inline reactor question

[john b.]

At Tom's suggestion for my green spot algae problem, I'm trying to get my co2 levels higher.I have an am reactor 1000 hooked up inline with a fluval 404.The reactor instructions state that it needs a flow of at least 250 gph and my fluval is rated at 340 gph. The problem is I can get the ph down to 6.3 with a kh of 3 but can't get it any lower. The filter has an adjustable flow so I tried first leaving the filter at full blast, then about 1/4 closed then 1/2 closed all with the same results ph of 6.3, no lower. Even if I turn up the bubble rate, the result stays the same.I know that the co2 seems high enough, but as Tom stated, if po4 levels are high enough, if you have green spot issues, co2 is the problem.Any ideas on what I could do to try to get co2 levels higher? Thanks,
John

[Vladimir Zhurov]

John,

Unless you can see visible bubbles of gas (CO2) coming out from the outflow when water returns to the tank, or there is a leak in the system, or gas is building up somewhere it should be dissolving in the water. pH may not be changing as you may have reached a point when concentration of carbonic acid is such that something else (say substrate) started to dissolve and buffer your water at pH of 6.3.

So unless you can find where CO2 escapes or builds up I would be very careful with rush bubble-rate increase as you may affect fish health.

Just my two cents.

Regards.

Vladimir.

[Vladimir Zhurov]

I obviously should have said it in previous post, but if you will determine that CO2 is indeed dissolving I would suggest to increase you bubble rate by 10-20% from what you had originally, wait for a week or two, observe you plants, fish and algae, increase bubble rate again, and so on.

Regards.

Vladimir.

[Tom Barr]

Yes, slow changes with adding more CO2 is a much better way to go.

regards,
Tom Barr

[john b.]

Thanks, Vladimir and Tom. I will slowly increase the co2 instead of trying to blast more into the tank at once.Thanks again,
John

[hadog]

Just my 2 cents here
I have an AM 500 reactor
No matter what bubble rate I use there doesn't seem to be a drastic change in the water parameters....I see no bubbles of any kind coming out of the reactor althougt I see gas entering the thing....is it that efficient??
I have since switched over to a cheaper difuser...it has a steady flow of very fine bubbles coming from it....it appears so far that my co2 levels are better.
Is there a problem with these AM reactors?

[john b.]

The problem I was having was not with the reactor, but with too much flow going through it. My filter was just pushing the co2 right out of the reactor and not giving it enough time to fully dissolve.After turning down the flow of my filter a bit, the problem was taken care of.

[Greg Watson]

>>Just my 2 cents here
>>I have an AM 500 reactor
>>....I see no bubbles of any kind coming out of the reactor
>>althougt I see gas entering the thing....is it that efficient??

That means everything going in is disolving in the water ...

>>I have since switched over to a cheaper difuser...it has a
>>steady flow of very fine bubbles coming from it....

That means that not everything going in is getting disolved into the water ...

>>Is there a problem with these AM reactors?

It sound like they are doing an excllent job ...

There may be other things going on in your aquarium though ...

Greg