Monday, July 6, 2009

Hydor CO2 Review

Part design and quality A+ (the parts seem to be made to exacting standards and made to last)
Customer support A+ (these folks were responsive and very helpful, I felt like I was working with an individual interested in helping me as an individual)

Update: my Hydor CO2 Green NRG Exclusive system continues to function well. The second canister installation was without incident. I am on day ten of bubbling at a rate of over 1 per second. I do hope to upgrade to a Hydor Advanced system with a larger tank soon!

If you are interested in my troubleshooting experiences see the links to the right.

My Hydor CO2 Green NRG Exclusive disposable canister depleted this morning after eight days. This system is for a nano to very small aquarium for sure. It could be that I lost some CO2 on setup, so I'll report how many days I get with each successive disposable canister. Oh, my bubble rate is about one per second for a 50 gallon tank. I suppose it's time to start looking for an upgrade. I'll be happy to transfer this system to a smaller tank however! In summary, Hydor customer support has been very responsive. They replaced my valve and two expended CO2 cartridges promptly.

With an update to the English translation of the instructions (see seventh Hydor troubleshooting blog entry), the Exclusive CO2 system is an elegant and user friendly solution to providing pressurized CO2 to the smaller/nano tank. I am considering the Advanced system for my upgrade. Reading more: The Hydor CO2 troubleshooting will continue as I'm not absolutely sure everything went well with this disposable cannister's installation. I did have some CO2 eject out the first safety hole before I could get the valve secured (twisted down sufficiently). I hope the silicone gasket did not tear! I'll keep you updated (all is well, see update above).
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Aquarium Blog: Day 15 planted- Cabomba!


Here's an interesting pic of the Cabomba (Cabomba caroliniana var. caroliniana,) I added five days ago. From what I read here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/pl...wing-stem.html it must happen when the plant is tall/floating. Ah well, not the mystery I thought it was. Interesting pic nevertheless. I guess I could ask y'all this: If I buried this stem would I get a lot of vertical stems, or would the plant continue to grow one stem, or rot? Oh, the female rams (Freon and Krypton) seem devoid of eggs today. At least Krypton does. She had been looking bigger day after day and exhibiting some interest in creating a spawning spot. The males (Boron and Xenon) seem much more interested in tank hierarchy issues. Reading more: I may have to setup another tank if I ever want to spawn the Rams. There may be too many fish or it could just be water conditions. We'll see.
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