CO2 goo strikes again!

Blinky

Blinky

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Jun 22, 2004
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Just a heads up for anyone injecting CO2 into their canister, goo can build up where you might not expect it...
I've been noticing a reduction in the flow rate of my FilStar. At first, I thought it was my imagination. Then I thought I just needed to be more diligent about rinsing the media. I cleaned the filter several times over the last week, nothing changed. I went back to thinking it must be my imagination.
This morning I woke up, looked at the tank, and thought... a-ha! I wonder if there's a buildup of mulm in the hoses, I should clean them. So I took the entire thing apart and cleaned the hoses, but really found nothing significant. Then I noticed I'd forgotten all about the intake strainer and tube. My DIY CO2 comes out through a bubble wall close to the intake, and bubbles often get sucked into the canister (if I inject it straight into the canister it tends to cause the filter to nearly lock up), so I wondered if there might be a buildup of goo inside the tube. Lo and behold, when I cleaned the tube out with a brush, an unbelievably huge glop of mulm and CO2 goo fell into the sink!
Needless to say, the flow rate is much improved :D

[edit] I should specify, this is related to DIY, not pressurized :) [/edit]
 
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Sorry if I missed something Blinky...what is CO2 goo? Is it from DIY CO2? Yeast something or another?
 
*Laff* I shouldn't take it for granted that everyone will know what I'm talking about here!
Some people refer to the substance as CO2 'snot', I call it goo. When you use DIY, it often causes a buildup of this opaque, gooey, gummy stuff on airstones, ladders, or anything else the bubbles run through. I clean my bubble walls regularly to avoid clogging and disastrous back pressure, but never thought to keep an eye on the uptake tube of the canister - it sucks in about half the bubbles, and built up one heck of a glob of goo! :)
 
Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww! Glad I don't do DIY. Have you tried drying it out? Maybe it would make a good chewing gum? Alternate fuel source? :idea2:
 
I find that the mix itself doesn't smell very nice, it's a strong smell of alcohol and a little like skunky beer, but the goo I found didn't smell bad - it grossed me out all the same ;)
 
i have a solution to stop the so called "goo" from getting into your filter, i saw this on another thread here but i cant recall where... take the tube that u run from your bottles of homemade co2 into your tank and put it in another bottle basically. fill this bottle halfway or so with water and stick the hose down into it. then take another hose on the top of that bottle and run that to ur tank. this way any "goo" that might go into ur tube gets trapped in the second bottle and stays there. plus this makes for a nifty little bubble counter :thm:



as you can see here my yeast prefers lime jello, haha

HTH!
 
I've read about this method, I really should try it - now would be a good time, all my hoses/tubes are sparkling clean and goo-free! Chalk it up to laziness, that and my husband not really wanting any more pop bottles full of gas than necessary piled up in the living room ;)
 
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