DIY C02 tube into intake of XP3?

[icex]

Hi all,

Just bought a rena xp3 today. So far it's working good after taking about a hour to install.. grr.. but anyway.. I was wondering if I could run the tube from my diy c02 into the intake strainer of the xp3? I use to run it into the intake of the penguin 200 I have but I took it off the tank now. I plan on going pressurized soon, but that's going to be another month or so unfortunatly.

[icex]

Also, for anyone that owns a xp3, do you all hear like a running water sound from the filter? Because mine sounds like water is running.. not realy sure if its normal or not.

[ccattie]

Mine is silent. I sometimes have to check the waving plants to be sure there is a heavy flow of water since I cannot hear it running.
-c

[mahoro]

i don't own the rena, but i used to run my diy co2 into the ehiem ecco, but i was told by a lot people that u might have some co2 bubble trap inside the canister, and in a long run, its bad for the filter... and my ehiem tend to make a lot of noise too

[imeridian]

That would be my concern too, the gas bubble; some filters are better at expelling excess gas than others, don't know if the Rena XP series fits that classification or not. I've never tried it with any of my Eheims.

[icex]

Hmm.. I'll have to figure out how to disfuse the c02 for now.. I'm broke and I can't order a glass difusor and I have no room for a reactor....

By the way, mine is silent now, I guess it's just were its new.

[imeridian]

I just used a plain ol' airstone for a couple of months when I did DIY CO2, it worked fine and cost next to nothing. The white disposable ones (ceramic?) worked better than the really cheapie blue store brand ones though. The blue ones sort of fell apart, likely from the CO2's acidic qualities.

[mahoro]

if u got 10 bucks to spare... http://www.petco.com/product/13796/H...er-Filter.aspx works really good, i used to use it in my 34g, i've moved it to my 10g since then, just drill a hole on the side or bottom or remove that green tab and stick ur tubing in, but i don't really like to do that because that green tab controls the water flow, for my 10g, its a bit too strong at full blast...

[icex]

Well I'm getting a glass rhinox 2000 from a friend next week. I'm broke at the moment, the xp3 broke me today lol. For now I put the penguin 200 on, stuffed it with filter floss, and then made the flow so that it dont break the surface, and I'm just going to run 2 bottle lines into the intake of it for now.

[mahoro]

yeah, i know how it feels like to be broke, i was suppost to setup my 4th tank next month with some dwarf puffers and cliping from my other tank, but fishing season is near and gas price and everythign else is going up, i think my 4th tank will have to wait til after the summer...

[icex]

Yeah.. I need to go get my job back (got sick and just couldent work for awhile due to medical issues) but my mom would freak with me working during the winter.... haha.

[tropicalfish]

A plain old powerhead will do fine.

The FilStars don't do so great on bubbling due to the design of the intake and output in the filter box.

[swylie]

If I were you I'd at least try runing CO2 into the intake of your filter. I can't think of how it could possibly damage the thing unless you airlock it, and as has been mentioned, some canisters are better than others at purging excess gas buildup than others. As long as you don't dump a massive bolus of gas in there I'm sure you'd be fine.

[dogdoc]

I think I remember people talking about running the CO2 line to the venturi input of the flow control piece (the piece of the hard tubing that has the valve that lets you control how much water/how fast the flow is). Don't know if this is still considered viable, or if these still come with the XP3's since this was a while back. But it goes on the output side, so no worries about buildup in the canister.

[icex]

Well, for now I ran it into the intake of my penguin 200b. I have about 3 lines from 3 bottles running into it and its doing the job for now. I'm getting a regulator next, probaly sometime next month, so I guess I'll just have to do it like this until then.