Okay, my hubby and I are getting a 135 gallon tank at the end of this month. I'm very excited as it will be the largest one I've ever owned, and also because my DH is getting into this hobby with me finally.

He's working the kinks out of a design for sump to run on our tank, we will be getting the tank reef ready, so there will be an internal overflow box. He keeps asking me what all we need for Co2, and I have been assuming we'd just do a Milwaukee regulator. Now I'm curious to the mist method, so how would I go about it with my tank size and with a sump?

Thanks-

Mel

Well, it's pretty simple really.

For a sump mist method, I might suggest a sweetwater stone, feed the CO2 mist into the return pump intake and then direct the outflow in the tank, down into the plant beds from each end of the tank so you get a semi circular pattern with the bubbles from each end, or, do both outlets directly down some so that the surface movement draws everything into the overflow skimmer.

Basically, the stone and the return pump are the CO2 reactor, you should not hear the bubbles getting shredded up since they are very small from the SW stones, unlike an 1/8 airline tubing bubble.

The other option is to make a simple PVC sump reactor, these work very6 well and dissolves the gas well before sending it back into the tank.

Mist wants the gas not completely dissolved, rather the gas itself hitting the plants rather than dissolved aqueous CO2.

You need a 10-20lb CO2 gas tank, see Fire extingusher places, Beer and ice houses, they often have cheap tanks.
A regulator and needle valve and a solenoid.(some places sell an all in one unit) The SW stone is about all you'd need, or the Reactor method would take a few minutes to make and about 8$ or so and a the cost of a maxi jet powerhead or a 250-400gph powerhead for the reactor.


Regards,
Tom Barr




Regards,
Tom Barr

Perhaps it should be emphasized that the "sweetwater stone" in question is the "fine pore" version, not the standard one. Or, Dave Gomberg (http://www.wcf.com/co2iron/) sells an Eheim diffuser, which has a check valve, a bubble counter, adequate tubing and the adapter needed to connect the two sizes of tubing used, for a very good price. I have been using this and it does give a good, fine bubble size.