JBL ProFlora Bio80 eco, Bio-CO2 fertiliser system

The JBL bio Co2 kit is an excellent options for those who cant get a frequent supply of co2 and is full customizable to your preference.I have a 70ltr nano tank, i had a professional co2 setup that cost a few hundred pounds and it was a real pain to get co2 refills when i could i had to spend £50-60 on a tank that would last 40 days.Although i wouldent say this is a direct replacement for a professional co2 set up its certainly useful and does the job well. My co2 levels 24 hours arfter set up was just about border line acceptable.Tips.1. Make sure wheb you are using water for the set up, you pour the water into a jug first before dispensing into the co2 reactor. This ensures that you will not kill the yeast with water that is ether to hot or too cold.2. Buy your self a usb mug warmer, you can buy them on amazon for around £10 and infact the cheaper ones are better because they wont get too hot. Place the co2 reactor on the mug warmer this way you can 100% be sure that the temperature is warm constantly for the yest reaction.3. You can adjust the levels of co2 by mixing more then one packet of the refill mixture. If you have a 60-100L tank i would recommend you use twi refills in one reactor to get twice the amount of co2.4. You cant turn this thing off once its going so it will be sure you supply oxygen into the tank via an air stone.5. Place the defuser in your sump or filter compartment, this will smach the bubbles up even finer via the return pump.

3 stars for the bubble diffuser, 5 for the rest of the kit, 4 overall.Me and my setup so you have some context to help judge your own purchase. Novice tropical aquarium keeper, establishing a live planted 70lt community tank on a mix of sand beach area and the rest is gravel deep enough for plant roots. We only intended to have the minimum basic setup without CO2 so I went for easy care plants needing only regular fertilising. Two weeks after planting the plants were clearly doing okay but they weren't really growing as much as expected for the types and despite 8 hours of light and plenty of natural light the greens were still quite muted. I deliberately picked plants where leaf colour was a good indication of plant and tank health and after a few weeks they were just 'okay' rather than thriving.So I went for a low tech (and yes, cheap) biological CO2 system as a temporary measure to give them a boost and hopefully aid my biological cycle too.The kit was very easy to setup. On opening the box it all looks a bit complex but once unpacked and a quick look at the assembly diagram you see just HOW easy it is. I advise following the instructions about filling and starting the biological cannister as you are using yeast and wrong water temperature at the start could ruin the whole sachet. Also, before filling it up spend a good 10 minutes or so working out where you are putting it all, measuring tubes as you have to cut to length. I left myself a few centimetres on each hose so I could move things later if need be (I did and eventually shortened the hoses too).Really, setup end to end was very easy. I didn't bother using the double sided tape to stick the cannister holder to my tank as it sits safely behind it on a stable surface against the outside close to the heater.The results? After 5 days, the plants had gone so green and red they looked artificial and there were new roots and leaf growth everywhere. After 8 days I had to start pruning growth and spread. CO2 production started after an hour and is regular and predictable and it has also dropped the pH of my water a little too back toward neutral (hard tap water causes me slight pH issues at source).The diffuser is a bit rubbish. It is big and cumbersome but as this was only going to be a temporary kit to establish the tank it didn't bother me. It only releases a single large bubble so isn't putting CO2 into the water as effectively as a glass/ceramic one would with finer streams of bubbles. It is also very sensitive to angle and position. Even small knocks can easily interupt the bubble release, leaving CO2 accumulating in the system, meaning you have to be more careful than is practical when doing anything in the tank around it. If you intend this to be fitted permanently cost in the £10 for a better diffuser. But, it does its job as it stands, my plants show that.To sum up, I really recommend this. 70 lt is probably the biggest tank a single bio CO2 works with but this is cheap, easy to install and relatively low ongoing running costs. I got 5 weeks steady CO2 from the first sachet and you get another refill in the box, so at least 8+ weeks from the kit. Refills are also cheap enough to be a viable permanent addition for smaller tanks and this is an established brand and product too. So they are doing something right. I've gone for a better diffuser as the positive impact on my tank and the plants has been amazing and it is going to be permanent now given that I since deliberately added a plant classed as 'demanding' and it is thriving.If you are debating the need for CO2 in a live planted tank, I recommend you try it-the results are amazing. If cannister CO2 is way more than you want (expense and initial complexity) then I really recommend this bio kit as a starting point if your tank isn't too big.

I've never tried Co2 before and so I can't compare this. I found this when looking at the more expensive compressed Co2 kits for my 60L tank. This seemed like an affordable way to get into Co2. And if it didn't work then I hadn't wasted a load of money. I absolutely recommend this!! The instructions are very easy to follow, you literally just pour the powders into the bottle, add warm water and shake well. (The micro-orginisms produce the Co2.) The instructions say it can take up to 48 hours to produce Co2, however I had bubbles within 4 hours. I swapped the round bubbler that comes with it for a proper Co2 atomiser with a built in bubble checker, so I would get finer bubbles. I will definitely be buying the refill packs! Will have to wait to see if this helps my plants grow. But I am confident that it will.TIP: If it's not producing enough bubbles per minute, then very gently squeeze the bottle to force more Co2 into the atomiser. I did this and went from about 1 bubble every 90 seconds, to about 3 bubbles a minute. You will go through the Co2 faster if you do this though

It was easy to set up, but after 3 days I still wasn't seeing any bubbles. After checking the hoses and the check valve, I found the check valve included was faulty and wouldn't let any air through in any direction.I removed that and within a couple of hours the bubbles started to appear!I've put the reactor above the tank, so the check valve isn't needed thankfully.No point returning it just for the valve, hence only 3 starsApart from that, seems a good system so far.

This item has been a complete failure for me, I have double and triple checked the setup and followed all the instructions carefully yet it does not provide any bubbles at all. The original packing was damaged with Sachet A burst open in the bag - I tried it anyway and did not get any bubbles, rather than return i figured I would order a refill pack - this also did not produce any bubbles. I added luke warm water as suggested, the connector is facing the correct way (arrow towards the aquarium) I have waited 3 days now in the hope it took longer than suggested to ferment. For others this seems to be an ok product but i must have a dud. I will look at returning as it does not work as described.