the day You can hear the CO2 bubbles breaking in the pump but at night it is off and silent.
The filter is between a wall and a stone with plastic foam as a sound eliminator. It goes with a pH controller at 6.8. In the morning it has rised to about 7,3.
I manually dose 2 ml of Tropica+ every day when I feed the fish.

First in the bottom I have about 500 ml unperfumed cat litter (zeolite) thats covered with 1 inch in the front and 3 inches of 2 - 4 mm gravel.
Normally it will not grow at start with such coarse gravel but the cat litter makes it. Plants like Limnophila sessiliflora has to be trimmed every week.

Now I have 20 w leds. They are 6500K + 1/3 650 nm deep red and gives very good color on the plants and the fish.
Before I had just 6 w in the same mixture and the growth was just as good but the colors are so much better now. The light is about 150 PAR at the bottom.
I have never had problems with hair algae or such in this tank and that is because the pH controller.

The filter is the smallest Eheim canister filled with carefully rinsed pillow polyester fibre. The usual curled fiber for aquarium filters does not take the fog from the cat litter in the start but the pillow fibre does. I have not cleaned the filter yet. It is about 6 months after start.

 

[theKCW]

Thanks for the responses! I'll make sure to post a picture of when I get everything setup. I should get everything I need to build a CO2 reactor this weekend.