has anyone ever poured carbonated water into their fish tanks? I guess it puts CO2 into the water and is good for plants. is there a certain brand that is safe? thnaks!
DIY forms of CO2 injection
- Thread starter Hans
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Never done it, but:
I can't think of anything *wrong* with pouring some Perrier into your water, well, it seems like an expensive and complicated way to get CO2 into your water.
Part of the problem would be how do you get the gas to stay in your water? What type of reactor? Sure, there's a fair bit to start with, but I expect that the turbulence produced pouring it into your tank would waste a lot back to the atmosphere.
And isn't that stuff durned costly? For the money you'd spend trying to keep your CO2 up with bottles of carb., you'd easily afford a pressurized system...
Those things aside, so long as there aren't any flavour, colours, or sugars, i.e. if you're just talking straight carbonated spring water, there's no reason why it should do any harm...
I can't think of anything *wrong* with pouring some Perrier into your water, well, it seems like an expensive and complicated way to get CO2 into your water.
Part of the problem would be how do you get the gas to stay in your water? What type of reactor? Sure, there's a fair bit to start with, but I expect that the turbulence produced pouring it into your tank would waste a lot back to the atmosphere.
And isn't that stuff durned costly? For the money you'd spend trying to keep your CO2 up with bottles of carb., you'd easily afford a pressurized system...
Those things aside, so long as there aren't any flavour, colours, or sugars, i.e. if you're just talking straight carbonated spring water, there's no reason why it should do any harm...
Never tried it or even thought of trying it. Somehow it doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Hopefully someone will have something more substantial to say.
Hard to adjust. A marine biologist friend actually uses soda water to anesthetize his fish, so overdosing is bad. Plus, it will leave solution pretty quickly. Like happychem said, it will be an expensive, inefficient way of adding CO2.
Its been tried before... I can't exactly remember where I've read it, but one person did pour a bottle of carbonated water into their fishtank... I believe the end result was a bunch of gasping fish, and no improvement in plant growth.
The others are right, there is no way in controlling how much CO2 gets into your tank if you use this method, its expensive (compared to a bag of sugar, some yeast and an empty soda bottle), and it does little or nothing in terms of adding CO2 to a tank.
-Richer
The others are right, there is no way in controlling how much CO2 gets into your tank if you use this method, its expensive (compared to a bag of sugar, some yeast and an empty soda bottle), and it does little or nothing in terms of adding CO2 to a tank.
-Richer
While we're on the topic, is there a sitcky in the DIY section (or maybe here?) for a good Jello & Yeast CO2 reactor?
I've been holding off until I set up my 33g, but I got some plants from a moving friend and decided that I might as well get my feet wet. But I was just guessing at the amount of sugar, so to be safe, I guessed low, so now I'm only getting about 1 bubble per 7 seconds.
Anyway, just thought a sticky would be helpful for those who wanted to try. Any improvements, modifications could be added as they arose...
I've been holding off until I set up my 33g, but I got some plants from a moving friend and decided that I might as well get my feet wet. But I was just guessing at the amount of sugar, so to be safe, I guessed low, so now I'm only getting about 1 bubble per 7 seconds.
Anyway, just thought a sticky would be helpful for those who wanted to try. Any improvements, modifications could be added as they arose...
http://www.plantedtank.net/co2reactor.html
Another link to a DIY reactor..
Richer, it might be useful to sticky this thread. There used to be another good article by John Levosoier(spelling) but I can't find it by google. I *think* it was on Aquasource and that's off line it seems at the moment.
Another link to a DIY reactor..
Richer, it might be useful to sticky this thread. There used to be another good article by John Levosoier(spelling) but I can't find it by google. I *think* it was on Aquasource and that's off line it seems at the moment.
You know, as I was fiddling with the CO2 input to my canister filter, I realized that I am simply generating weak soda water for the plants. Yeah, I know, I won't win any awards for how fast myu brain works.
Maybe one could hook up a soda water input to the filter, and regulate the liquid flow, rather than the usual thing of counting bubbles. I bet it would still be really expensive, but may have uses on tiny tanks or something.
Maybe one could hook up a soda water input to the filter, and regulate the liquid flow, rather than the usual thing of counting bubbles. I bet it would still be really expensive, but may have uses on tiny tanks or something.
Takashi Amano describes doing this in plant only "Nature Aquarium World" Book One when he was younger. His aquariums were plant only at the time and it really seemed to help. His concern was that most carbonated waters also have high mineral levels, especially salt so it means weekly water changes area must to keep those levels low.
Also I saw soda water mentioned above but it is different from carbonated water. Soda water contains sugar as well.
Also I saw soda water mentioned above but it is different from carbonated water. Soda water contains sugar as well.
