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DIY CO2 Instructions?
Excellent suggestions and information from all of you. I am going to
give them a try on my new 60gal set up as well as a 30gal and 20gal as well. I am going to experiment with some of your different recipes and DIY systems and post the results later. I appreciate the help. I am going to order the Nutrafin CO2 system and try the diffuser too. Thanks, dpots "Owen Graupman" wrote in message news:%8mR9.6298$wQ1.1428@fe01... I'd like to add my $.02 worth on DIY systems... Here's my recipe for a more (IMHO) successful DIY CO2. Since switching to this method, I've had far better success with DIY CO2. Instead of changing bottles every two weeks or so, I'm changing them every 6 to 8 weeks. Use a small plastic soda bottle. I bought a 6 pack of 24oz Wild Cherry Pepsi's. The 1-liter bottles also work well, but don't use anything larger! Drill a hole in the top and insert a silicone air line just like you would for a 2 liter bottle. I like to seal the airline with silicone just to make certain there's no leaks. I discovered a while ago that after a time, the silicone would leak around the edges of the joint if I didn't. For my yeast recipe, put a little warm water in the bottom of the bottle (about 1/4 cup) and add 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to the mixture (BTW, I've discovered no difference between the quick-rise, bakers and champagne yeast using this method). Cap the bottle and shake well to mix the yeast. Now fill the bottle half full with sugar, then about 1/4 full with water and a dash of baking powder. That should leave about 1/4 full of air. Gently invert the bottle a few times to make sure all the sugar is wet, but _not_ dissolved. Leave the bottle in a sink or tub for a couple of days, so that when the yeast starts reacting, any overflow doesn't make a mess. Attach to an airline with a check valve and an airstone at the end and place so the bubbles get swirled around by the filter outflow. For the check valve, I use one's I found at Petsmart that have a small chamber filled with filter floss, which acts as a miniature drop container (for the occasional bubble that goes up the tube). Each bottle puts out about enough CO2 to keep a heavily planted 20-30 gallon tank at around 15ppm and in my home tanks (2 20gals, 2 30gals and a 5) they last around 7 weeks (some only six, some up to 8). If you have a larger tank, add more bottles. I built a bracket for the bottles on the inside of my stands, so I don't have to worry about them getting knocked over and hence, don't use any sort of drip container in case the mixture overflows. If you decide to use one on your setup, I recommend using a tiny container (I like those miniature water bottles I get on airplane flights), otherwise the mixture will peter out sooner. Well, FWIW... -Owen Graupman "Jason" wrote in message ... I use a 1gal wine jug (glass) for my DIY method... Basically you can buy a cheap jug of wine for about $6, get a stopper at Ace hardware for about $1.70, tubing for about $2, and the DIY recipe ingrediants. (about $4 which will last a year or more) I also bought a Tetrafin check valve since I have my bottle in the tank stand (these cost about $2) (this prevents resverse siphoning). Anyway, the options are really limitless, but here is the recipe for DIY co2: for a 2 litre bottle concoction: 6 cups water 2 cups sugar 1 tspn yeast (NOT the quick rise stuff, but either bakers or brewers yeast) for a 1 gal container: ~12 cups of water (fill until a little over 3/4 full) 4 cups sugar 2 tspn yeast. (again, NOT the quick rise crap) These concoctions should last about 2 weeks per batch. If you use this in a 60 gal aquarium (mine is 63gal), MAKE SURE you have a co2 test kit handy... I found out after a couple of weeks that my co2 levels were in excess of 50ppm which is toxic for fish... -Jason "dpots" wrote in message om... I am setting up a new 60g plant tank and want to try to us CO2. Is a DIY set up appropriate for this size aquarium. If so, what type of DIY set up do you recommend (recipe, bottles, tubing, ...). My LFS sells the Nutrafin CO2 system for $30 and I was considering purchasing it just for the diffuser and tubing? Good or bad idea? Leigh, if you read this message, I think your posts are very informative and your web page link is great-THANKS! Thanks, dpots |
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