Barr Internal Venturi CO2 Reactor

[esarkipato]

at a minimum

heheh

[Aquamanx]

Hoppy, Thanks for the info! I actually just read that the other day! LOL! I would be afraid of getting Chemicals in the tank... I think I'm going to hold off on CO2 untill I get the 45 set up & running... But, I do want to get things together for when I do get it going. I have Everything I need to get the tank running, But, I'm thinking I might hold off till I move to a new house. Instead of setting it up & then having to tear it down & set it back up & maybe losing some fish in the process... All I have to do is Poly the Stand, make a door, & build a Canopy (which I don't really need with the light I have...).

I'm pretty passionate about the Hobby, But, I'm Deffinately more passionate about my "Sexy Woman", as she likes me to call her... LOL! It's funny, cuz, alot of times when she introduces herself, she'll say "Hi, I'm X-Man's Woman"... LOL! My Friends get a kick out of it. But, she seems to like it. It's NOT Me that introduces her like that. I say this is My Beautifull or Sexy Girlfriend Kristy...

Have a Great Day!
Steve X.

[dahcmed]

Hi! Just wondering, how you got the top side of the pump stuck to the glass (I was thinking that the provided suction cups are on the side, so these were not used). Pls advise.

Originally Posted by Hoppy

Yes, it is now running and running quite well! I doesn't really collect a big CO2 bubble in the top as the sketch shows. It contains a swirl of CO2 bubbles, mostly confined in the middle of the water in the tube, but at the top it jumbles a bit and the bubbles get sucked in by the powerhead venturi loop tube. That generates mist which exits at the bottom. I use another powerhead with a sponge filter for filtration, which is at the opposite end of the tank, and that establishes water circulation which moves the mist all over the tank. I am still gradually increasing the bubble rate, so I'm not sure what it will look like when I decide I have it high enough. Below is a pic of it in the tank:

[Hoppy]

This is a pretty flimsy assembly out of the water, but the buoyancy of the water makes it easy to attach to the glass in the tank. I have two suction cups on the viewtainer part, and that is a very secure attachment to the glass. When I made it I siliconed a piece of plastic on the top of the viewtainer to help support the powerhead, but it came loose in the water - no effect at all on its stability. In retrospect I should have used a little Rio powerhead for a couple of dollars more, and it would be much more stabile even out of the water. Live and learn!

[sunmiztres]

I made one of these but i used a 2.75 x 12 inch veiwtainer and it does great for my 80 gallon tank. I was running 12 bps and now i can get it from 7.3PH to 6.3PH in a couple hours using only 4 bps. Making the tube longer really helped out.

[Hoppy]

Tom uses 4 inch long viewtainers, but I used a 6 inch one. I don't see the 4 inch one working with my powerhead. Even now the big bubbles swirl around under the viewtainer opening, captured by the swirling water I suppose. With a 4 inch one I think I would lose a lot of those big bubbles. The microbubbles do escape easily, which is what I wanted to happen. I think you are right that a l2 long tube would allow a much higher bubble rate, and you seem to have proved it.

[fome]

stupid questions incoming!!

Where does the "burp hole" go? Or does the "burp" effect just come from the tube which feeds out of the viewfinder and back into the inlet?

What height do you have to make the hole that leads back to the inlet?

How exactly does the whirlpool effect occur?
- the inlet pulls water (or co2) from the outlet/viewfinder?

[dahcmed]

Originally Posted by fome

stupid questions incoming!!

Where does the "burp hole" go? Or does the "burp" effect just come from the tube which feeds out of the viewfinder and back into the inlet?

What height do you have to make the hole that leads back to the inlet?

How exactly does the whirlpool effect occur?
- the inlet pulls water (or co2) from the outlet/viewfinder?

newbie here. But from what I understood, burp hole is for the air to come out of the viewtainer when the pump is off, so that not a lot of air is collected during that time.

The burp hole is on the opposite side of where the outlet (going to the pump inlet) is, about quarter of an inch below it. I think I saw a link before with the schematics.

Whirpool happens when the pump blows the water into the viewtainer on a 90degree angle, and the outlet tube (going to the pump inlet) sucks the water/co2.



By the way, I've created mine from a gravel cleaner (can't find the viewtainer here). Instead of putting the pump on top and attaching the elbow inside, I drilled a hole on the top side where the pump's outlet fits nicely. This way the input from the pump is still at a 90 degree angle and I can still use the suction cups that came with the pump. Then attached it to the right corner of the aquarium.

My only mistake was being afraid of the current that it might produce in my 15g so I took the 280L/hr pump, realizing at the end that I could have gotten something stronger and it wouldn't have created any additional current. But with 2 bps from my DIY CO2, I'm getting a lot of pearling and a lot of growth anyways, so it's ok for me.

[Hoppy]

Putting the powerhead outlet in the side of the plastic cylinder (viewtainer) is an interesting idea. The suction cups on the powerhead then do what they are supposed to do, and you don't depend on the thin, flexible viewtainer to hold everything up. I like the way this thing works so well that the next time I make one I may get a piece of acrylic tubing the right size and use that much more robust tube in place of the viewtainer.

The problems I have had so far with mine are:
The use of silicone sealant to hold part of it together - silicone doesn't adhere well to the viewtainer or to the powerhead.
Cleaning the viewtainer tube is difficult, and it does get a brownish slime growing in it eventually.
The assembly is flimsy when out of the water, so trying to clean it without it falling apart is hard for me.

This basic design does work very well, so I'm willing to spend a bit more by using a stronger plastic tube, applying dahcmed's idea of mounting the powerhead on the side and not the top, and getting a smaller Rio powerhead to use. I think those changes will make it just what I want.

Tom has been saying, don't be afraid to experiment with this, try new arrangements, use different materials. It isn't rocket science - it is just making the parts do what you want them to do. The basic idea is pretty simple.

[esarkipato]

For mine....I used the silicone to attach the 90 degree bend powerhead attachment to the reactor. That way, I can just slip the powerhead on and off with little hassle.

On the downside, one of my suction cups did not stick to the reactor plastic very well, so I'm down to one. I guess just another downside to DIY.

I agree that the powerhead might as well be mounted horizontally. Especially after the suction cup fiasco

[treetom]

Where can you get the plans for this now? The link does not work anymore.

[Batt4Christ]

Sorry to again revive an old thread - but I too would love to see the "plans" to build this. My Hydor diffuser/reactor just isn't cutting it. I can barely get up to 20ppm of CO2 running way too manny bubble per second.

[Hoppy]

Wow! This is an old one. This link still works http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ctor-w-venturi

[plantbrain]

I'm not that old ....am I?

[wkndracer]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

I'm not that old ....am I?

Bwahahaha! yeah you are (and it happened overnight)