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Bubble Counter for CO2

Contents:

  1. CO2 generator (brewing?)
    by bhaskar-at-bnr.ca (Shaji Bhaskar) (23 Jan 1995)
  2. White stuff from yeast CO2 injector
    by Shinji Egi <egi-at-hpycla.kobe.hp.com> (Wed, 8 May 96)
  3. DIY CO2 Bubble counter
    by Natraj Shanker <satya/giasbga.vsnl.net.in> (Wed, 31 Dec 1997)
  4. RE: CO2 reactors
    by Cameron Hayes <chayes/microhelp.com.au> (Wed, 8 Jul 1998)

CO2 generator (brewing?)

by bhaskar-at-bnr.ca (Shaji Bhaskar)
Date: 23 Jan 1995
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria

In article <9501231817.AA16657-at-cod.nosc.mil>,
Hoa G. Nguyen <nguyenh-at-nosc.mil> wrote:

>What could happened is what happened to me last week.  ;-)  I left the
>bottle off for a few hours, and capillary action in the small air hose 
>just started siphoning the water out.  I had 20 gallons of water on my
>living room floor in a few hours.  I now have a $3.75 one-way valve in 
>the line.  It didn't affect the CO2 injection rate any (that I can see).
>I strongly recommend having one.

Ordinary airline valves may not work for this application, because of
the readiness with which CO2 dissolves in water.  I am speaking from
personal experience :-(

You could rig yourself up a valve that does the same thing, and
doubles as a bubble counter.  You will need a small transparent bottle
with an airtight lid, some rigid airline tubing, and some glue.



 Airline from cylinder-->||  ||<--Airline to tank
                         ||  ||                    
                       __||__||__                    
                      |  ||  ||  |                  
                      |  ||  ||  |                  
                    ---  ||      ---
                   |     ||         |
                   |     ||         |
                   |     ||         |
                   |_____||_________|
                   |     ||         |
                   |     ||         |
                   |                |
                   |     Water      |
                   ------------------

-Shaji
-- 
Shaji Bhaskar                                              bhaskar-at-bnr.ca
BNR, 35 Davis Dr, RTP, NC 27709                            (919) 991 7125


White stuff from yeast CO2 injector

by Shinji Egi <egi-at-hpycla.kobe.hp.com>
Date: Wed, 8 May 96

Stephen.Pushak-at-saudan.HAC.COM wrote:
> I'm feeding the supply line from my yeast CO2 bottles into
> the aeration venturi on the outlet of my powerheads. This
> works fine for dissolving CO2 but there is a problem
> with the venturi or the supply line itself getting plugged
> with a white fungus-like growth. K.B. Koh first mentioned
> this a long time ago. I don't know if he ever solved it.

A simple DIY bubble counter between the yeast CO2 generator
and the CO2 reactor may eliminate your problem. (i.e. you can
let the CO2 bubble through some water and trap the fungus-like
things there.)

Mine is something like the figure below, made of a little jam
jar holding 50-100ml of water.
I actually made 2 holes in the cap, and fixed plastic airline
joint for each inlet and outlet, then connected a short plastic
pipe to the inlet inside the jar.  It was a 5 minute DIY work.

              IN   OUT
          |===||===||===|
          |   ||        |
          |---||--------|
          |   ||        |
          |   |/        |
          +-------------+

When I set up my second yeast CO2 system, I ommitted the bubble
counter and got the white fungus-like growth.  It's gone by
adding one (and some cleaning of the tank), and hasn't come back
for more than a year.

- -Shinji


DIY CO2 Bubble counter

by Natraj Shanker <satya/giasbga.vsnl.net.in>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997
To: Erik Olson (e-mail)

Hello Erik!

Happy new year, greetings from Bangalore in South India.

First thanks for maintaining the KRIB, appreciate it and refer to it often.

I am 41, RF/electronics and coffee planter. At the moment have 1: 200L goldfish 2: 200L Tetra/barb 3: 50L neons 4: 50L rearing tank 5: 2500L concrete pond and assorted natural ponds on my plantation stocked with various fish and plants. All the glass tanks are in shaded outdoor sit-out, natural light only.

My trip is growing plants and in this endeavor I use CO2 beverage soda maker cylinder with a home made valve adapted from a camping lantern (it has held out for last 2 years). Recently I was inspired by a IV/Transfusion (medical/Hospital) set which had a drop count chamber. I mounted this chamber directly on my gas cylinder and filled it half way with distilled water and added a couple of drops of PH indicator for effect!.

Save all the tubing and control valve on the IV/Transfusion set for a airline..

[diagram] Shown is a gif file with a scaled drawing of the DIY project. Someone might be inspired by this gizmo, I hope you can put it up on the site.

I am a newbie on the NET and hope to get my new service account in the new year and subscribe to the usenet group.

Regards

Raj
(G. G. Rajendra Kumar)
vu2zap - my ham radio call


RE: CO2 reactors

by Cameron Hayes <chayes/microhelp.com.au>
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998

>Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 09:48:08 -0400
>From: Dean Merrill <deanm-at-sat.net>
>Subject: CO2 reactors

>I'm shopping around for a CO2 reactor. I know the Dupla is a good unit,
>but a little too expensive for me. I've read the archives concerning
the
>Aqualine Buschke unit, and it appears that it doesn't pass muster. Has
>anyone tried the Coralife O2/O3 reactor, or know of any good
>alternatives to the Dupla? 

I'm purchased a SERA CO2 reactor, bubble counter and continuous testing
kit in Australia.  The bubble counter uses glycerine for a slow steady
bubble count, the testing kit is mounted inside the tank and the reactor
use water flow to push CO2 down through a maze of angled pieces of
plastic.  I have found this to be very effective and have had to reduce
my bubble rate to counter the effect (not so easy with a DIY CO2 setup).
This was all contained in a single kit with all the tubing, connectors
and instructions.  I paid AUS$120 for it. Australian dollar equals about
$65 US cents at the moment.

Cameron Hayes


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