I know I'm getting into this late. But, this thread has caught my attention.

Alex R wrote:

If the pH is not changing, that means there's no extra CO2 being dissolved
from your generator.

Not necessarily true. My first tank that I injected DIY CO2 was a little 10
gallon moderately planted tank. This tank never did register any pH drop for
the first few weeks I was adding CO2. BUT.....from the next day and ever
afterwards my plants were pearling like mad as they had never done before. That
would seem to mean that the plants were taking in all of the added CO2 that was
being injected. Enough such that there was never any excess CO2 to cause the pH
to drop.

Judge by the plants response as well as the pH to determine if the CO2 is
getting into the water.


And it's obvious why. You're using an airstone to
diffuse your CO2 gas. DIY CO2 cannot be diffused successfully because the
pressure needed to run an adequate diffuser must be much higher than the
yeast generator can produce.

Different stones perform differently. I've run DIY CO2 into several different
stones and have others on hand that I haven't tried yet. I have yet to find a
stone that has so much resistance that the CO2 couldn't make its way out. Some
stones will put your CO2 hardware to the test as far as being leak-proof,
though. Seems the better stones, read that stones that make very fine bubbles,
need more pressure and a solid leak-proof setup. The wood 'air-stone' is my
favorite at the moment.


A powerhead would work much better in your case
because it would act as a reactor. Or you can inject it directly into your
power or canister filter. That's what most people do, I believe. Your CO2
level should increase overnight as much as it will ever increase.

Personally, I'm going into the canister intake. As you say, it doesn't take
long at all to see what the CO2 level is going to be.


One thing I see all the time about adding CO2 and extra lighting that just makes
me nuts. ......or would that be more nuts?

It seems most people do this bass akwards.

Everyone wants to add extra lights and then get around to adding the CO2 'if I
need it'. Seems to me, there would be way less grief if the CO2 were added
first, THEN add the extra lighting. There would probably be way less
complaining about algae.

My first tank with 1 wpg and too much direct sunlight contained tons of algae
when I started adding the CO2. The algae just went away of its own accord.
I've never had much algae (just a couple of spots on the glass at the filter
outlet) in my second tank with the CO2 and about 1.5 wpg and the plants grow
very well.

--

Scott Lewis