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DIY CO2 Mixtu A definitive Answer?
Phil,
Are you using a homemade bottle and what is you bubble rate and recipe you use? Thanks, Frank "Phil Dietz" wrote in message om... (David Wee) wrote in message ... Problem is, the bubbles sometimes lose their "momentum" and just stop at a random place along its upward path on the series of ramps. This causes a "bubble" traffic congestion, and multiple bubbles start coalescing into one gigantic bubble that sits there for often 3 minutes or more. Try fiddling with the diffuser. A slight angle helps some folks. The bubbles will go faster in one direction, slam into the corner, then go slow in the other direction getting much smaller. Also of note, your bubbles will stop if you have a snail problem. Those buggers park themselves on the stairs....some even park themselves at the air tube end. I've had my Nutrifin since Nov. Only issue is a slight algae growth on the diffuser steps....my oto is small enough to fit, but it just doesnt want to :-) |
DIY CO2 Mixtu A definitive Answer?
It sounds like I must be doing pretty good with my DIY Co2 setup. I
am using a 2 liter bottle and the nutrafin diffuser. My tank is a 60 gallon. I use the following mixtu 4 cups of warm water, 2 cups of sugar, 1 tspn yeast. Gently shake together and in approx 20 minutes it is ready for the tank. I get 1 bubble oer second with this setup which will last for about the first 3 days. From there, the bubble count will slowly reduce to 1 bubble every 3-4 seconds or so. I change the bottle every week. I did find that the "red star" brand of yeast seems to work better than the others (not sure why). This setup has provided my 60 gallon tank with more than enough Co2. My plant growth has been excellent and the ph stays steady at 7.6. I get pearling throughout the entire tank. One thing I experimented with and think works well, is that I made sort of a non-flow area in the tank. In other words, one half of the tank has a lot of water flow as provided by the aquaclear 500 power filter. the other half of the tank has almost no current since I planted lots of tall plants such as cabomba, hygro, foxtail, ambula, and anubias. This is also the side where the Nutrafin diffuser is located. I think that the calm water allows for much more diffusion of the Co2 into the water. The plants on the side with the current show signs of Co2 fertilization since they are pearling as well and are growing steadily. I have also found that the Co2 bubbles will get "stuck" to the wall of the Nutrafin diffuser quite frequently. Any more suggestions for this one? I hope this helps anyone willing to try. Dave (David Wee) wrote in message ... In article om, Robert Flory wrote: "David Wee" wrote in message ... Another thought: It seems that one can achieve a maximum CO2-water diffusion *rate* with a powerhead/filter intake + bubble system, but retention of the CO2 will be based on the water chemistry (pH, kH, not clear on this, but indeed it seems chemically related). check out http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm Assuming no other buffering ions... there is a direct relationship between pH, KH and CO2. Chuck Gadd has a calulator ... "The formula used for this calculation is: CO2 (in PPM) = 3 * KH * 10( 7-pH ) where KH is Carbonate Hardness in degrees. " The (7-pH) is an exponent, the formating got lost in the cut and past. Ahh. So is "CO2 = 3KH * 10^(7-pH)" an equation or a function? I.e. CO2 = f(KH, pH). The differentiation matters if KH and pH are independent of each other, so I am asking if kH and pH are independent. I don't think water chemistry has anything to do with CO2 retention. That is controlled by somebody or other's laws (hey it been 30 years since college) that govern diffusion and etc. Yeah, I think i used retention and current capacity equivalently, when I should have made the distinction. Dave -- |
DIY CO2 Mixtu A definitive Answer?
Interesting. So you have alot more total yeast that way.
What type of bubble rate are you getting? "Phil Dietz" wrote in message m... "Frank Mamone" wrote in message ... Phil, Are you using a homemade bottle and what is you bubble rate and recipe you use? I use the Hagen CO2 bottle. I use a semi-standard recipe: fill 1st line with sugar put in 1/4 teaspoon baking soda pour in proofed yeast starter dump in 1/4 teaspoon of wine yeast fill to next line with warm water (dont shake) For proofed yeast starter: stir 1/4 teaspoon of quick-activing yeast in a 1/4 cup warm water that has 1 TBS sugar in it. Let it stand until its foamy on top. I found that using wine-yeast alone is "hard to start" and "fizzles" after a few days. So I mix in quick-rise bread yeast. My last batch lasted about 1 month which is comparable to those special packets one can buy from Hagen. I might try the Jello recipe next time. |
DIY CO2 Mixtu A definitive Answer?
Eric, glad to hear your getting the same results as I am with the Red
Star yeast. By the way, I also found that the Co2 production lasted much longer using this brand over the others. dpots Eric Schreiber wrote in message . .. (dpots) wrote: I did find that the "red star" brand of yeast seems to work better than the others After reading this yesterday, I bought some Red Star yeast last night, as I had run out of what I'd been using. Holy cow, this is a lot more active. I put a new bottle on my two-bottle setup perhaps two hours ago. At this moment, I'm getting a bubble rate of more than three per second! I've never had this level of CO2 production before, even with two fresh bottles of the other brand I was using (yellow-ish packets, forget the name). It'll be very interesting to do a pH reading in a few more hours to see what effect this has, and also to see how long this yeast continues the high production level. Thanks for the recommendation. |
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