DIY CO2 recipe for 20oz bottles

[jones57742]

Bk828: I very much appreciate the time which you spent in preparing your post and & Sp I appreciate your significant input also.

Yall are responding as I typically do: someone asks what time it is and I believe that in order to appropriately answer their question I explain the construction of a Swiss chronomator.

The space which I have available is usurped by a two liter bottle.

The first 24 hours after I implemented the generator the liquid was fairly clear but a significant quantity of "foam" was present on the surface of the liquid.

During the second 24 hours the liquid has become a milky white and the foam on the surface of the liquid has decreased.

1) Is my generator producing CO2?

2) Also anyway to tell other than by plant growth if the generator tube, the terminus of which is approximately half way into the tubing from the sump to the tank return pump, is inducing CO2 into the tank water?

TR

 

[Spewn]

But there is a stiochiometrically correct formula assuming that your yeast will die off once the alcohol reaches a certain percentage and that you are producing essentially all of your CO2 as a result of anaerobic fermentation. Taking these factors and the specific gravity of your typical cane sugar into account, you get very close to a 3:1 volume:volume ratio of water to sugar. This is enough sugar, per unit water, so that the yeast consumes the last of the sugar just as the alcohol concentration is reaching lethal levels.

I've done the math on this. Trust me.

What species of yeast?

 

[Sploke]

Most likely Saccharomyces cerevisiae - normal brewer's yeast/bread yeast.

 

[Bk718]

Jones, One way to tell if the CO2 is being diffused in the tank water is by the use of a drop checker. Ebay has them at fairly cheap prices: Link
That drop checker as most drop checkers work on a color system. Basically green is good, blue is not enough and yellow means 2 much. Thats probably the best way to know if theres co2 in the water. Ofcourse theres another way by using the ph/kh chart:

I cannot tell you much about the whole foaming situation since out of all the times I had ever made my mix, I never had foam. And my mix always turns cloudy (slightly milky white) at the point where I add the hydrated yeast. Try and look closely at the bottle that the mix is in, on mine for example, you can notice tiny bubbles, as if a soda is gassing off.

 

[Squawkbert]

Most likely Saccharomyces cerevisiae - normal brewer's yeast/bread yeast.

That is correct, not that it matters except for the alcohol tolerance. All yeast species take one sugar molecule and generate 4 CO2, 1 ethanol molecules from it during anaerobic fermentation (if memory serves - I don't have a copy of it in fromt of me).

With a bottom fermenting yeast (champagne yeast in particular), you can shoot for ~14% alcohol while you have to plan for bread yeast to die off closer to 10%. That is significant as it means you can dump about 40% more sugar in the mix if you're using champagne yeast - and expect the same increase in total CO2 output.

re: repeated failures to generate CO2 - the only other thing I can think of is do you wash your bottles before you make your mixes? If so, how thoroughly are you rinsing the soap out of them? Yeast does not like the antimicrobial agents found in many soaps.

 

[Sploke]

Close - I can usually get about 14% out of washes with bread yeast. Most champagne yeast (i.e. Lalvin EC-1118) is good up to closer to about 18%.

Here's the reaction:

 

[James0816]

Nice scientificy conversation going here. ;o)

Sploke, I use absolutely no soap in the bottles what so ever, strictly very hot water rinses several upon several times.

 

[jones57742]

Nice scientificy conversation going here.

I agree but the posts do answer my question!!!

I am familiar with the graph set forth in BK's posts but the results are ambiguous.

Am I generating CO2 and is the CO2 evident in the tank water?

The best way that I know how to ask the question if that after 5 days should I observe an effect on the ecosystem of my tank?

TR

 

[Bk718]

Its hard to tell if you will see results within first few days, a week or a month.. Considering you are running a wet/dry system, so not sure exactly how much co2 stays in the water and how much gets gassed off. I guess give it a few weeks and then see if you can tell a difference in growth compared to before co2 was hooked up.

Whether you are generating co2 and is the co2 evident in the tank water, this once again brings us to the drop checker. It will tell you if your generators are producing enough co2 for the tank and also tell you whether you have successful diffusion.

 

[jones57742]

Folks:

I very much appreciate the time which yall have expended in helping me with this issue!!! (Please believe me here! I know as I have spent tons of time helping folks with respect to issues in which I believed that I was competent with absolutely no appreciation).

Yall's time in helping me is greatly appreciated by your favorite West Texas Redneck!

In the last post which was by BK282 he/she indicated that
Its hard to tell if you will see results within first few days, a week or a month.

I believe that the CO2 generator is functioning and that the CO2 is being induced into the tank by very qualitative observation of plant health and growth.

This health and growth may being exhibited in a significantly reduced period than I believe BK282 anticipated, although please note that his/her post indicated first few days as a probability, due to my lighting intensity.

I had what I believed to be an aesthetic planted tank. I purchased many distinctively marked silver dollars (dumb! dumb! dumb!) which were dime size. When they reached like 2" my plants began going away and several weeks were expended in my ascertaining the cause. I re-homed the silver dollars but my plants were either stalks or stubs.

I had 260W of PC lighting with two fixtures and each fixture had one 10000K and on 7100K bulb. In a couple of weeks I really got PO'ed wrt to plant growth. (please note that my tank is 110G and 30" deep)

When I got PO'ed I purchased 300W of 14000K HQI-MH for my tank and maintained the PC lighting in place. Hence 560W for a 30" deep, 110G tank but somehow I had the good sense to set up the 2nd chamber of my wet/dry sump (approximately 20G) for a freshwater refugium with 75W of 14000K of HQI-MH.

Bad thinking immediately therefore results in algae everywhere. Good thinking immediately therefore results in little algae and tremendous plant health and growth. (good thinking implies appropriate fertilization concentrations and dosages, lighting durations, and feeding protocols)

The CO2 induction, although I do not have a clue as to it's concentration, is, once again, first class.

TR