DIY CO2 newbie support group

OK....dumb question but I am very new. Like yesterday starting new. Can you not use the little tablets that fizz like alka seltzer for Co2? That is what they were advertising them for. HELP so much to learn.
 
I think I may be bald, and in a sanitarium, before I figure this all out. LOL I shall keep reading.
 
lol....i can just imagine it now....every few days there will be a post in this thread of people proclaiming that they purchased their first pressurized co2 setup.

good luck folks! i was there once too...

Well I guess we'll see if I really want to throw this crap all away when I get to the time to switch to a new bottle or something, but I'm pretty happy with the fact that my setup is actually doing something at this point. I'm partway through adding a gas separator and two juice bottles instead of the one soda bottle, and more or less enjoying myself.


OK....dumb question but I am very new. Like yesterday starting new. Can you not use the little tablets that fizz like alka seltzer for Co2? That is what they were advertising them for. HELP so much to learn.

I have no idea. I assume those work something like the yeast method, but I don't know specific advantages/disadvantages.
 
Thank you cob freak, so much to take in, on my way to fish store to have water checked!
 
Thank you cob freak, so much to take in, on my way to fish store to have water checked!
it is a lot of info. you will get there!

buy a Master Test Kit. so you can test your water yourself. you should have one of these anyway. The price is always worth it, usually save yourself some money by purchasing online.
 
ok, so now our contraption has bottle to line to gas separator to line to check valve to line to airstone/chopstick to filter. Right?

And now someone innocently tosses in the word "reactor" where I envision 3 Mile Island. What is a reactor, where in this contraption would it be located, what does it do, how do you make one, are purchased ones expensive.

Is a reactor the same as the gas seperator? ....confused....
 
Let me talk out my a... let me talk like I know what I'm talking about again for a minute to answer. I think the reactor is the piece that I don't really have on mine. The reactor is what mixes the CO2 into the water. (Someone please correct me if I'm off base.) So in my case that's just the combination of the air stone (which I probably don't need at all) and the canister filter into which the bubbles are flowing. The filter mixes the CO2 into the water enough that... some more technical terms, blah blah... and out comes water with a higher concentration of CO2 in it.

I will post some pictures later of my new, probably not improved, generator/gas separator chain, before I try putting them on my tank. It'll help to show MY TAKE on what I've been reading.
 
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