How many DIY C02 Bottles?

Soulmanure

Soulmanure

Soulmanure
Jan 27, 2005
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San Francisco
I tagged this question on the end of the C02 sticky, but that one may be played out. I've got a 40 gallon tank and 1 diy 2 liter bottle for C02 (working great so far!). Two questions, then:

1. Is 1 bottle enough for 40 gallons, or should I do more, and if so, how many?
2. What's the best diffuser, in your opinion, for a diy job?
 
Test your kH and pH and let us know what you've got.
Also, what types and quantity of plants are currently in the tank?
When using a cannister filter, the best method for injection/diffusion is an in-line, home made PVC type diffuser, IMO. Very cheap to make and very effective.
Having said that, I use an AC402 power head in conjunction with my cannister because; a) I'm too lazy to make the PVC type, and b) I like the circulation the 402's give me in my tanks.

Len
 
Sorry for taking so long to follow up--took me a bit to obtain a KH kit. Here are the levels:

KH: 15
PH: 7.4

The water seems to be fairly hard. According to the third chart in the link below, I'm at about 18 milligrams per liter. I have one bottle going right now, but am looking to get two when I get around to drilling another hole.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html

as for the plants, this will take me longer--there are bunch, half of which are various types of swords and grasses, and a couple of bulbs. The next stage is to start identifying them!

the good news is that I seem to be slowly winning an algae battle, but the algae is still there. I'm hoping another bottle will be the tipping point.
 
That's a good result from a 2 liter bottle. When I was doing the DIY CO2, I would wait to connect a second bottle until the first one would start to lose effectiveness. If you're getting 18mg/L with one bottle, I'd be scared to hook up that second bottle.

My diffuser is an old siphon head stuck onto a powerhead. The co2 tube goes into the intake so bubbles are chopped into pieces before going into the siphon tube (that's pointed downward). The water inside is made more turbulent by a couple of plastic cat toy balls (with no bells or catnip, of course... =) ) Bioballs, sponge, whatever will work for this purpose.

I, too, am too lazy to make the inline PVC reactor which I feel would yield an even better result. I have only about 95-98 percent dissolution (is that the right word?) going on with mine.
 
sguthrie said:
That's a good result from a 2 liter bottle. When I was doing the DIY CO2, I would wait to connect a second bottle until the first one would start to lose effectiveness. If you're getting 18mg/L with one bottle, I'd be scared to hook up that second bottle.

My diffuser is an old siphon head stuck onto a powerhead. The co2 tube goes into the intake so bubbles are chopped into pieces before going into the siphon tube (that's pointed downward). The water inside is made more turbulent by a couple of plastic cat toy balls (with no bells or catnip, of course... =) ) Bioballs, sponge, whatever will work for this purpose.

I, too, am too lazy to make the inline PVC reactor which I feel would yield an even better result. I have only about 95-98 percent dissolution (is that the right word?) going on with mine.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense, and its great news. I should add that one reason I want to add a second bottle is that I'm using Flourish Excel, which I'd like to stop using in order to cut down on costs. I'm just guessing here, but I figure that another bottle might just do the trick.

I'm currently using a ceramic diffuser right now, but I don't think it's doing a great job. I think the next project might be making a diffuser like you've built. Though I'm mighty tempted by this:

http://www.floridadriftwood.com/product.asp?0=217&1=253&3=147
 
That reactor is the inspiration to the one that I and many others have built. One difference is the inlet going through the impeller. In another tube I melted a hole in the side and fed bubbles in that way. I think mine works better now. It's really in how turbulent you can get the water inside the tube (I think), so maybe the side input is the best. Buying the stuff to make the reactor would probably be $20-30 if you don't have the stuff laying around, so savings isn't that great if you were to purchase the one that you know works and be done with it.
 
I don't have any of the equipment so I'd have to purchase and assemble it. After the cost benefit analysis, it seems to make more sense to just purchase the ready-made one. At some point I'd like to make my own, though, just to have the experience.
 
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