Super Vortex Reaktor

[spypet]

I'll eventually post more about this in my own photo album thread on the new foot deep breeder tank I'm developing, but I love how this came out so I though I'd share it now shame my photography skills and camera suck. That's a medium size X shaped piece of cheap Fellerstone Malaysian Driftwood, a Hydor LED red light, CaribSea's peace river 1-2mm gravel, and the water is coming from my XP3 water outlet piped using 1/2" tubing and a rounded elbow, under and up after it's gone through my vortex reactor. This gravel geyser has been running for days now, and I have not had to resupply the gravel to that corner at all. It makes for a really great visual effect day and especially at night when the lights are out, and is completely harmless to even the smallest of fish who all seem fascinated by this corner. I could mount the LED buried in the gravel pointing up into the geyser, but I didn't want to waste another $40 just to bring the gravel level of my whole tank up another inch, as this tank will only house shallow root plants, so it does not need more than the two inches already there, only to end up stealing another inch of swimming space from my fish.
the lesson here; do your own thing - don't just copy everyone else's tank
sadly, my pictures barely do this thing justice;

[dwstonebraker]

Spynet said
". I purchased a simple $10 cheap, small 14cm long ball reactor, then took the ball out since the top and bottom twist off, and I got a nice little vortex going off my XP3 outlet."

Where did you purchase this?

[spypet]

If you google around the web you will fine that people sell these cheap green plastic chambers from China for $10 to $30 depending on how big a pig the reseller is. they are all pretty much the same, some having one ball, some having 6 balls and twice the length, some having spiral fins, some have a white airstone, some don't, but the key is to get the same plastic top/bottom screw on/off housing with the in/outlet mounted at a tangent, and at least one length of middle housing pipe. The in/outlet tubing will adapt to our 1/2" size which is what most cheap gravel vacuum lift tubes use. If you get one with an airstone, I recommend yanking it out, so you'll have one less item to clean when it inevitably gets clogged over time. with shipping I got my "Up Aquarium Supply" D-402 off ebaY for only $15 just a few Months ago. BTW one "bad" thing about having a high Co2 diffusion rate, is it continuously tries to make your tank water more acidic, so be prepared to keep pH buffering it with baking soda almost daily. Limestone Calcium Carbonate like Texas Holey Rock my help keep the pH above neutral, but it does not look very natural in a planted tank.

here's the whole cheap Chinese line;
http://www.up-aqua.com/pro-waterplan...nt-diffuse.htm

this Malaysian is selling the D-421
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=250129792568