Efficiency of Commercial CO2 Reactors

[The Kenosha Kid]

I'm using an Aqua Medic reactor driven by a small Hagen powerhead at
the moment. Everything is going smoothly but I am curious about
saving some CO2, not for the cost but to space out swapping out the
bottle a little more.

I am trying to get a handle on the efficiencies of those which are
currently available. One offered by Plant Guild, for instance,
promises 100 times more efficiency than passive reactors.

http://www.plantguild.com/power_reactor.asp

Has anyone used several reactors and is in a position to say whether
one is better than the other?

[Bill Kirkpatrick]

If bubbles of CO2 don't come out of them and float to the
top of the tank, then your reactor is 100% efficient already.

You buy reactors for the quantity of gas it can dissolve in
within given time, without it bubbling out of the reactor.
That's it.

There are no "better ways" to dissolve CO2, your gizmo
either gets your required dosing dissolved, or it does not.
The reactor has zero bearing on your CO2 demand, unless
gas is bubbling out of the reactor and reaching the open air.

CO2 goes into water with remarkable ease. I use one of
those cheap "under sink" water cartridge housings. I took
the pressure button off and rammed a bit of acrylic through
the hole, to feed the CO2. No bio balls, nothing
complicated, just the housing, 1/4" acrylic CO2 input, and a
5/8" crude acrylic down tube rammed on the housing's center
water feed. Empty. A slight, very slight, trickle of
water, tapped off the main filter circuit, flows through it.
Alas, the small Aqua Medic and the PlantGuild are in-tank
models, but I, personally, want nothing in my tank but the
display.

Serious overkill, but serious cheap, and a seriously
one-time-ever purchase, $20 complete. It will dissolve
enough CO2 to drop my 135G tank from Ph 7.4 to 6.5 in under
2 minutes (~4dKH). That's, um, allot.

Many hang on tank filters can be "modified" by simply
slipping the CO2 hose into an appropriate point in the water
flow.

Whatever you choose to run with, locate it at the lowest
point possible. Under tank, or near the gravel. CO2
dissolution loves pressure.

From the looks of it, the PlantGuild will quite likely
support 200+ G tanks. If you're using sugar/yeast, I doubt
you'd ever use that kind of dissolution power.
********************************
The Kenosha Kid wrote:
> I'm using an Aqua Medic reactor driven by a small Hagen powerhead at
> the moment. Everything is going smoothly but I am curious about
> saving some CO2, not for the cost but to space out swapping out the
> bottle a little more.
>
> I am trying to get a handle on the efficiencies of those which are
> currently available. One offered by Plant Guild, for instance,
> promises 100 times more efficiency than passive reactors.
>
> http://www.plantguild.com/power_reactor.asp
>
> Has anyone used several reactors and is in a position to say whether
> one is better than the other?
>
>

[Dunter Powries]

Bill Kirkpatrick > wrote in message
...
> ...
> Whatever you choose to run with, locate it at the lowest
> point possible. Under tank, or near the gravel. CO2
> dissolution loves pressure.

Also, cooler water will hold more dissolved gasses than warmer water. The
higher you keep your thermostat, the less efficient your reactor will be.

[The Kenosha Kid]

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 20:48:18 GMT, The Kenosha Kid
> wrote:

>I'm using an Aqua Medic reactor driven by a small Hagen powerhead at
>the moment. Everything is going smoothly but I am curious about
>saving some CO2, not for the cost but to space out swapping out the
>bottle a little more.
>
>I am trying to get a handle on the efficiencies of those which are
>currently available. One offered by Plant Guild, for instance,
>promises 100 times more efficiency than passive reactors.
>
>http://www.plantguild.com/power_reactor.asp
>
>Has anyone used several reactors and is in a position to say whether
>one is better than the other?
>

Thanks to all who responded.

Has anyone on this list ever used the Aqua Medic 500 reactor?