will do! that's why i joined here...to learn from the people with experience! i only started planted tanks 5 months ago and have to admit the learning curve has been pretty steep for me.

so...i will ditch the co2 after lights out! check! thanks for your help Tom

ps will this also make a difference in the health of my filter bacterial culture equalling cleaner water cause they'll get more 02?

Shutting off the CO2 in a DIY yeast setup at night would be difficult, if not dangerous.

This would have to be for compressed gas injection only, right? I found
a good deal on a 5lb CO2 bottle (free) so now I'll probably go that route in
stead of DIY yeast, which got to be a bit of a hassle the last time I used
it.

Bill

Bill, that's why this reactor is cool, it was the only way to use a reactor and still throttle CO2 on/off using DIY CO2.

No CO2 is dssolved when the powerhead is turned off, so sinmply adding the powerhead to the light timer achieve the goal, of dosing CO2 only when the lights are off.

This way the CO2 DIY gas never stops flowing and safely burps out to the air above when the power head is stopped. Same deal with a powerhead used alone also, this just diffuses the flow downward and gently and maximizes the dissolving of the gas till lots of O2 is present.

You can use a solenoid set up with a DIY CO2 system though without blowing the cap off etc.

You use a Tee, the Tee branch that comes down, the verticle line in the "T" has the solenoid attached, the straight part of the T goes to.from the DIY CO2 and the reactor.

When the solenoid valve shuts ooff ansd closes, this pressurizes the line the gas goes into the reactor, when the solenoid is open and "on", the gas vents out to the air.

It's called reverse solenoid application.

I did this but powerheads cost 9-12$, solenoids at the time cost 40$.

To my knowledge, I am the only one that has ever done that with DIY CO2 + solenoid on plant tanks.

There's no need though since the powerhead controls the on/off part.

Regards,
Tom Barr

That's good to know, and yes, that is way cool! Thanks, Tom!

Bill

Once you understand what the tank needs, then the many ways of doing something are magically very similar and not so difficult to understand nor apply. Then you can decide which are best for your routines and methods.
I do suggest folks try things as they become comfortable and can re set things without too much anxiety.


Regards,
Tom Barr

I'm going to be making a couple of these as soon as the viewtainers arrive
for a couple of 10s and one 15. I've got some RIO 50 powerheads (cheap
at Bigalsonline) that I'll use. Reactor position in these shallow tanks: I was thinking of having them mounted about 2 inches off the substrate. Is this good, or not? Or does it matter....

Bill

I generally place them higher since the water is going down already and then comes back up but it's no big deal.

Regards,
Tom Barr.

what are viewtainers and where do you get them from?

here ya go:
http://www.viewtainer.com/

thanks bill....