Question about DIY CO2 injection

[Jason01]

Ok...It can be done. Me personally, I would get rid of the bio-wheels. Makes it easier to begin with, although, I tend to always do things the hard way. I didn't want to put $150 worth of plant stuff(lights, other stuff, mostly lights) to waste because of a mistake. I understand that he has the bio wheels allready. Lets make use with what you have. If he can stand the noise, I would do 2 2L bottles plumbed directly into the intake of the filters, and probably also a bubble wall(or some sort of diffuser, run on seperate bottles). This should give you appreciable levels, but you probably won't see more than 15 ppm or so.

All my tank has is normally 15 PPM of CO2, but I haven't changed the bottles in like a week, mostly because I need to find the time to mow the jungle, and let my fish reclaim the tank.....Only like 1/4 of it is open anymore, the plants are growing too fast. Want some trimmings?

 

[EQualizer]

i have a emperor 400 and ran two 2 liter CO2 bottes into its intake

i couldn't check the pH but all the plants were pearling like mad it looked like 7up (will thats an exaggeration), then i had school, not enough time to do diy after that week, but im going to try again within the next few weeks

could it be that the biowheels don't really outgas as much as it seems in theory?? or that tightly covering everything will prevent a lot of co2 loss?? i also had glass top on, and the water level was really high, it touched the glass tops, so maybe this could help if he's doing co2 with the penguin

also, the penguins might outgas more CO2 since the biowheels don't have a cover and are exposed to the atmosphere, while the emp has a cover which perhaps has a role in the co2 escaping? also with these biowheel filters nto all the water is being sprayed onto the wheel, only a little is, but i duno maybe my CO2 was only like 7-8 ppm and that was enough to make my plants pearl

also i think what would help a looot is if you built an active way to diffuse the CO2, bubbling the co2 into the intake isn't too efficient

a powered reactor using the gravel tube/power head/maybe an airstone would probably be the most efficient, but i guess you can try the half soda bottle way first, see how it goes

 

[29gSteve]

I got a powerhead (hagen aquaclear 2000). Got tubing from Lowes that matched the inner diameter of an old gravel vac. I connected the gravel vac to the output of the powerhead so that the water was being pumped into the top of the gravel vac (the gravel vac should be vertical). I then placed the airline tube (CO2 source) going into the bottom of the gravel vac. As the bubbles went up, they were smashed by the powerhead.

I eventually have capped the bottom of the gravel vac by putting a cap from the same type of grave vac on the bottom (drilling a few holes in it for water flow, of course). This was done because I found a few fish of mine stuck in there over the course of a week...since it too tight for them to turn around, they almost met a premature demise...

Definitely take the bio wheels out...two reasons:

They oxygenate the water (driving CO2 out) and
The grow bacteria that consume/convert your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate that your plants need for growth...

...oh, and get rid of the carbon in your filters

Good luck!