Vaughn what kinda bubble counter do have?
I am just manually counting the bubbles but does seem to concur with what Tom is saying. I would have a dead tank in hours at 3 bubbles per second.




Tom I searched Froggle for the Aqua Via brand didn't get any of the main online stores supplying that brand, I think Pet Solutions had them. Kinda worried about that and future support of the product then.
Do you know of a place to get them?

What would be your next choice?

My bubble counter is one I made from a syringe. It is the body of the syringe, with a plastic check valve stuck thru the plunger piston, which has the plunger stem cut off, and the check valve/piston glued into the body to avoid any leaks. The needle end is a good fit inside my tubing, but is clamped to be sure of no leaks. I would suspect leakage, but the rate of bubbles going up the counter just about exactly matches the burping noises from the rotor. Very obviously not nearly all of that CO2 dissolves into the water, but with a CO2 mist you don't expect or want it to. I will do a lot more experimenting and checking when I move everything into the bigger tank.

That tank will have a continuous water change system, and has about 50% bigger footprint, but the same length as the 29 gallon tank, and is about 3 inches deeper. Much better for aquascaping.

Ok then, I am thinking your bubbles must be alot smaller then the ones in my bubble counter. That has to account for the difference in our bubble counts.

It is entirely possible that bubble size accounts for at least half of the difference, but I doubt if it accounts for all of it. I used to have two bubble counters in series - the Milwaukee one on the regulator and a built-in one on the Eheim diffuser. Those disagreed by a factor of about 3, because the diffuser counter saw much smaller bubbles.

Hi,
I think Marine Depot sells them:

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...ex.asp?CartId=

And all things Ehiem.

So you can decide.

The Tom's*(no relation) nano canister is cool, 80 gph, 37$.

The Via Aqua 300 is about right, get extra sponge sets.
Your bubble rate is still pretty high even with the size diameter issues.

But you have a good avatar!
Botia are one of my favorite genera.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Very good, thanks for the help, advice and avatar comment. I love those two!
Bought them to clear out my snails but they really are a pair of comedians, love watching them.



Rob


Update: I just wanted to add some info that changes the thread and info contained.

Ok I was treating a two of my three Rummynose tetras for what looked like to be some type of fungal growth. It's on the top part of their heads right behind the red part, some metalic golddust looking spotting.
I was using Pimafix and Melafix.

I thought something was strange when the one rummy that didn't have any of this spotting started breathing really hard and hiding in the back acting sick. Starting searching forums and found that these meds can cause the fish to start to have trouble breathing. Yesterday on my lunch break at the LFS the guy I was telling all this to, said it might just be some natural color that developed on the rummys.

Ok I get home last night and put some carbon in the filter container to start removing the meds, this morning the one rummy was still hiding out and breathing hard from what I could tell with the lights out, but, tonight when I got home from work he was breathing only half as hard as last night and is partly schooling with his two buddies, and came right out to eat when dinner was served.

Ok ... everyone is breating easier now including myself.

Still questions remain and more observation and experimentation needs to be done. I've brought my co2 up about 40 bps and the fish look fine, still 20 less than when I swicthed. Tommorrow after work I'll bring it back up to 60 and see what happens then.

I apologize to everyone for not mentioning the meds, but I did not even think about their effects until after my one rummy started panting.

Thanks again for the help.



Rob