[leros]

I recently posted another thread about building a high flow Cerges reactor that I could run off my sump's 600 gph return. The idea is that my sump's return would go directly into the CO2 reactor and the output of the reactor is split and goes to the aquarium at both ends.

However, I'm wondering if it would make sense to have a separate low-flow closed loop for the Cerges reactor. I could have a small pump in the return compartment of my sump that goes to the reactor and have the reactor's output feed back into my sump's return compartment. My reason for not doing this initially is that I wanted the freshly dissolved CO2 water to be sent directly to the aquarium where it could have the most impact, but I'm not really sure if it would make a difference.

For what its worth, I've already assembled a 20" Cerges reactor that I'm hoping can handle my 600gph flow. I haven't tried it out yet as I won't fill my aquarium for another few weeks.

Thoughts?

 

[ua hua]

I recently posted another thread about building a high flow Cerges reactor that I could run off my sump's 600 gph return. The idea is that my sump's return would go directly into the CO2 reactor and the output of the reactor is split and goes to the aquarium at both ends.

However, I'm wondering if it would make sense to have a separate low-flow closed loop for the Cerges reactor. I could have a small pump in the return compartment of my sump that goes to the reactor and have the reactor's output feed back into my sump's return compartment. My reason for not doing this initially is that I wanted the freshly dissolved CO2 water to be sent directly to the aquarium where it could have the most impact, but I'm not really sure if it would make a difference.

For what its worth, I've already assembled a 20" Cerges reactor that I'm hoping can handle my 600gph flow. I haven't tried it out yet as I won't fill my aquarium for another few weeks.

Thoughts?

I have mine setup very similar to what you want to do the difference being I have an Aqua medic 1000 being powered with a mag7 fractioning pump so I have the bleed valve hooked into the venturi of the needle wheel pump so essentially it's running the dual venturi method. The output from the reactor is ran back into the sump and pointed at the inlet of another mag7 pump that is my return pump to the tank. The reason I did it this way is to keep some of the micro bubbles out of the tank and while I still get some bubbles in the tank it's not the seltzer water look that I was getting when the return was going straight into the tank. Matching flow with your reactor is something I had a hard time with especially this Aquamedic reactor which will be getting replaced sometime this winter with a diy reactor/bubble collector. However running this dual venturi method I don't get any false gas buildup in my reactor because it gets chopped up again by the needle wheel.

 

[leros]

I have mine setup very similar to what you want to do the difference being I have an Aqua medic 1000 being powered with a mag7 fractioning pump so I have the bleed valve hooked into the venturi of the needle wheel pump so essentially it's running the dual venturi method. The output from the reactor is ran back into the sump and pointed at the inlet of another mag7 pump that is my return pump to the tank. The reason I did it this way is to keep some of the micro bubbles out of the tank and while I still get some bubbles in the tank it's not the seltzer water look that I was getting when the return was going straight into the tank. Matching flow with your reactor is something I had a hard time with especially this Aquamedic reactor which will be getting replaced sometime this winter with a diy reactor/bubble collector. However running this dual venturi method I don't get any false gas buildup in my reactor because it gets chopped up again by the needle wheel.

Your scenario is actually why I wanted to run the CO2 reactor's output directly into the aquarium. I don't know about your setup, but my sump is very calm while my tank has fairly nice flow. Micro-bubbles that would have gotten into the tank would have tumbled around a bit and dissolved some more. Micro-bubbles in the sump would mostly float away and waste more CO2.

In theory, I should have no bubbles with my reactor, which is why I think it actually doesn't matter if I output into the sump vs the aquarium.

 

[Kathyy]

I have two pumps in the sump and three returns to the tank. Two over the top of the tank 1" returns are from the main Laguna 1500 pump with a ball valve. One is the original 3/4" return through the bottom of the tank coming from the 20" Cerges reactor which is powered by a Rio 2500 with a ball valve. Works great, lots of flow through the tank and to my surprise no bubbles come out of the 3/4" return. If there were some I could easily cut the flow through the pump. If my overflow cannot handle both pumps then I can cut the Laguna's flow back.

A reactor cuts the flow so much and I want to try to have zero power heads in the tank. So far so good. I do see tiny bubbles in the tank but I think they are from pearling, at least they are that size bubble. Guess I should check early in the light cycle to see if there are bubbles then. Since I have a light back ground bubbles aren't very noticeable anyway.

 

[ua hua]

Your scenario is actually why I wanted to run the CO2 reactor's output directly into the aquarium. I don't know about your setup, but my sump is very calm while my tank has fairly nice flow. Micro-bubbles that would have gotten into the tank would have tumbled around a bit and dissolved some more. Micro-bubbles in the sump would mostly float away and waste more CO2.

In theory, I should have no bubbles with my reactor, which is why I think it actually doesn't matter if I output into the sump vs the aquarium.

I guess I should have been more clear but when I was running the output from the co2 into the tank I was just running the co2 through the needle wheel pump with no reactor. That made the tank look like my old reef tank when running a protein skimmer with the millions of little bubbles everywhere. That may be ok to some but to me a freshwater tank should look clear and with the amount of light I have the bubbles were really noticeable and I couldn't get used to it. My sump is very calm also that is why I pointed the outlet from the reactor at the inlet of my return pump so it picks up the co2 enriched water and returns it to the tank. With a good reactor you shouldn't have bubbles but since I'm running this reactor dual venturi style to make sure all the false gas build up is eliminated at the top of my reactor and it has been working good so far but there is always room for improvement that is why I have tried a few different kinds of co2 diffusion. Every system is different and it takes a little trial and error to find out what works for your setup.