Recently replaced my internal "ceramic ring" reactor with the Boyu external diffusor (I borrow Nasfish's picture to illustrate). It's 3 times cheaper than the Vista one that 88 is selling. The diffusor is fixed just before the inlet to my Jebao (secondary) cannister filter. The whole reason for the replacement was to:

1. increase efficiency of CO2 dissolution
2. reduce clutter
3. increase flow in my 4ft tank via introduction of a second cannister filter and a surface skimmer to remove surface oil

I am contemplating whether to go back to my old setup (using the internal reactor) as my Boyu does not seem to be doing it's job. The CO2 seems to be trapped in the cannister coz I can't see any bubbles coming out and my plants aren't pearling. Moreover, the Boyu seems to be leaking (there is liquid buildup in the see-thru area and the newspaper underneath the difussor is damp (two days in a row now). I doubt it's a piping issue as the pipes are secure and tight (impossible to disconnect unless I cut it).

What should I do?

Attached Images

 

Forgot to add... would like to know if anyone else is using this method and if they are having better performance or issues...

You should place it at the outlet of your canister. If you place it at your canister inlet. It will make your canister as CO2 reactor. The CO2 increase in your canister will kill all the bacteria.

Goto lfs and check out how they placing the diffusor or reactor. The picture you posted is the external CO2 reactor. Not diffusor. Diffusor is the one with ceremic inside the tank.

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Reactor or diffusor... whatever lah... the box says diffusor if I'm not mistaken. Anyways, I already have the Eheim II 2028 for my biological filtration. The Jebao is purely for mechanical filtration and also to super dissolve the CO2 (at least that was my initial intention)... and I did check the LFS. 88 Pandan Indah does it this way coz they already have one cannister for overall filtration. The CO2 injected cannister is definately not for bio filtration....

Using canister as CO2 reactor is not a good idea. Especially you are using china made canister which will cause the air lock. End up burning up the motor and you need to spend like RM80 to repair it.

So, from what you did and you said the plants are not pearling. Your tank shown you the result of using canister as CO2 reactor. You should know what happen.

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hahaha..now u know why its 3 times cheaper hor....murah punya mana mungkin ada baik punya. this boyu can pakai la...its a bit troublesome but boleh pakai,...come to my shop i show how to setup.
88 people simply karate one la when it comes to equipments...coz most of them there are novice too...unless the 88 boss...then can trust.

btw 2 cannister filters for 4 footer?...waa brader u want to have wave so plants can dance ah?

for my 4x2x2.5...im using only one jet 3388...and even that..the water outlet flow is set at the minimum. slow, i mean very very slow water movement is what u should aim for...not a rapid water atmospere.

the question remains...why u wanna change a winning formula...your plants are pealring before...and now this.
i for one dont incourage the introduction of air into cannister filters...german or chinese made it doesnt matter ...but having air in your cannister will be an invitation to disaster..unless u have a deep pocket...boleh beli baru punya.

surface skimmer is a must...plug it to your inlet vavle...and your external reactor at the outlet vavle ...end of the story ...simple...and less headache using only one cannister.

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BTw i would like to add....there are thousands and thousands of equipments designed for aquarium use ...but not all of them are usable.

just because the manufacturers say it would do this or that it doesnt always mean they are telling the honest truth. it doesnt matter to them if u found out latter it doesnt work ...the main point is u had to pay to find out...and thats what this gimmick low cost product is all about...it doesnt matter if u curse them and swear never to buy that product again...they only need u to purchase ONCE...coz there thousand and thousands of folks out there who will buy it ONCE!

Then comes the serious part ...a dude buys a dud..yet he doesnt know about it..and starting recommanding people how good that dud is...and u believe!

Look at the product yourself...give some hard consideration to it...and common sense will tell u ...if the product boleh or tak boleh pakai.

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Ha... you're a funny guy, ari. Time is limited for me but I would definately like to visit you shop one of these days. Maybe in the meantime, you can tell me how you setup the Boyu diffusor? Use it as the entry point (submerged) for the cannister? or don't even involve the cannister?

Animated plants... ... Actually, my setup didn't pearl last time coz there was not enough water movement in my tank, the CO2 could not reach some areas and the plants had hair algae. I fixed some extra underwater spray bars and the CO2 distribution improved and plants started pearling and hair algae dissappeared. However, there were still some dead spots and BBA seem to grow there. Moreover, pearling takes a damn long time to happen... maybe after 4 to 5 hours. So I decided why not add a new cannister into the picture as I wanted a super-polished water (there were particles floating in the water indicating my beneficial bacteria were not at their full potential), I wanted to improve CO2 dissolution, I wanted to add a surface skimmer and I wanted to add water movement to "dead spots" in my tank. That's where the Boyu came into place.

I can understand that rapid water movement will oxidise plant nutrients faster but I still wanted to experiment to see if things improve.

Like I said, if I could make things more efficient I would give it a try. My formula isn't exactly winning (yet)... BBA still can grow where there is little CO2. The water is still not clear enough. Plants takes too long to pearl (plan to implement a new fert regime which I will do as soon as I finish off my so-so Azoo ferts...)

I guess my question here is:

Which one is more efficient at CO2 dissolution? The "ceramic ring" reactor or the Boyu Diffusor? Visually, it looks like the reactor is more efficient. I just put the reactor back in last night to see if things go back to normal. In the meantime, second cannister is out of commision right now... awaiting feedback from fellow forumers.... I'm also doing karate aquascaping man....

dun worry too much about dead spot....if the plants are growing then just leave it alone. abt BBA...a couple of SAE would solve your problem...this i can assure u. but get the True Sae ..not the fake one.
i would go for the ceramic defussor...why?...i have been using this for a long time...

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