DIY Co2 Generator recipe

[Jspigs]

cool that helps me a bit.
So I just do all this and stick the hose in the water and let it go?

You need something to diffuse/dissolve the co2 into the water. If you just stuck the tube into the water with nothing to diffuse/dissolve the co2 then the co2 bubbles would just exit the tube and then go straight up to the surface and pop resulting in the co2 just being dispersed into the atmosphere. One way to diffuse co2 is to take a bamboo chopstick/skewer that fits tightly in the tube and break off the pointy end then stick the pointy end in the tube tightly leaving some of the chopstick/skewer sticking out of the tube and the place the end of the tube tube with the chopstick/skewer sticking out in the tank. The co2 will be forced to pass through the chopstick/skewer and when it emerges it will be in the form of extremely tiny bubbles that allow much of the co2 to dissolve in the aquarium before the bubbles reach the surface of the water.

If you have a canister filter/powerhead you can simply skip the chopstick/skewer thing and just stick the co2 tube into the intake of the canister/powerhead and the filter media and/or impeller will break the co2 into tiny bubbles that very quickly dissolve into the aquarium. Sometimes when using a canister filter to diffuse the co2 the co2 bubbles dissolve before they leave the canister resulting in co2 rich water exiting the canister.

Hope this helps .

 

[Michwol42795]

You could also put some type of bowl above the tube forcing the co2 to stay in the water and dissolve.

 

[Dr. Awkward]

I'm probably the only person who has switched from injecting CO2 with a "real system" back to DIY. I like DIY better for nano tanks, and since I only do nano tanks now this is what works for me. I think the hardware plays a bigger roll in the system than the yeast recipe. Here's what I use:

Sturdy 46 oz. juice bottle plus extra lid, I use V8 Fusion because it's extra sturdy
Airline tubing and check valve
Duetto internal filter with airline imput
Silicone
Kneaded eraser

I drill a hole in the juice bottle lid slightly smaller than the airline tubing. Insert tubing 1-2 inches into the hole and seal with silicone, let dry overnight. Once dry wrap small piece of kneaded eraser around top of silicone seal and push down to remove any holes/bubbles. If I don't do this the silicone seal eventually fails. Cut airline tubing and put check valve in place. Insert end of airline tubing into Duetto filter.

Recipe for yeast mixture:
1 cup + 1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking yeast
1/8 tsp. baking soda
Hot tap water

Put cup of sugar and baking soda into juice bottle, fill bottle with hot water up to curve in bottle. Shake with extra lid until sugar is dissolved. Put yeast, 1 tsp. sugar and 1/4 cup hot water in cup, stir and let sit one minute. Add yeast mixture to sugar mixture and shake again. Quickly remove lid and replace with airline tubing lid. Turn on filter and your done.

This recipe gives me a constant supply of CO2, enough to keep my tanks at 30ppm for one month. I replace when drop checker starts to turn dark green. The reason this works so well for me is because I use a sturdy bottle and diffuse the CO2 with an internal filter. If I use a flimsy bottle with the filter the bottle collapses. If I use ceramic or glass diffusor instead of the filter I don't get near the CO2 output.

 

[JimL]

I'm probably the only person who has switched from injecting CO2 with a "real system" back to DIY. I like DIY better for nano tanks, and since I only do nano tanks now this is what works for me.

Well, thanks for all the input, after trying several different ways of doing it I just have to admit that DIY just won't do on an 80 Gallon tank.
I've gone pressurized with the Doctors Forest & Smith system. Works like a charm. It's only been a week and already I can see some growth on my plants.

 

[midnightmadman]

This sounds amazing. I cant wait to try it. I always have the V8 fusion bottles too!
I have a 90 gallon with just some low light plants, but would like to get them to grow nice and healthy. Will this be enough co2?

THANKS

I'm probably the only person who has switched from injecting CO2 with a "real system" back to DIY. I like DIY better for nano tanks, and since I only do nano tanks now this is what works for me. I think the hardware plays a bigger roll in the system than the yeast recipe. Here's what I use:

Sturdy 46 oz. juice bottle plus extra lid, I use V8 Fusion because it's extra sturdy
Airline tubing and check valve
Duetto internal filter with airline imput
Silicone
Kneaded eraser

I drill a hole in the juice bottle lid slightly smaller than the airline tubing. Insert tubing 1-2 inches into the hole and seal with silicone, let dry overnight. Once dry wrap small piece of kneaded eraser around top of silicone seal and push down to remove any holes/bubbles. If I don't do this the silicone seal eventually fails. Cut airline tubing and put check valve in place. Insert end of airline tubing into Duetto filter.

Recipe for yeast mixture:
1 cup + 1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking yeast
1/8 tsp. baking soda
Hot tap water

Put cup of sugar and baking soda into juice bottle, fill bottle with hot water up to curve in bottle. Shake with extra lid until sugar is dissolved. Put yeast, 1 tsp. sugar and 1/4 cup hot water in cup, stir and let sit one minute. Add yeast mixture to sugar mixture and shake again. Quickly remove lid and replace with airline tubing lid. Turn on filter and your done.

This recipe gives me a constant supply of CO2, enough to keep my tanks at 30ppm for one month. I replace when drop checker starts to turn dark green. The reason this works so well for me is because I use a sturdy bottle and diffuse the CO2 with an internal filter. If I use a flimsy bottle with the filter the bottle collapses. If I use ceramic or glass diffusor instead of the filter I don't get near the CO2 output.

 

[Dr. Awkward]

If you set up several bottles and piped them into a couple filters it would probably work fine, but I think you'd be getting in to "big hassle" territory. One bottle wouldn't work for 90 gallons.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

just a thought (and i'm totally clueless still when it comes to supplementing with co2), but would one of those large blue culligan water jugs work for diy co2 on large tanks? could you have multiple airlines coming off the bottle to a few small internal filters so that the co2 is distributed evenly throughout the tank?

or am i just talking silliness? lol.

 

[FishSuperStore]

Can anybody tell me how this works, Do I run this threw an air line threw the bottle and into the top of a power head?

I would really like to build a Co2 system for my planted tank.

Thanks for your support.

 

[midnightmadman]

Sounds like an awesome idea! Anyone else know if this would work?

just a thought (and i'm totally clueless still when it comes to supplementing with co2), but would one of those large blue culligan water jugs work for diy co2 on large tanks? could you have multiple airlines coming off the bottle to a few small internal filters so that the co2 is distributed evenly throughout the tank?

or am i just talking silliness? lol.

 

[Barnacle]

Currently I have a big storage tub with a bunch of plants awaiting the setup of my big tank. I had a tiny water pump from one of those lizard water fall deals so I dropped that in to circulate the water.

For Co2 I just got one of those glass sparkling cider bottles, drilled a hole in the plastic cap, sealed around the tubing twice to be safe, and just put the end of the tube right on the intake for the pump. This seems to do an excellent job of breaking the large bubbles into tiny bubbles that stay in the water a lot longer. For a mixture I put in about a half capfull of yeast (probably a tsp or so) and an unmeasured amount of sugar, but I'd estimate a cup or two. This seems to work really well on the small scale at least. When I go larger I plan on hooking a few bottles up and refilling one every week or so.

On a side note, if you do experiment with DIY Co2 never overfill your bottle... my very first attempt at this project a couple years ago, I overfilled (Too much yeast too I think...) and the foam from the yeast got to the airstone I had at the end and pluged it up. Not really thinking I tried to pull the airstone off and the built up preasure caused nasty foam to spray all over the place...