questions about CO2 system

[zar]

Hi all,

i've recently got myself a 2nd hand co2 setup, consisting of ca. 850g co2 bottle, sera pressure regulator, sera bubble counter and reactor.
i've been running it in my tank but i'm not sure if i'm doing everything correctly and have a few questions:

1. I read that the reactor should not be placed close to the intake of the canister filter, is this true, if yes, how far away is OK?also should the reactor be placed close to the bottom of the tank?

2. the reactor itself is connected to the bubble counter and to the canister spray bar, a hole i drilled at the end of the spraybar and the i've put the co2 hose into it. what i realize is that the water pressure going through that hose is a lot less than the water spraying out of the spraybar holes, so i was wondering how strong does the water flow have to be that comes into the co2 reactor?

[ILLUSN]

any chance of a few pics?
is the spraybar driving the reacter?

[zar]

Too lazy to make pics now illsn, the spray bar is driving the reactor, i think the best thing for me is to get a co2 test kit and see whats going on..i'll do that and see how it goes.

but generally, is there rules to where to put the reactor?

[ILLUSN]

I always put mine near the intake of the canister, so as any microbubbles released are sucked up and further disolved by the filter.

[zar]

OK, thanks for that ILLSN. I'll see how it all goes now, it's only been running for a few days, not sure if it made any major difference, my green tiger lotus seems to have grown fairly quickly, not sure about the other plants yet.
Adjusting the bubble count seems to be pain though, i adjust it to what i want, it runs like that for a few days and then it slowly starts becoming slower and slower...i guess i need some time to get used to the gear.

out of interest, if i would like to sell this setup, which i dont want to at the moment,
soda stream 850g bottle,
sera pressure reducer, bubble counter, reactor,
how much is this worth? i got it as a part of a whole setup, and havent seen sera in my local LFS..i'm guessing somewhere around $200 or more?

[ILLUSN]

Try upping the pressure to about 4psi, that fixed the problem with mine.

i reckon you could sell the setup for about $ 150-200, theres a lot of cheepies on ebay for about that price.