Seachem Inline Glass CO2 Diffuser

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Has anyone used this? (or similar like the ADA or Cal Aqua) I kind of want it because I don't like the bubbles in my tank, but I have grown wary of glass stuff because it gets dirty, looks awful, and is a PIA to clean. Link HERE

On the flip side, I like it because at least with the CO2, you can see what is going on, and how much is coming out (or that something is in fact coming out), unlike with other inline CO2 diffusers. I'm open to suggestions. Tank is 60p, so big reactors and the like aren't going to work.

Can't help but feel using this is still going to put a bunch of bubbles in the tank.



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What size is your tank? A reactor is the only solution that will get you a zero bubble display tank when tuned correctly.
 
Hey Ben! I havent used that one specifically, but for such a small tank you wont be pushing a ton of co2 through it. I wouldnt expect sprite water or anything. Probably get a little fine mist though...just a guess

You could always put it on the intake hose :p

Honestly Id be more concerned with the fragility of it. Discs need frequent bleaching which means you'll be disconnecting/reconnecting it pretty often

I know you said reactors were out of the question but have you seen the Sera Flore reactors? They'll cut your flow down a little but work really well. Ive ran a 50 gal with the small one before. LINK
 
Burr740 said:
I know you said reactors were out of the question but have you seen the Sera Flore reactors? They'll cut your flow down a little but work really well. Ive ran a 50 gal with the small one before. LINK
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Indeed, this is the point, the Sera reactor will slow down the flow. So it really depends if the user wants to optimize the flow from the pump/canister or has enough and is ok to sacrifice flow.

I know it is not the point of this thread, but what Sera calls "the new generation of CO2 reactors" is in fact mostly counter productive as I also explained in the post below. Any bubble reactor gives a flow reduction (acting as an airlift pump in reverse) but Sera makes this worse by introducing a rotating water column. This rotation will cost energy (loss of the pumps efficiency), while perhaps counterintuitively the rotation will not at all help to keep CO2 bubbles longer and more effectively in the water column.

scapecrunch.com

Help - 90g, Dutch style, first try

Yeah, they don’t make it so clear honestly. I've asked to them on Instagram, they replied to all my messages so I'm confident that tomorrow we'll receive a response.
scapecrunch.com scapecrunch.com
 
I’m using a Quanvee in-line on my 90L and it’s really incredible. Very happy with it. I have a friend with the same one you linked but like anything glass, it does get gunked up and is exceptionally hard to clean. If you’re after any aesthetics be prepared to slot that into your maintenance routine. Another quirk with it is the non-replaceable diffuser disk, so when it needs to be cleaned you’ll have to remove the whole thing and soak it. I heard someone on here say something like “if you don’t have a spare, you don’t have any”. Something like that. Other inlines have replaceable diffuser inserts you can swap out which, in practice, is a very useful feature.
 
The tank is only 16 gal correct? So youre only gonna be pushing 1 or 2 bps through whatever you go with. I really dont think sprite water will be much of a concern with any ceramic as long as you keep it clean

Jhardee85 said:
I’m using a Quanvee in-line on my 90L and it’s really incredible
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Ive had a couple of these too and they do work well

JBL Pro Flora are good too. They have a built in bubble counter/check valve where you can see the bubbles going in. Speaking of being able to see the co2. The check valve is suspect so you'd definitely want to add another one. Ive used probably six total (three going now on big tanks before the reactor) only one or two did the check valve function long term

@Yugang I like reading your reactor posts because you're so well versed on the fine points of exactly what the flaws are. Always very interesting
 
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Burr740 said:
The tank is only 16 gal correct? So youre only gonna be pushing 1 or 2 bps through whatever you go with. I really dont think sprite water will be much of a concern with any ceramic as long as you keep it clean
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I bought a big filter thinking I'd use it on a larger tank sometime in the future. I still haven't done that. So the heavy flow from the filter is what makes for the sprite water. Even at a low bps and the throttle turned back on the filter, the bubbles get pushed around everywhere. I think I might try one of the inline ones like @Yugang mentions.
 
Burr740 said:
JBL Pro Flora are good too.
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I used this one too, and it worked well when regularly cleaned. The benefit of inline diffusers is that they can dissolve the CO2 for 100%, as a reactor does, so we know that all CO2 from the regulator ends up dissolved in the water. With this it is more likely to have stable dissolved CO2 ppm than with undissolved CO2 bubbles escaping via the water surface.

BenB said:
I bought a big filter thinking I'd use it on a larger tank sometime in the future. I still haven't done that. So the heavy flow from the filter is what makes for the sprite water. Even at a low bps and the throttle turned back on the filter, the bubbles get pushed around everywhere. I think I might try one of the inline ones like @Yugang mentions.
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If you have flow enough, you may try the Sera as @Burr740 mentions, or any other vertical bubble reactor. If you would consider some DIY, CO2 Spray Bar or Horizontal Reactor, send me an PM and I can help you with that.

Burr740 said:
@Yugang I love reading your reactor posts because you're so well versed on the fine points of exactly what the flaws are. Always very interesting
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Thank you for the nice words @Burr740 , but I had some hesitation if I should post this as it does not help the OP a lot and was in a way besides the point of this thread. I do believe we need to call out reputable vendors, not only Sera, for bringing out "innovations" that are arguably more focussed on marketing than functionally sound and benefitting the hobbyist.
 
Yugang said:
I had some hesitation if I should post this as it does not help the OP a lot and was in a way besides the point of this thread.
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The OP has had his questions answered for now. So you @Yugang and @Burr740 can have at it. 😀
I might learn a bit if you do. Things have changed a lot in the last 28 years since I first got injected CO2.
 
BenB said:
The OP has had his questions answered for now. So you @Yugang and @Burr740 can have at it. 😀
I might learn a bit if you do. Things have changed a lot in the last 28 years since I first got injected CO2.
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I needed to refresh my memory on the Sera reactor, as it has been a few years since I considered to buy it. I now checked out the product documentation as well as some YouTube videos, and actually the technical design is worse than what I remembered. I believe it is helpful if I post a more detailed technical/physics review of this reactor. Will need some spare time to summarise my thoughts, so bear with me.

Yugang said:
If you have flow enough, you may try the Sera
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Sorry I was too optimistic, my current view is that the design has serious flaws and that almost any other reactor is preferred over this one. This, of course, is just my personal opinion.
 
Burr740 said:
They'll cut your flow down a little
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As it turns out Aqua Rocks Colorado has sourced two different variations on a new bypass design for an inline diffuser, specifically intended to have no effect on flow:

1)
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2)
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I am building a 60p all-in-one, which has a very finite length of hose available between the pump and the outflow to fit a diffuser, and no easy place to fit a Yugang reactor. Aqua Rocks was kind enough to provide the dimensions for #2 above, and it's magnificently compact :

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Aqua rocks carries the replacement disks as well.

I'll report back once I have this tank scaped and wet.
 
Thanks @Koan . Fwiw the Sera reactor is what cuts the flow down. Inline diffusers typically have no impact on flow. Those from Tommy look pretty sweet though
 
For small and medium sized tanks inline diffusers (judge in tank diffuser after you see the resulting pH curves, and long term stability of these) can be the perfect solution, and potentially as good as a reactor when maintained well with a clean surface and open pores in the ceramic body.

I have seen no commercial diffuser where the manufacturer gives an indication of its power, CO2 flow, or CO2 ppm for a given tank size. For a 200 USD diffuser for the AquarocksColorado it would be disappointing to discover that I would need to wait for my next payslip to buy the second one for having a reasonable CO2 in my tank.

I checked out also the new V2 diffuser from CO2Art, that comes with "Fine Mist Technology providing you with the highest dissolution rates!" (end quote), and the marketing department has perfected that to "NanoCo2 Mist Technology" on the packaging. It also has a metal body, and comes at about 50 USD
CO2Art Inline CO2 Aquarium Atomizer Diffuser System

So besides the point that usually we get no specifications, other than hose size, marketing statements like "Nano Mist technology" do not add value in the best case, are misleading worst case. Scientific research papers indicate that there is a mimimum to the size of CO2 bubbles that a ceramic diffuser can produce. When you would try a diffuser with even smaller pores, you would need ever higher gas pressure , but also the adjacent bubbles will coalesce and form larger bubble before detaching from the porous surface. If I remember correctly, the minimum bubble size is about 0.2 mm for CO2 in water so nearly a million times larger than anything called "nano". When trying to find back the scientific paper I did see some research in nano technology, but I would suspect that it is highly unlikely that CO2 Art is into that, and indeed they indicate they are using ceramics, rather than nano membranes.
 
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