Is my DIY C02 Functioning Properly?

The problem is that the bubbles (even though they are getting broken up some) are not staying in contact with the water long enough. You are essentially bubbling the CO2 into the tank and they're floating to the surface. They're only taking a detour through the filter.
Sure some diffuses into the water, but not enough. Maybe more bubbles (as per Roans suggestion) will help.
 
Yeah, I dont know what the problem is,
I left it bubbling into the filter all night and I have yet to see a drop in ph.
I have now stuffed a chopstick in the end and I am letting that vent into the nook of a pirate ship I have on the floor of my aquarium. I hope that would give it enough time to dissipate or contact the water.

Moreover, I used somebody else's formula that said use 1/2 tsp for 2 cups instead of the 1/4 stated here: http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html#2

If bubbles are coming out of the tube there must be pressurized c02, right?

So, what you are all saying is, if there is no drop in ph, something is wrong?

Here is my schemactics.

Reactor=checkvalve=======Bubble control valve (like a gangway)=========acquarium water

I don't have another bottle connected to absorb the yeast.

This is getting frustrating =(

Oh, I should also mention I was running a UGF (air pump injection, not powerhead) , I have just turned that unit off and I'll see if that helps at all. I Have no stuck the bubbles back into the aquaclear since my other method wasn't working properly, it was just creating massive bubbles in the ship.

Thanks for the help.
 
Last edited:
You may not see a pH shift right away. CO2 exists in the atmosphere at about 330 to 350 ppm, and as far as I know, that's not enough to saturate water. If you introduce extra CO2, some will dissolve into water, and this extra dissolved gas drives its equilibrium w/ carbonic acid (H2CO3) to the right (assuming CO2 and H2O are on the left side of the equation). By the way, the moment the amount of dissolved CO2 starts to increase, this equilibrium will immediately shift towards producing more H2CO3.

This is precisely why rainwater is slightly acidic...it's all due to atmospheric CO2 doing its thing as a dissolved gas in the rainwater.

Coupled with your increase in dissolved gas by bubbling (in this case, CO2), you will see a drop in pH, but it may not be all that dramatic, because carbonic acid is a relatively weak acid. This is overly simple, as there is a lot of other chemistry going on in tap water (for e.g., Ca++ and Mg++ ions from our hard water getting into the act).

In other words, depending on your local water supply, you may or may not get the rapid shift in pH. Still, BeViking is correct; it is changing immediately, if not measureably using your test kit.

By the way, I've seen people use "diving bells" to allow the gaseous CO2 to have more contact time with the aquarium water. They do this by letting the bubbles of CO2 rise up into something like a small, short inverted plastic cup placed into the water. It fills w/ CO2 gas produced by your fermenter, and there is a bigger CO2 gas/water interface. In that one space in the inverted cup, if it is pure CO2, the partial pressure of CO2 is about 3,000 times greater than what it is in the atmosphere. Of course, it won't be pure CO2, because dissolved O2 and other dissolved gases will also find their way into the "diving bell" from the interface with the aquarium water, and that is only one among many posers in this scenario.

Someone I ran into at my LFS (LOL, my "real" LFS is 2-1/2 hours away) simply used a lid from a plastic food container (man, I hope he cleaned it really, really well) to hold a big bubble of CO2 from his pop bottle fermenter. He has to prune his plants weekly, and like me, he is not an expert at any of this. In fact, I got my inspiration to start fermenting from him.

Just have patience. Rome wasn't built in a day. By the way, keep checking pH. Even if nothing is happening right now, it still can get out-of-hand quickly, even with setups like ours.

v/r, N-A
 
I turned off the undergravel filters, and opened up the valve all teh way. In the beginning a lot of air rushed out of it, then it has slowed down to 1 bubble per second. What i'm thinking is that, all that gas i was letting out for the last couple of days was simply oxygen in the bottle (the gap between the liquid and the lid).

Right nwo there are bubbles developing on the plants, which makes me think its working. I will continue to monitor ph, I think it dropped a little bit, but i'm not 100% sure.

Oh, also i took the chop stick out and it is going back into the aquaclear intake. Seems to be working right now.

I tried making a bell out of the bottom of a pop bottle but I didn't have it glued in strong enough to my suction cup so the power of the air was always pushing the bottom off the suction cup.

I will resort back to that method if thsi still isn't working properly. For now i'll continue to let it run into my aqua clear. Thanks for you help and i'll keep you updated.
 
I used to have a line fed into the airline intake on the top of my aquaclear powerhead. That dispersed the co2 quite well. But it was more water movement than I wanted. I went back to a ceramic airstone, and the bubbles that come out of that are so fine that they look like mist. I have that airstone suction-cupped to the tank wall just below the leaves of a plant, and that way, some of the co2 gets trapped under the leaves and have longer to dissolve.
 
Could the c02 not be dissolving properly because my tank is in its first cycle?

My ph isn't really dropping enough. In fact my ph is too high (7.5) I want it around neutral (our tap water is neutral).

I also created a c02 mesh bell, it trapped the bubbles with no problem, but I have no idea if it is working properly.

My recipe is as follows
For a 1 gallon juice container, 1tsp yeast 4 cups sugar, 1tsp protein powder, 1tsp baking soda.

I'm sure its creating c02 because the air coming out of the line smells like beer.

Also, how many bubbles per second should I have it putting out. It is a 30 gal tank.

Thanks.
 
How's it going so far?

Every 10 days I am making up a new batch of sugar water for fermentation. I think I'm going to just break down and get a 10-lb. CO2 bottle for each of the tanks. The new aluminum tanks go for about $77 each.

Yes, I'm going to get a regulator/solenoid setup for each. It's way pricey, but I'm getting to the point that I'd like to quit mixing this stuff. I go through quite a bit of sugar in a month.

Fermenting stuff that you can't use as an imbibement is more work than fun, but it's been fun making the plants really grow.

10 lbs. of CO2, at the rate I use it, will last a long, long, time. One of the fish stores in Wichita Falls that I've started seeing has a 90gal wavefront tank that has had a 20-lb. CO2 tanking going for 18 months at 1 bubble per second into a homemade reactor, and he's nowhere near to needing a refill.

v/r, N-A
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom