UP CO2 Atomizer

Edit: Just changed the title of the thread to give the name of the product.

Hello, thought some of you may be interested in this relatively new to the market CO2 diffuser, people are usually put off by the price of this one so buy something cheaper so its only beginning to become mainstream, its direct competitor is a quarter of the price ( I have lots of those:)) Anyhow I put aside my price predudice and took the plunge some time back to check it out and my findings are:

ITS THE BEST CO2 DIFFUSER EVER.......FACT:laugh:

cgi.ebay.ie/Aquarium-Co2-Atomizer-System...?hash=item25574383e5

Well, the best I have ever used anyhow, easily the best. Bit expensive for what it is when you see it in your hand, but when you see it working its awesome, definitely worth the price IMHO.

In order for the diffuser to work effectively you need to use pressurised CO2 ,you also need a decent regulator on your CO2 setup, preferably one with a dual guage. For the diffuser to work you need to use decent pressure output around 1.7-1.8 PSI any less and it doesnt work effectively or not at all, a seperate dial to read the output pressure is very handy here as you dont want to over do it!! A filter with good flow will help as well to distribute the micro bubbles around the tank that the diffuser produces.

Basically the idea here is that the diffuser is plumbed inline on the output side of an external filter, the diffuser produces tiny bubbles, micro bubbles in this case, almost like a mist, and they float around your tank in the flow produced from your filter, the longer the micro bubbles are suspended in the water the more CO2 is dissolved, in this case the bubbles are so tiny that they stay suspended for ages so the diffuser is really effective.

Other inline diffusers that I have tried produce larger bubbles to begin with and once out of the immeadite flow of your filter usually head straight for the surface of the water, they are effective but not half (quarter?? )as good as this one.

It comes in different 3 sizes for different size filter tubing. You can clean it by soaking in a light bleach solution neutralised afterwards with Seachem Prime or something like that, the membrane inside the diffuser will get clogged up eventually but the bleach clean works well with all these type of diffusers, this one has reports of not needing cleaning for several months at a time, some say 6 months plus, but I will believe that one when I see it, regular cleaning every few months is not such a chore though.

like to see a video on it working

JohnH wrote:

That certainly looks the business!
It's just a shame that - like most Hong Kong sellers they are making extra profit on postage!

John

John of course I agree but thats the oul price prejudice I was talking about earlier, once you accept you are getting ripped off you can get on with it. Unfortunatly there are only 2 sellers online the one I have linked above is the cheaper of the two.

Heres the cheaper alternative, much better price free postage and all! this one you can pick up for less than £5 inc postage and it does work quite well but the UP CO2 Atomizer is way way better. This one only fits 12-16mm tubing which is a major drawback as well.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/CO2-Carbon-Dioxide-Diffus...?hash=item439e620fc4

eire1978 wrote:

like to see a video on it working

Hi there, I dont have any personal vids of it in action but there are some on Youtube, the first one here shows it quite well, the CO2 basically comes out like an extremely fine mist, a couple of seconds into that vid and you can see it quite clearly, although that seems like a lot of CO2 to my eye, perhaps just for the vid he has it turned up high because tbh you can hardly see in normal use.

The third vid on that list 'Extreme pearling on plants' is pretty accurate as well IME, ever since I have started using the diffuser on a 100L tank I get serious pearling for the last couple of hours of the photo period.

www.youtube.com/results?search_query=UP+CO2+atomizer&aq=f

I was going to modify a phosphate reactor over the weekend for Co2.
Instead i will order one of these. It will save some space.

I have used the cheapo version of these and they do work, for a while. The bubbles are a bit big so more Co2 is used.

I have been using this for the last 2months or so and its great, connects on ur outlet of ur extrenat connect the co2 piping and away you go.

There is only thing dough, it says it difuses 100% co2 into the water with no co2 bubbles but on a lager tank( mine is 400l )it doesnt due to the amount of co2 being used, leaves a misty look to the water which is nice looking.

Also had to drill the holes in the sparbar coz again with the amount of co2 being used it was making spitting noises, just the co2 being forced out of the small holes on the sparbar.

Other than that it is a great piece of kit well worth it.

Alan

@ platty252 - It will be interesting what you make of it Darren I'd say you will be impressed. Reports around the web are good as regards longevity between cleans of the diffuser some people report many months without cleaning, running mine about a month so far.

@alkiely - Hi Al, interesting to hear another report, I wasnt sure how effective they would be on a big tank, I thought you might need to use 2 of them on seperate CO2/filter setups glad to hear its working out ok. What filter are you running on the tank? Im running mine on a 120 litre tank with a Tetratec Ex1200 and a Koralia nano 900L, for the output into the tank Im running a homemade lily pipe, no spraybar so no problems there and the koralia is pointing at the flow from that. I dont mind the mist either tbh, out of an 8 hour photo period the tank pearls for about 4 hours, CO2 goes off at night and on again 2 hours before lights on. Definitely the best diffuser I have used, if I get a year out of one of them I would be happy with that a few cleans in the meantime of course.

I think the atomizer is great way better than others ive used. Its a bit tricky at first getting the levels right as it uses less co2 than a regular difuser so you have to watch closely after setup to get ur levels right.

I had mine running for 9 hrs a day going on 2 hrs before lights and off an hour and a half before lights go off.

I used a tetratec ex1200, i was the same thought i might need to split my outlet but because it comes out of the sparybar it gets right around the tank no problems. Havnt cleaned mine yet no need to either ive watched it closely and its in perfect working order.

Alan

Hi,
I have 2 of them different sizes 12/16 and 16/22.
alkiely I think I've ordered the one for you. Sorry meant to write to you about the one I've got but completely forgot

12/16 is connected to JBL e900 and is running on 60L tank. This one I like most as you have to get really close to the glass to see the tiny bubbles it produces.

16/22 is connected to Tetra ex1200 on Rio400 as alkiely mentioned because of the size of the tank you need load of CO2 and you can see the bubbles in the tank but they are still smaller compared to the ones you get by using ceramic diffuser(I've used Rhinox 5000 before).
Also I have powerhead in the tank that blasts the bubbles around.

Now, it needs a lot of pressure to start going and takes time to set the right amount in the beginning but once you get the right setting you don't need to do anything.

I use only them on my tanks as I could not find anything better yet.

so what are the numbers for again? seen 8/12, 12/16, 16/22. i think i'll be running a 25mm hose off a return pump i am going to get, but am going to diy a spray bar for the back and side of the tank so can i use this attached to the spray bar or does it need to be dry? i can split it down to smaller pipes before it goes in the tank. do i put it close to the outlet or close to the pump? and by pressurised co2 i guess you just mean using a bottle not a fermentation kit? sorry for the noob questions but i want to get this right first time.

also i guess you have the spray bars under the surface, but do you have any surface agitation at all in a planted tank?

JohnH wrote:

As I have remarked at least once before - all I know about plants is how to kill them

John

Any of those I gave you survive the "plant Reaper" that is JohnH



Mark