Bubble size in bubble counter related to PSI? Having difficulty getting regular bubbles at a regular interval.

[Hal3134]

I just set up my Geo Calcium Reactor. I have an Alan Le dual stage regulator. Per Alan's suggestion, I set the operating pressure for the regulator at 20 PSI. I am getting large bubbles followed by a much smaller bubble, and often 1 large bubble followed relatively quickly by 2 small bubbles (maybe 1/3 the size of the large bubble), and then a large time gap before I'll get another largish bubble. I read in another thread on here that a user turned their operating PSI down to 1-5 PSI and got more regular bubbles. I'm debating whether to experiment with my regulated pressure and wanted to know if you had any experience with this?

 

[Snoopy 67]

I ran pressure low, BUT you have to overcome what's in the reactor.
Anything under 3 PSI & I got no bubbles at all. When I overcame that I got better bubbles.
I also found that Glycerin in the bubble counter slowed down the rising of the bubbles making it better.

 

[Hal3134]

@snoopy67 how “low” is low?

 

[Snoopy 67]

Just enough to overcome water pressure inside the reactor.
I needed 4 PSI but yours could be more or less depending on the reactor itself.

 

[Hal3134]

My water column above the CO2 check valve plumbing is about 16 inches, so that’s only about 1/2 psi. I don’t believe the reactor is pressurized because the output line from the reactor doesn’t have any valving. So it should only be the back pressure of the water column plus whatever force is needed to overcome the spring in the check valve.

what operating pressure do you have your CO2 tank at? The 4 psi?

 

[Snoopy 67]

NO, the 4 PSI comes from the regulator, the tank is 15-20 PSI.
Water has to flow through a 1/4" tube, that increases pressure a little too.