starting my CO2 DIY, any tips?

[Dave M. Picklyk]

Hey guys...thanx to all your support I've finally ventured into the unknown
and will be starting my CO2 project. I've cut the end off my intake on my
Aquaclear filter intake pipe and put tubing through it. Then I have attached
a check valve on the tubing. Drank a 2 liter of diet grapefruit pop (yum!),
drilled a hole in the cap and attached the other end of the tubing with
silicon. Tommorow night when the silicon is cured I'm planning to start
brewing! I'm going to buy a carbonate hardness tester so I can use it with a
Ph tester to figure out C02 levels with a chart I gleaned from Chuck's
Aquarium pages http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm.

Currently I have 2 wpg, (PowerGlo & LifeGlo bulbs), a 15 gallon long tank, 2
corys, 3 otos, 1 beta, about 1.5 inch river gravel, some java fern, a little
dark green broad leaved bush plant I can't identify.

I've added some Ferreal+spureal for iron and trace elements. There's no
traceable nitrates in the aquarium however...and that slightly worries me-->
should I add some KNO3? Feed the little tikes more so that they can poop
more ? :) .(I'm planning to get about 12-15 cardinals in the near future
that should help this issue a bit)

Any tips or suggestions so far? I'd love to hear from you :)

THANX!!
Dave.

[Dave]

"Dave M. Picklyk" > empowered us with this mighty blow
against the Patriarchy:

> Hey guys...thanx to all your support I've finally ventured into the
> unknown and will be starting my CO2 project. I've cut the end off my
> intake on my Aquaclear filter intake pipe and put tubing through it.

Hi Dave, this is Dave.

Did you cut the entire end off? You didn't leave enough space to allow
fish to get sucked in, did you? ;-)

>Currently I have 2 wpg, (PowerGlo & LifeGlo bulbs), a 15 gallon long
>tank, 2 corys, 3 otos, 1 beta, about 1.5 inch river gravel, some java
>fern, a little dark green broad leaved bush plant I can't identify.

I'd suggest adding some fast-growing plants, such as hygrophilia
polysperma or water sprite.

Where'd you get the dark green broad leaved bush plant? Keep in mind
that many LFS's will sell you terrestrial plants which may look good at
first, but will die after being submerged in your aquarium for a while.

If you can post a digital picture of the plant, I bet someone in this
newsgroup can identify it.

You might enjoy this page:

http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-list.html

> I've added some Ferreal+spureal for iron and trace elements. There's
> no traceable nitrates in the aquarium however...and that slightly
> worries me--> should I add some KNO3?

You may want to consider observing how your plants grow after adding
CO2, for a while. If it's satisfactory to you ... I personally wouldn't
bother with adding KNO3. Keep things simple. I can never measure
nitrates in my planted tank, I've never added any source of nitrate, and
my plants are doing fine (I trim they every 2 or 3 weeks).

[Jim Miller]

Hi Dave

I'd suggest going down to the grocery store and getting a 64oz bottle of
juice then drinking that! ;-)

Seriously, the soda bottles are notorious for tipping over and spilling the
contents into your aquarium or onto your rug. The juice bottles have a
number of advantages: their lower profile and full width base dramatically
lowers the likelihood of tipping, stronger sides with builtin handles means
easier to carry especially if damp, wider mouth for filling.

As far as fitting the line don't bother with the silicone cement. Instead go
for a compression fit by drilling the hole smaller than the airline, cutting
the airline end on an angle and pull it through with a pair of pliers. This
will give you a leak free fit that will last a very long time.

Besides, juice is better for you!

have fun

jtm

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[Dave M. Picklyk]

Great idea with the juice bottle! I'm going to do that on the next
concoction. Currently I have a check-valve and the bottle is safely below my
tank a few feet so it can't tip into it :) Hopefully it being lower doesn't
affect the performance of the C02, I guess if there is gas pressure and it
only has one way to go so it doesn't matter the position of the source.

thanx for the ideas!
Dave.

"Jim Miller" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dave
>
> I'd suggest going down to the grocery store and getting a 64oz bottle of
> juice then drinking that! ;-)
>
> Seriously, the soda bottles are notorious for tipping over and spilling
the
> contents into your aquarium or onto your rug. The juice bottles have a
> number of advantages: their lower profile and full width base dramatically
> lowers the likelihood of tipping, stronger sides with builtin handles
means
> easier to carry especially if damp, wider mouth for filling.
>
> As far as fitting the line don't bother with the silicone cement. Instead
go
> for a compression fit by drilling the hole smaller than the airline,
cutting
> the airline end on an angle and pull it through with a pair of pliers.
This
> will give you a leak free fit that will last a very long time.
>
> Besides, juice is better for you!
>
> have fun
>
> jtm
>
> --
> Remove NOSPAM for email replies
>
>

[Dave M. Picklyk]

> Did you cut the entire end off? You didn't leave enough space to allow
> fish to get sucked in, did you? ;-)
Hehe, yeah I did actually. But the tip that I cut off is only the diameter
of tubing. And that tubing is snaked right into the hole and up about 1/2
ways into the intake pipe. No chance of anything getting into there.

> I'd suggest adding some fast-growing plants, such as hygrophilia
> polysperma or water sprite.
I'd love some. But our LFS suck down here. They have nothing. If someone
would be willing to give me plants or clippings I'd pay for shipping them
down :) !!

> Where'd you get the dark green broad leaved bush plant? Keep in mind
> that many LFS's will sell you terrestrial plants which may look good at
> first, but will die after being submerged in your aquarium for a while.
No...it's grown about 6 new leaves in the last couple months that I had it.

> If you can post a digital picture of the plant, I bet someone in this
> newsgroup can identify it.

Check it out! The dark one with the broad leaves towards the bottom of the
picture http://www.okcomputerworks.com/Aquarium-02-DEC-2002.jpg

> You may want to consider observing how your plants grow after adding
> CO2, for a while. If it's satisfactory to you ... I personally wouldn't
> bother with adding KNO3. Keep things simple. I can never measure
> nitrates in my planted tank, I've never added any source of nitrate, and
> my plants are doing fine (I trim they every 2 or 3 weeks).
Sounds fine to me. Well, we'll see how well they are going to do. I just
hooked up the concoction tonight...guess it takes a few hours to start...who
knows, I'll probably be up all night watching for the first bubbles eheehe
:)

Dave.

[Jim Miller]

the problem with tipping is that the fluid gets forced by the pressure of
the co2 into the tank.

yeukkk!

jtm

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"Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
a...
Great idea with the juice bottle! I'm going to do that on the next
concoction. Currently I have a check-valve and the bottle is safely below my
tank a few feet so it can't tip into it :) Hopefully it being lower doesn't
affect the performance of the C02, I guess if there is gas pressure and it
only has one way to go so it doesn't matter the position of the source.

thanx for the ideas!
Dave.

"Jim Miller" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dave
>
> I'd suggest going down to the grocery store and getting a 64oz bottle of
> juice then drinking that! ;-)
>
> Seriously, the soda bottles are notorious for tipping over and spilling
the
> contents into your aquarium or onto your rug. The juice bottles have a
> number of advantages: their lower profile and full width base dramatically
> lowers the likelihood of tipping, stronger sides with builtin handles
means
> easier to carry especially if damp, wider mouth for filling.
>
> As far as fitting the line don't bother with the silicone cement. Instead
go
> for a compression fit by drilling the hole smaller than the airline,
cutting
> the airline end on an angle and pull it through with a pair of pliers.
This
> will give you a leak free fit that will last a very long time.
>
> Besides, juice is better for you!
>
> have fun
>
> jtm
>
> --
> Remove NOSPAM for email replies
>
>

[chet]

"Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
...
> I'd love some. But our LFS suck down here. They have nothing. If someone
> would be willing to give me plants or clippings I'd pay for shipping them
> down :) !!

I don't have any plants or clippings to offer, but you should check out a
couple of sites

http://www.trueaquariumplants.com (I'm a customer of theirs and very, very
happy)
http://www.azgardens.com (i've heard good reports), and
http://www.aquabotanic.com/index2.cfm

You should be able to find most of what you could possibly want (at least in
terms of aquatic plants)

chet

[SLEngst]

Dave, on your small tank you might consider 2 one liter bottles rather than
one 2 liter bottles, changing the solution in one of them each week. Join them
together with a brass "T". Also, the glue seal won't last forever. One way to
keep the seal tight for a longer period of time is to install a quick
disconnect. They're tiny and terrific. The great feature is one side will
valve shut when they're disconnected. If that side is upstream (toward your
filter system) this prevents losing CO2 from the second bottle and also
prevents O2 going into that bottle - and it reduces stress on the silicon glue
seal. You might also want to unscrew the bottle from under the cap as opposed
to unscrewing the cap off the bottle. I think the quick disconnects can be
purchased through MarineMonsters and/or Florida Driftwood or...

[Dave]

"Dave M. Picklyk" > empowered us with this mighty blow
against the Patriarchy:

> Great idea with the juice bottle! I'm going to do that on the next
> concoction. Currently I have a check-valve and the bottle is safely
> below my tank a few feet so it can't tip into it :) Hopefully it being
> lower doesn't affect the performance of the C02, I guess if there is
> gas pressure and it only has one way to go so it doesn't matter the
> position of the source.

I was having problems not getting enough CO2 into the tank, and found that
it was my check valve. I think that over time, they gum up or whatever and
start giving more resistance to CO2 flow, which can force a leak at your
CO2 bottle. Check valves are great to have but you may need to replace
them every now and then. Just an FYI.

[Dave]

"chet" <chet-at-surewestDOTnet> empowered us with this mighty blow
against the Patriarchy:

>
> "Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
> ...
>> I'd love some. But our LFS suck down here. They have nothing. If
>> someone would be willing to give me plants or clippings I'd pay for
>> shipping them down :) !!
>
> I don't have any plants or clippings to offer, but you should check
> out a couple of sites
>
> http://www.trueaquariumplants.com (I'm a customer of theirs and very,
> very happy)
> http://www.azgardens.com (i've heard good reports), and
> http://www.aquabotanic.com/index2.cfm

Also http://www.wetplants.com

[Dave M. Picklyk]

Hmm thanx for letting me know about the check valve. How often do you change
them?

"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> "Dave M. Picklyk" > empowered us with this mighty blow
> against the Patriarchy:
>
> > Great idea with the juice bottle! I'm going to do that on the next
> > concoction. Currently I have a check-valve and the bottle is safely
> > below my tank a few feet so it can't tip into it :) Hopefully it being
> > lower doesn't affect the performance of the C02, I guess if there is
> > gas pressure and it only has one way to go so it doesn't matter the
> > position of the source.
>
> I was having problems not getting enough CO2 into the tank, and found that
> it was my check valve. I think that over time, they gum up or whatever
and
> start giving more resistance to CO2 flow, which can force a leak at your
> CO2 bottle. Check valves are great to have but you may need to replace
> them every now and then. Just an FYI.

[Jim Miller]

actually i found that the check valve leaked at the seam on my setup. i went
nuts trying to find it. i got rid of it altogether.

jtm

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"Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
...
Hmm thanx for letting me know about the check valve. How often do you change
them?

"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> "Dave M. Picklyk" > empowered us with this mighty blow
> against the Patriarchy:
>
> > Great idea with the juice bottle! I'm going to do that on the next
> > concoction. Currently I have a check-valve and the bottle is safely
> > below my tank a few feet so it can't tip into it :) Hopefully it being
> > lower doesn't affect the performance of the C02, I guess if there is
> > gas pressure and it only has one way to go so it doesn't matter the
> > position of the source.
>
> I was having problems not getting enough CO2 into the tank, and found that
> it was my check valve. I think that over time, they gum up or whatever
and
> start giving more resistance to CO2 flow, which can force a leak at your
> CO2 bottle. Check valves are great to have but you may need to replace
> them every now and then. Just an FYI.

[Dave]

Well, I've only replaced mine once, and I would guess that that one was
about a year old. Then again, I don't know how much quality control they
put into a $1.50 piece of plastic, anyway. ;-)

"Dave M. Picklyk" > empowered us with this mighty blow
against the Patriarchy:

> Hmm thanx for letting me know about the check valve. How often do you
> change them?
>
> "Dave" > wrote in message
> ...
>> "Dave M. Picklyk" > empowered us with this mighty
>> blow against the Patriarchy:
>>
>> > Great idea with the juice bottle! I'm going to do that on the next
>> > concoction. Currently I have a check-valve and the bottle is safely
>> > below my tank a few feet so it can't tip into it :) Hopefully it
>> > being lower doesn't affect the performance of the C02, I guess if
>> > there is gas pressure and it only has one way to go so it doesn't
>> > matter the position of the source.
>>
>> I was having problems not getting enough CO2 into the tank, and found
>> that it was my check valve. I think that over time, they gum up or
>> whatever
> and
>> start giving more resistance to CO2 flow, which can force a leak at
>> your CO2 bottle. Check valves are great to have but you may need to
>> replace them every now and then. Just an FYI.
>
>