Jungle Fizz Factory v. DIY

and the winner is... DIY, by a mile.

I was nervous about going through the hassle of building a DIY co2 reactor so i bought the Junge thing. After wasting nearly 7 of the tabs and hating the fact that the instructions require that the chamber be placed at water level (i have an acrlyic tank with odd cut outs so this was a pain and very ugly), I decided to give the DIY a go.

My biggest complaint was that there wasn't constant co2 infusion. All of the gas is created within the first 2 minutes and then it "absorbs" into the water within the next 2-4 hours. This just doesn't sound right to me, but that is how it works. My concern was that with each water change i was removing some of the co2 that I had just put in the day before... kinda defeated teh purpose... plus the tabs run about $6-$12/month depending on the amount of coverage you have and the # of gallons.

So i went to the grocery store bought some bakers yeast and a cheap 2 liter. Drank some of the soda and then drilled a hole in the cap 2 or 3 sizes smaller than my tubing. Cut tubing at an angle and pulled it through with plyers. Air tight. I did add some sealant as an added measure. Ran a four foot tube down under my stand.

I put warm/hot water in teh 2 liter up to 3/4 full. Then I took one cup of sugar and poured it in the bottle shook it. Then I put one cup fo water in a measuring cup (for liquid) and made sure it was between 100-110F (which was easy as that was the temp of our hot water right out of tap. Added one teaspoon of yeast and gently stirred. waited five minutes and did another soft stir. Poured it in the 2 liter and screwed the lid on tight. Nothing happened right away. I am using the chamber from the jungle kit and there was a small amount of air trapped in one corner... otherwise it was full of water.

When I got up this AM, prepared for utter failure, I didn't see any bubbles. However, upon closer inspection I noticed that there was no water in the chamber... just gas. It was then that I noticed the bubbles coming (probably 2/second). Did some adjustments with teh hose and the bubbles increased. Now I have a constant 450cc of co2 in the chamber. It will burp about every fifteen minutes and some of the co2 escapes. But other than that, it works great and was super easy.

I have a power head with a venturi port is that what you mean? Wouldn't that just cause all the co2 to gas out? If you have instructions for a DIY difusser that would be cool. thanks.

jpappy, how would i diffuse through my canister filter. I have the Fluval 205 (love it btw). It has ball valve like thing of the intake valve. How would I ensure that the gas was going into the filter and coming back out? That would be ideal (although I have a pretty cool little plan on how to make a powerhead powered diffusing that uses nothing but chewing gum, duct tape and 16' of bailing wire...

See that's just it, I don't think you can do that on my filter as it has a ball valve thing in the intake tube. Can't recall what they call it, but it keeps water from flowing into the canister when there is no pressure. and also keeps large debris out. I could drill a small hole in the line and then insert it after sealing it with silicone i guess; but i would be concerned that would mess up the self priming feature on the canister. I will give my power head idea a try and see how it works. Thanks for info.

jpappy, I shall never doubt you again... when I got home I made my DIY diffuser using some aquarium tubing and a power head. It was really cool, but left my tank full of micro bubbles (don't like that). So I got to thinking about your suggestion and realized that bubbles float (duh!). All I had to do was reposition my intake a bit and insert the co2 line in the right place and viola... the bubbles magically went up the intake tube. Works like a charm.

My only concern is that the instructions say not to put any air into the intake line (I am assuming that they mean like an airstone or an air pump). Will the co2 produced by the DIY 2 liter cause any problems with a fluval 205 canister filter? I can hear the co2 going into the canister (sounds like a very quite burp). I can't imagine that it would cause any damage, but wanted to make sure as I am very happy with teh filter. Thanks again for the ideas and assistance.

hahaha. yep. Takes me a while, but I usually come around... usually. The amazing thing was how fast it worked to lower my ph to 6.8. With the Jungle thing, my ph did not drop at all (which I assume was due to inefficient co2 saturations). this AM, after just under 12 hours of shooting it through my canister, the ph has dropped to where i thought it should have been 6.8 (formerly 7.4). I read somewhere that a .6 drop is to be expected. So I will eagerly wait for my plants to take over my tank, ahahaha.