the safe way to control co2 in the tank with diy is through waste of the
excess either through diffusion efficiency or through surface turbulence.
jtm
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"Harry Muscle" wrote in message
...
I've been playing around (in my head) with the whole idea of using DIY CO2
instead of presurized CO2 (cause of the cost and safety). However, it seems
like the biggest disadvan of DIY CO2 is the inability to control it
properly. It seems like the only way to control it is to adjust the
mixture, but even then you still get different levels of CO2 being released
into the tank throughout the life of the mixture. So I've been doodaling
around with different approa o control the release of the gas from DIY
CO2 and I thought I'd share one and see what everyone thinks of it.
The basic components are the 2L bottle which creates the gas and the box
(which doesn't actually have to be a box, but I'll call it that) to store
the gas. I would connect the bottle to the box with a hose. The box would
store the gas, however, to prevent excess gas pressure from building up, I
would have one of those back flow air valves (the ones you put between an
air pump and the aqarium) connected to the box to vent excess pressure.
Inside the box I would place an air pump that would be connected to a 2:1
valve which would vent some of the pumped CO2 back into the box and the rest
into the aquarium. This way you would have a constant flow of CO2 from the
pump and you can adjust it by varying the amount of CO2 pumped back into the
box instead of the aquarium. The box would be slightly pressurized so there
would be lots of CO2 even when the bottle encountered a low period of CO2
production.
Obviously the bigger the box the better since more CO2 is stored. I was
thinking of maybe using one of those 4L juice bottles since they are pretty
thick. I'm just unsure if they will fit a pump through the neck. In any
case, something like a 4L juice bottle could be used. Also to prevent all
of the slightly pressurized gas from escaping whenever you have to change
the CO2 producing bottle, I would put a valve in the hose connecting the
bottle to the box which can be closed when you disconnect the bottle.
So, what do you guys think. It's still pretty cheap (main reason why most
people go with DIY) and it might eliminate one of the biggest pit falls of
DIY CO2. Anybody see anything that I might be missing, something that might
go wrong or not work.
Thank you very much for everyone's input and feel free to try this out
yourself,
Harry
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