"Rick" wrote in message
news:27HIb.885704$6C4.321223@pd7tw1no...

"Harry Muscle" wrote in message
...
What's your average cost for each batch of DIY CO2 mixture? How often
do
you mix a new one. What size is your tank?

I'm just trying to decide if there's big price difference between going
DIY
CO2 versus Flourish Excel (which is $17.99US for a 8-12 month supply).

Thanks,
Harry




more importantly, what is the size of your tank Harry?. DIY is cheap
enough.
I mix 2 cups of sugar with about 1 1/2 liters of water, 1/4 tsp of yeast
and
a pinch of baking soda. The problem with DIY is somewhat unstable PH
levels
as the CO2 productions falls off from the initial new batch so your PH
raises or lowers depending onthe amount of CO2 going into the tank. I
found
that many recommend using a 2 liter soda bottle however I am presently
using
2 x 1 gallon glass jugs in a 33 g heavily planted tank. One bottle
wouldn't
do much of anything.

Rick



It's a 55G. I'm just trying to compare options, cause if I go with Excel,
I'd spend 18US a year. If I divide that by the 3 weeks a DIY CO2 thing
usually lasts, I'd get 1.04US per batch, which means that if I can't mix up
a DIY CO2 mix for significantly cheaper than that, I'd rather stick with the
convenience of Excel since there would be almost no price difference. I do
agree that CO2 does probably provide somewhat better results than Excel, but
Excel is said to work pretty good.

Thanks for everyone's input,
Harry