diy co2 bell questions

[pretzelb]

I made a simple bell from the bottom of a water bottle and had some questions:

1) When making a co2 bell is the hose supposed to be below the bell?

2) Does the gas get absorbed into the water or will the level just keep increase until it overflows under the bell?

[Sponsors]

[cbennett]

1) the bell just traps the bubbles and prevents from going to the surface, so yes you want the hose beneath the bell.

2) it depends on how much current there is near the bell. My experience has been that if there's not that much current in that area the CO2 can build up and every so often a big bubble will escape to the surface. That doesn't mean the CO2 isn't diffusing into the water, just not as efficiently as areas with more current. In areas of more current there were less escapees or the CO2 level never got to the point of being able to escape.

[pretzelb]

I've got a power head in a small 10g tank so I think there is a good amount of current. I expected there to be a big "burp" after the bell fills up but then I wondered if I was missing something. I could look to move the power head closer to the bell to see if that drops the level in the bell, but I wasn't sure if that was even possible.

[uncskainch]

Before my cats chewed up the lines for my DIY CO2 system with a DIY bell, mine worked very, very well -- I was getting very solid CO2 readings in my 29 gallon tank. And the bell filled up and then there would be the occasional big "burp" of CO2 for overflow, but based on my measurements, quite a lot was still diffusing into the water. Good luck with your system!