# [Problem] CO2 Reactor and Eheim 2213



## clopez1 (Jun 30, 2013)

I had the same problem with my ista max mix, it's just not long enough to dissolve the co2, I took it off and made an inline reactor and all I see in my tank is the pearling from my plants. There are plenty of posts on diy Rex reactor. I made mine from 1 1/2 in. pvc pipe, 2 90 degree elbows, 1 1/2 in to 1 in. threaded end and 1 in. barbs to fit my 2213.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

The thing is at my LFS they have the same setup! an eheim 2213 + TMC AquaGro CO2 Power Diffuser 500 on a 200L aquarium and it works, I saw it with my eyes!


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## clopez1 (Jun 30, 2013)

Maybe there's air in the reactor.. I know with my inline the first day there was lots of noise and mist but when it got all the air out it got quiet and no mist at all. How long has it been running?


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## riverrat (Jul 14, 2005)

Have you tried reducing your flow using the disconnect valve on the return side of you Eheim?


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

clopez1 said:


> Maybe there's air in the reactor.. I know with my inline the first day there was lots of noise and mist but when it got all the air out it got quiet and no mist at all. How long has it been running?


I have the diffuser for like a month now, every time i open the canister i turn the reactor upside-down so it can expel all the air, then i let it stay over night and check the system after light on ( 1h after the co2 is turned on ). "Fun fact" i can turn off the co2 2 hours before lights out and still have co2 on the reactor to dissolve.



riverrat said:


> Have you tried reducing your flow using the disconnect valve on the return side of you Eheim?


Yes, but i gets too noisy in order to stop sending out bubbles. If i use a flashlight and point it to the reactor a can't see the bubbles but on aquarium i see them.

I'll try to get a picture or a video.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

Here is a side photo.

those stripes are the bubbles from the reactor.

After i reduced the bps from 2 to 1 the plants felt the change, I think.

@ 2BPS 









1.5 weeks later using only 1 BPS









I noticed the fast growing plants ( e.g.: hygrophila polysperma rosanervig) with wrinkled leaves.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Remove the interior impeller and see if that helps. It's the small gas bubbles that are escaping, not large ones, so by removing the impeller, it won't break the bubbles down.


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## jcgilmore2 (Jul 10, 2013)

Removing inside impeller helped me a bit. I even hooked up a second medium maxmix filled with fine nylon mesh inline after my large one on my 2217. Still didn't get 100%. I don't think I'll ever get 100 dissolved co2 lol. 

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> Remove the interior impeller and see if that helps. It's the small gas bubbles that are escaping, not large ones, so by removing the impeller, it won't break the bubbles down.


I think i can't remove the impeller, it's fixed (only solution would be breaking it, far too risky in my opinion).
When i remove the cap from the bottom the only "loose" thing is the rubber sealing everything else is stuck.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

jcgilmore2 said:


> Removing inside impeller helped me a bit. I even hooked up a second medium maxmix filled with fine nylon mesh inline after my large one on my 2217. Still didn't get 100%. I don't think I'll ever get 100 dissolved co2 lol.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


Do you think there is no hope to get rid of the mist? I'll make a video tomorrow of it.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Can you show us a full setup shot to see how everything is piped? That may allow us to diagnose potential issues and provide solutions.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> Can you show us a full setup shot to see how everything is piped? That may allow us to diagnose potential issues and provide solutions.



Here are some pics. of all things inside and outside the aquarium.









Output inside the aquarium and all the gear










Canister to CO2 Reactor









CO2 Reactor to output 

Finally a video of the bubbles coming out ( the setup positions are outdated since a shortened the tubbing in order to increase the water flow )
video link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6700281/vid.mp4

Right after the co2 gets in the reactor the bubbles start to appear 

I might post a log of my aquarium in here later this week!


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

You don't have much pressure inside the reactor because it's level with the tank. If you placed it low, right next to the filter, the weight of the water on the return line will help dissolve the gas. It looks like you'll have to swap the tubes to do that.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

Your guess is placing the reactor right near the outside of the filter ? 
Instead of this : Ext.Filter------------>Reactor-->aquarium
Do it like this: Ext.Filter-->Reactor------------>aquarium

Is that it?


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## clopez1 (Jun 30, 2013)

The longer the tube from the reactor to the tank the longer the co2 travels in the water, more chance for dissolving.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

afcarvalho.1991 said:


> Your guess is placing the reactor right near the outside of the filter ?
> Instead of this : Ext.Filter------------>Reactor-->aquarium
> Do it like this: Ext.Filter-->Reactor------------>aquarium
> 
> Is that it?


Made no change at all.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

clopez1 said:


> The longer the tube from the reactor to the tank the longer the co2 travels in the water, more chance for dissolving.


Makes sense. When i first setup the reactor I had the filter on the opposite side so the water had to make more than half a meter to go back inside the aquarium. :angryfire 

I'm a bit "sad" about this since I spent money on the reactor when my first idea was the ceramic diffuser, but I change my mind at the LFS.


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## clopez1 (Jun 30, 2013)

I still stand with what I first said about the reactor being too short. I have the medium ista max mix which is the same thing you have but larger at 8.75 inches and got mist. Unless your pictures show it smaller than it is that is.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

clopez1 said:


> I still stand with what I first said about the reactor being too short. I have the medium ista max mix which is the same thing you have but larger at 8.75 inches and got mist. Unless your pictures show it smaller than it is that is.


Mine has no more than 5 inches. the weird thing is that at my LFS the have it working with the same setup ( filter and reactor ) and it does dissolve all the co2 they put in. Now they are injecting co2 for a 47G aquarium while i inject co2 for a 11G, if they can why can't I?


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## clopez1 (Jun 30, 2013)

Luck? Maybe bubble size? There are lots of factors involved. I had mine set up with diy CO2 so maybe my experience wasn't the norm. If you tried everything there is to and the outcome is the same the only thing you can say is a factor in all you've done is the reactor you have to blame it on the reactor.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

afcarvalho.1991 said:


> Mine has no more than 5 inches. the weird thing is that at my LFS the have it working with the same setup ( filter and reactor ) and it does dissolve all the co2 they put in. Now they are injecting co2 for a 47G aquarium while i inject co2 for a 11G, if they can why can't I?


It's possible that the actual flow rate out of their filter is much lower than yours. 5" is really short. Since you have a shutoff valve on it, you can slow the flow down after the reactor (which also helps increase pressure.) If this works, then the issue is too much flow for such a small reactor.


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## mike-guy (Feb 24, 2013)

He just means literally have the reactor on the floor next to the filter so the water pressure adds to the dissolving process. Worth a shot I suppose.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

mike-guy said:


> He just means literally have the reactor on the floor next to the filter so the water pressure adds to the dissolving process. Worth a shot I suppose.


I'm not sure that I understand what you mean...



Solcielo lawrencia said:


> It's possible that the actual flow rate out of their filter is much lower than yours. 5" is really short. Since you have a shutoff valve on it, you can slow the flow down after the reactor (which also helps increase pressure.) If this works, then the issue is too much flow for such a small reactor.


At the LFS their advice was reducing the water flow ( increasing the media inside the filter), which I did. The only way to mitigate the bubbles coming out is to reduce the flow to a point that the impeller on the reactor turns super slow, and the filter becomes extremely noisy.

An idea that found and that I might try (if the cost justifies) is using 2 T-junctions so that imagine: 25% of the water flow goes through the reactor and the others 75% goes straight to the aquarium. For that we need 2 t-junctions an some way to regulate the flow


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

You have a ball valve in the picture. You can use that as the flow restrictor. Place it after the reactor.


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> You have a ball valve in the picture. You can use that as the flow restrictor. Place it after the reactor.


I tuned the ball valve and thats what happened:
" The only way to mitigate the bubbles coming out is to reduce the flow to a point that the impeller on the reactor turns super slow, and the filter becomes extremely noisy."


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

I thought you meant the filter became noisy, not the reactor. There's no way to remove the reactor impeller? It doesn't unscrew?


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## afcarvalho.1991 (Jun 4, 2014)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> I thought you meant the filter became noisy, not the reactor. There's no way to remove the reactor impeller? It doesn't unscrew?


No I think it doesn't. Would some bioballs inside the reactor help? Dunno..


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

You unscrew the bottom part, pull out the inner tube, and then remove the impellers. It's the exact same as the Ista, only rebranded.


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## jcgilmore2 (Jul 10, 2013)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> You don't have much pressure inside the reactor because it's level with the tank. If you placed it low, right next to the filter, the weight of the water on the return line will help dissolve the gas. It looks like you'll have to swap the tubes to do that.





afcarvalho.1991 said:


> Your guess is placing the reactor right near the outside of the filter ?
> Instead of this : Ext.Filter------------>Reactor-->aquarium
> Do it like this: Ext.Filter-->Reactor------------>aquarium
> 
> Is that it?



Interesting theory about the reactor placement. I never really thought of that. Is it the same considering flow though? I understand the concept of water pressure vs depth, but didnt think about that considering the water is flowing out, in my mind that would mean the pressure is coming from below not above.. although that water weight does exist. Glad you raised that point. I'd like to learn more about that.

As far as having 2 reactors and the mist... I dont think I will ever personally get rid of it all. The second reactor def helped a lot but I missed the high flow rates. I still had enough flow with my 2217 still, but I'm a firm believer in overfiltration. 

With these kind of reactors, I think people have the most success when using them inside the tank with a power head. These provide the right amount of flow most the time. Also, you can tuck them in the back behind some plants.. the mist is kinda out of sight. If yours is like mine... the mist comes right out into the front of the tank. (in my 55 it wasnt as bad.. had the outflow in the back against the black bg)

In my opinion, hooking them up to a canister sounds like a great idea. but isnt the best thing. I thought it would spin those fans so fast the bubbles would have no choice but to diffuse completely... didnt happen. Took the fans out, didnt happen. Added another entire reactor, didnt happen. Seems that they simply move water through the reactor too fast for it to be absorbed completely... good be wrong. 

I think the trick is finding a flow that is low enough not to pull those bubbles down the reactor and into the tank, but high enough to actually mix things up.

Happy tanking.


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## jcgilmore2 (Jul 10, 2013)

afcarvalho.1991 said:


> I'm not sure that I understand what you mean...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I missed this comment. I agree, kinda the same concept I had about flow vs dissolved. 

Also, adding to the other comment I quoted. My reactor is actually on the ground. about 2 ft below the tank and I still get the mist.


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