# How to fill CO2 diffuser with water????



## keitarosan (Jan 4, 2008)

hello. i have this glass type diffuser (see pic) that i bought from aquatic magic. the thing is, according to mike (from AM) it must be filled with water. how? everytime i fill it with water and plug in the DIY bottle. the gas from the bottle fills it again with gas. there's water in the chamber though but only up to the tip of the spiral. i've seen these type of diffusers totally filled with water. how'd they do that????


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

attach a small piece of tubing to it and hold it under water. Suck on the tubing. This should fill it. Other than that, I dunno.


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## keitarosan (Jan 4, 2008)

funny. i just did that last night and it did filled it up. but after plugging in the bottles, there's gas again in the chamber. the best i got so far was at the tip of the spiral. it won't fill it up to the top. i guess its by design.


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## chadly (May 17, 2005)

didnt think it was supposed to be filled with water....


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## Matsu49 (Jan 1, 2008)

Same here because the diffuser will eventually get filled with CO2.


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## chadly (May 17, 2005)

mine would fill up with water when the co2 is off....


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

chadly said:


> mine would fill up with water when the co2 is off....


Sorry, I love your Bob Ross avatar. I love his show, its very relaxing almost meditative.


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## MiSo (Oct 26, 2005)

i can only think of two options.

1) get a syringe. have airline attached to diffuser and the other end attached to the syringe. force water from syringe into diffuser.

2) my diffuser is always filled with water in the morning before the co2 is turned on. so overnight the pressure from the tank must be pushing water into the diffuser. so you must connect the diffuser to an empty bottle and let the water pressure fill the diffuser. it wont work if diy co2 is working against the tank so its gotta be an empty bottle.


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## keitarosan (Jan 4, 2008)

thanks. i'll try the syringe tonight. but how much water does your diffuser have? i can only fill it up to the tip of the spiral. that's the best i got so far. i filled it all the way to the disk but after plugging in the CO2, it pushed out the water and stopped at the tip again. i guess that's normal.


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## MiSo (Oct 26, 2005)

keitarosan said:


> thanks. i'll try the syringe tonight. but how much water does your diffuser have? i can only fill it up to the tip of the spiral. that's the best i got so far. i filled it all the way to the disk but after plugging in the CO2, it pushed out the water and stopped at the tip again. i guess that's normal.


when co2 starts to come out of the diffuser, the co2 should push some water out. thats normal. in my experience with those types of diffusers though; the co2 would rather shoot out of the little hole rather than making its way up the spiral. :icon_sad:


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## mr_thursday (Aug 2, 2008)

I guess Mike is saying that the water should be filled up in the area between the inner wall of the diffuser, and outside the coils. I agree with Matsu49 that the coils would be filled up with CO2 eventually.

Anyway, in the first place, you have some problem in using the coil? There is no bubbles coming out or something?


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Over complicating this I think... There is no way that it will push gas out of the diffuser if it is completely full of water. It uses the ceramic disk to break up the gas, and thus there needs to be a pressure build up of gas behind the disk. Don't waste your time trying to get it filled. The spirals are only for appearance, and do nothing


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## DiscusIt'sWhats4DinneR (Apr 25, 2008)

it fills with water when submerged with no gas pressure in it...
you could do it the hard way and try to fill it....

just stick it in the tank overnight without being connected to the co2. water will then fill it.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

fshfanatic said:


> attach a small piece of tubing to it and hold it under water. Suck on the tubing. This should fill it. Other than that, I dunno.


Yeah right, lung pressure is way too weak to do this.



chadly said:


> mine would fill up with water when the co2 is off....


Me too. This won't happen with DIY though. I still wonder what the point in wanting it to fill up is...


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

over_stocked said:


> The spirals are only for appearance, and do nothing


Not true. They are useful as psuedo-bubble counters to get an idea of CO2 flow.


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## DiscusIt'sWhats4DinneR (Apr 25, 2008)

macclellan said:


> Yeah right, lung pressure is way too weak to do this.
> 
> 
> 
> Me too. This won't happen with DIY though. I still wonder what the point in wanting it to fill up is...


i tried the hard way, trying to suck water in it.
it worked, but took a while and a lot of lung.


when the inside is full the bubbles raise through the spiral..
it just looks neat. scientific.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

DiscusIt'sWhats4DinneR said:


> i tried the hard way, trying to suck water in it.
> it worked, but took a while and a lot of lung.


Did you blow out a blood vessel in your eye in the process? I tried just for shims and giggles in the past, but then again I've had a collapsed lung twice from da crack.


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## NIC0 (Feb 6, 2021)

keitarosan said:


> hello. i have this glass type diffuser (see pic) that i bought from aquatic magic. the thing is, according to mike (from AM) it must be filled with water. how? everytime i fill it with water and plug in the DIY bottle. the gas from the bottle fills it again with gas. there's water in the chamber though but only up to the tip of the spiral. i've seen these type of diffusers totally filled with water. how'd they do that????


Fill the CO2 tube with a mouth full of water, and the connect it to the diffuser. When the CO2 is on it will push the water into the chamber.


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