CO2 Reactor

[wikiboy]

I just got a CO2 reactor with 5 bio balls in it. I also got a pump of 520 l/h to pump water to it's inlet. What's strange is that the CO2 reactor keeps pushing out very fine bubbles. Can anyone advise if this is normal? Or the pump is too strong for this reactor?

[christopher.wtc]

Hi Wiki, I got a feeling that you may be over discharging your CO2 till the extend the your reactor cannot cope with the excessive amout of CO2. Thus CO2 gas just flow out as bubbles. Nothing bad actually, only wastage of CO2. Try lowering your bubble count if you wanna optimized your CO2. Good luck bro.

[hann]

I agree with Christopher. Prior to using reactor, are you using a diffuser? You must have excessive outflow of CO2 to your reactor. You cannot use the same flow for diffuser and reactor. Reactor is more effective than a diffuser.
For my reactor, I will only see the fine bubbles after 3 hrs of CO2. This could be due to accumulation of CO2 in my reactor which results to this.

[wikiboy]

Thanks guys. Yes, i was previously using diffusor. Now i have already step down the flow to about 2.5bps and situation has improved. I have also found out that if i remove one or 2 bioball, the config is optimum (without any fine bubbles spitting out)

[essabee]

Keeping the amount of CO2 a constant (This allows you to maintain the CO2 level you want for the tank) you should adjust the water flow, lowering the flow rate so that it does not push the bubbles out of the reactor.

I make my own reactors and I have tried bio-balls initially, but I found they don't do anything in the reactor but cause CO2 mist. Some like it but I don't.