Anyone with experience with the Co2 Splitter?

[pipsqueak]

Hi, I bought the Co2 splitter(3 ways) from that fish and pet place. Its the plastic one, and the knobs to adjust the individual flow of co2 are brass(?).
Anyway, I've been having problems adjusting the pressure, ie: flow of co2 via cermic glass diffuser was little, if not, none. And flow of co2 via airstone was too much. It "exploded" in a fury of bubbles when I turned the valve a little bit.
And when doing so, the co2 flowed out of the airstone only and none from the ceramic glass diffuser.

My conclusion, It's a pressure problem, the ceramic requires more pressure to force the co2 out while the airstone dosen't.

Can anyone confirm?
And if that's the case, are my options for co2 injection limited to the same type? As in, I can only use the same ceramic diffuser for 3 tanks, and not a ceramic/reactor/airstone for each individual tanks?

I'm really stumped, after trying to adjust the pressure accordingly, but everytime the airstone ends up "exploding" in to bubbles and nothing comes out of the glass difuser.

[Simon]

would be nice if u can take a pix of it

[PeterGwee]

Airstones don't need that much pressure to push through..which is why you get explosive of Co2 bubbles...

Imagine hooking up an airpump to a ceramic diffusor...you get no output..why?..It needs large pressure to push through. []

Okay..remember that air flows through the easiest path it can take --- CO2 ceramic diffusor (Needs a lot of pressure to push through..CO2 trys to avoid this path)...Airstone (Not much pressure needed to push through..CO2 would rush out through this way...).
You can only solve the problem by using ceramic diffusors for all or airstones for all.

Oh...one more thing..airstones are no good for good diffusion of CO2...most are wasted. Diffusors are better but external reactors are the best (expensive though).

[tawauboy]

i doubt the splitter will do the job properly. the plastic parts will wear off much quicker than brass parts and leaving you with a useless splitter.

to enable both ceramic diffusers and air stones to be used simultaneously in you setup, you'll need to have individual needle valves for individual diffusers and air stones. this will allow precise individual flow control.

using single needle valve for 3 ceramic diffusers/air stones is not going to work also. maybe okay for a very short time while the diffusers/air stones are new. once they start to clog up, the resistance to co2 flow will be different and co2 will flow through the one with the least resistance.

nature aquarium has multi outlet needle valve but not sure if there is stock available. petmart has a dual needle valves and cost 100++.

[timebomb]

Nic,

I'm no longer doing it now but for a long time, I was feeding CO2 to 3 fish tanks from one gas cylinder. I was using a DIY CO2 splitter assembled from parts bought from the hardware stores around Kelantan Lane.

I would advise that you do not use ceramic glass diffusers as quite a high amount of pressure is required to push the CO2 bubbles through the piece of ceramic. Ceramic diffusers also exert a "back pressure" on the splitter which can be a big problem. For instance, you would find that even when all the diffusers are tuned perfectly to give off the same amount of CO2, things will change when your solenoid valve shuts down the system. You will discover, that sometimes, the bubbles will be charging through one diffuser like crazy and there's nothing coming out from the others. In such cases, chances of all your fish dying from CO2 poisoning are very high.

The pressure required to push the CO2 bubbles through the diffusers will be different and will vary according to what diffuser you are using, how far the tank is from the gas cylinder and also how high is the diffuser in the fish tank. There are many variables and it can be quite a headache trying to tune the bubbles to make them all come out at the same rate in different tanks.

There's a way around the problem though.

Use spiralling glass diffusers. It exerts very little back pressure and you don't have to worry about the CO2 being dumped into one tank. Even when it happens, no harm will come to your fish as the bubbles will shoot straight through the spirals and evaporate into thin air. For the spiralling diffusers to be effective, the rate of bubbling has to be quite slow. Spiralling glass diffusers are cheap. They cost between $10 to $15 each.

It would also be a great help if you get yourself 3 bubble counters. Rig the counters close to the splitters so that you don't have to run from one tank to another to monitor the rate of bubbling.

Loh K L

[pipsqueak]

Hi, this is the co2 splitter I got at That Fish And Pet Place.
I believe the "brass" parts are the "needle valves". Are they?

I'm currently running just on the left spiltter,with no problems injecting co2 into one of the tanks.Before turning in frustrated, I figured I'll need 2 more bubble counters. Guess It's best to get 2 more then, since I already have the splitter, and the spiraling diffusers. I'm gonna give it another go this weekend. I'm hoping to use the airstone for one tank, as I don't want too much co2 being dissovled in it.
But anyways, thanks for the help/clarifications everyone!