"^*^ Vosklady ^*^" wrote in message
...
Hello . . .

I will be receiving some plants soon and have been wondering about CO2
injection. I've been reading all day regarding the subject at various
places
around the Net. I'm thinking of going the DIY route (yeast, sugar,
etc) and
I'm curious as to how I could use my Aqua Clear 802 Powerhead with
this
setup.

Also, my tank is a 55 so I'm wondering if I'd need more than one unit.

Any thoughts, help, advice would be greatly appreciated.

MTIA

~ Vosklady ~



That's a big tank for DIY CO2....but really it depends on the target
level of CO2 you want. For larger DIY needs, a 5 gallon water bottle
would probably produce enough volume for about 8 - 16 ppm of CO2....when
running well. This assumes you take the usual precautions about
reduction of tank aeration and get good absorption.

I am not familiar with that powerhead, but I have used a powerhead that
has a air Ventura design that I used to plug my CO2 line into. It
produced very fine CO2 bubbles that were absorbed fairly well. It was a
low volume powerhead and I pointed the output downwards and across the
tank. I think I got around 10-12ppm with my setup in its hey-day.

Perhaps you will get along ok without added CO2, or need a high level.
On the higher end of CO2 needs, most these days spend the bigger bucks
and get the fancy bottled systems. These are now readily available.
Used to be a scavenger hunt for the parts and adapters, but now they
sell complete systems.....They make good profits on the sales
considering what the parts are really worth, but they did do the work of
pulling all the right parts together....so I guess these folks deserve a
few bucks for doing it.

A 5 gallon water jug is about $8.00 at my grocery store.....and you
would need one of those one way air valves.. a little silicone and some
airline and your in business. The jug is a bit big, but......that's CO2
business... My neighbor was selling 2 big 5 gallon glass jugs at his
garage sale this past summer, for $.50 each.....and he ended up throwing
them away....Glass is much stronger than plastic in case the airline
clogs and the pressure builds up and it splodes.....but that's another
story.