BEWARE DIY CO2'ers(LOng)

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poormanisme

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Jan 19, 2003
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Well, I wake up this mourning to find my SAE's gasping for air at the surface of the tank. HMMMM...was my first reaction. Next, i notice the ottos and bristlenose pleco shooting to the surface every few seconds for AIR. Thats not good. Its early in the mourning and my brain is slowly putting 2 and 2 together. Yesterday was water change and Co2 bottle change. and if my eyes aren't deceiving me i can see about 2-3 bubbles a second goin into my ehim. OH SHI*, lots of Co2 and no surface disterbance = lots of co2, not alot of 02. AT this point its time to break out the ol' test kits. PH=6.0, you gotta be kiddin me. Well it was atleast 6.0 as that is the lowest reading on my tester. KH = 5. Lets see that equals, way too much co2. Ok, now i pull the co2 line out of my eheim intake. Pull the spraybar up so its making lots of suface disruption. Now a small water change. Thank God, things are looking better now, no more gasping fish, and i didn't loose anyone. The moral of my crappy mourning is be careful with DIY CO2. You can OD your fish with it. I wasn't too worried cause i thought it was extremely hard to have this happen with DIY but i now have personal experience to the contrary. Now the question is why was my bottle producing so many bubbles. I did the same thing i do everytime. 3 liter bottle, i add i packet of jello with a quarter cup of suger, some boiling water and let set in fridge for a few hours. Then, i add water up to the neck of the bottle and add a half cup of suger and a half teaspoon of bakers yeast, this can usually keep my 46gal at about 20-25ppm of Co2. I must have scooped in a few super yeast cells.:D Anyway, thanks for reading and be careful with the DIY.:)
 
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I did the same thing a few months ago. pH shot down, the fish weirded out, and the amano shrimp were all lying on their sides. Great case of crypto. rot afterwards as well. The rest of the plants looked fairly happy about it. The only side benefit was that all the bba turned red and died.

The good news is that an amano shrimp will eventually recover, even if it's only twitching one little toe. Takes a few weeks, though.

That's when I made the decision to go to pressurized CO2. For $150, I now can completely ignore it and it is always constant.
 
I'm pretty sure I have that same regulator, solenoid, needle valve, and bubble counter. Its awesome, and super easy to set-up. I got mine at floridadriftwood.com. I paid a lot more too :(. I don't have a ph controller. But for my setup its not really that essential.
Also, you might think about getting your co2 tank locally. Shipping a full tank is expensive....hazard freight. And , at least around here (minneapolis and st. paul, MN) most places just trade tanks. an empty for a full. I had bought a nice shiny tank online (empty), just to trade for some old thing. still works the same though.

peace out,
ian
 
I have the same exact setup. I got it from aquacave.com So far it seems to be working fine, it comes on and off as needed. I can't give too much insight on this as I am having CO2 reactor problems right now- so mainly the CO2 just stays heavily on - hopefully in two days I will be able to increase my KH/ decrease my pH and keep the CO2 off more often.
 
poormanisme,

lots of Co2 and no surface disterbance = lots of co2, not alot of 02.

--This is a misconception. C02 and 02 levels are interdependent of each other. Increasing the level of C02 should have done nothing to deminish the level of 02.

Also, your preferred method of dealing with the perceived problem could have had detremental results. The sudden removal of the C02 supply line, the creation of surface disturbance and a water change could have created a large upswing in the pH resulting in 'pH shock' that could have killed any number of your fish.

Just my $0.02 worth.

PP
 
If you're looking for local CO2 tanks, try homebrewer's clubs. Here in the DC area, Brewers United for Real Potables has a list of sources, with prices, on their website.
 
Originally posted by poormanisme
I think i found a pretty good deal on a co2 setup. Does anyone have any experience with aquatic-store.com. I can get a tank pretty cheap so this seems like all i'd need.http://www.aquatic-store.com/en-us/p_3024.html
Click to expand...

Aquabotanic has the same setup without the ph controller for $99. This is a good setup from what I've heard. All you need is a 5-10# tank and a diffuser and you're good to go.


<edit> Holy moly, they have the same thing without the PH controller for $70! Now that's a deal. I'm ordering one tonight!
 
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no worries PP, i kept an eye on ph every step of the way. Making sure to take it a little slower than my original post may have implied. I, however, am aware that co2 and o2 are independant, but my fish sure couldn't tell the difference, they were gasping at the surface like there was no tomorrow. I read somewhere that when co2 rises fish instinctively react by gasping at the surface even if their is sufficient o2. I am just glad i didn't loose any fish, and pressurized Co2 is on the way.

bobalston thanks for the link. My dad is a mechanic and does some welding so im sure i will have no prob getting a tank. :D
 
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