My tank is 60 gallons. I have installed a CO2 system with a Sera 500 reactor connected to the outlet of a Fluval 407. I have it set to about 4 bubbles per second which seems about right. My issue is that the system is blowing tiny bubbles all over. It makes the water look like it has little specks floating around. What can I change to help reduce this? Larger reactor? Lower operating pressure (it's 15psi right now)?
Bubbles: What else can I do?
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Bubbles coming out of a reactor is a product of either too much flow or too much co2 for the reactor to handle or both. If your reactor is coming directly from the full output of your filter then its almost certainly too much flow. But frankly also 4 bubbles a second could easily be too much for a 60 gallon tank using a reactor. If you get complete dissolution you won't need nearly so many bubbles. So I would do 2 things. I would make sure your reactor is running on a bypass with a ball valve so you can slow down the flow and the other thing I would do is reduce your bubbles per second to 1.
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Rather than reduce bubbles to 1, start with 3 bps and see how you do. If you can't make a bypass, it may be that you'll have to live with micro bubbles in the tank if 4 bps is the amount of gas input your tank needs. Those Sera 500 aren't very big. For reference, I'm running an Aqua Medic 1000 on a 37 gallon tank.
Regards,
Phil
Regards,
Phil
Some good replies here. Thank you. I have decided to upgrade to a GLA reactor. The Sera is cheaply made and likely too small. I will back off on the bubble with the new reactor. I have gradually settled on 4bps based on drop checker levels. My water is fairly hard (9 KH) and alkaline (8 pH) so that has landed me at 4bps. At this rate I peak at a pH of around 7.2 which the chart tells me is a saturation for about 16ish. That shouldn't be too much. When I get the new reactor I'll dial that back and increase gradually as needed. If I still get bubbles, I'll take minorhero's suggestion and set it up on a bypass.
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Interested to know how it goes. I have a 407 with a co2art in-line diffuser. Debating going to a reactor. Honestly don't know which style or whether or not it's even an upgrade.
I installed Monday night. I like the GLA reactor much better. It sits on the shelf between my canisters and is way, way larger. Flow seems good, and once it filled is silent. The bubbles are gone as well. I have to play with the bubble rate- I backed of quite a bit just so I wouldn't come home from work to any surprises. I'll increase the rate until it's perfect and see how we do.
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What inlet/outlet do you have hooked up to the 407? I am using the fzone stainless lily set. Do you notice any significant reduction in flow? What made you go with the GLA over like nilocg?
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