I started my DIY CO2!!

[spiral_72]

Yup, just as the title says. This is my first attempt BTW. I searched
through the Google forums and was able to answer all my questions about
the subject so far.

I used a 2Liter plastic bottle
1.5 cups sugar (I intended on using 2cups but I run out)
1 tsp baking soda (I have pretty soft water)
1/4 tsp yeast

I run some tap water at 95F to mix the sugar and baking soda in. I
added the yeast and let it sit. After 12 hours I noticed nothing. I
added another 1/4tsp of yeast and let it sit thinking the water was too
hot and I killed the first yeast. Uh, huh.... That did it!
I was giddy.
Now, I've obviously never did this before but I think my yeast are a
little excited or the 1/2 tsp total yeast kicked in all at the same
time. I am getting on the order of 200bpm. It's a steady stream. This
rate as held up for about 2 days now.

I hooked the bottle up to my tank with an airstone and WOW! I watched
things for a bit and decided I didn't like the airstone idea. The
bubbles were too big and floating straight to the top. I hooked the CO2
line up through a tiny regulator to the air injection port of a 300GPH
powerhead. Now that works better :) I get so many tiny little bubbles
that it looks like a cloud until they dissipate. Although I'm not sure
my little fish like the "jetstream". All this is temporary. I gotta
come up with something else. I plan on using that power head, a can and
some tubing. The idea is to pull water from the tank, inject the CO2
and pulverize the bubble with some screenwire or something in the water
stream.

I suppose the this post is a little long but I had to vent this
weekend's events..... My wife just didn't understand.

P.S.
if anyone thinks like me..... what happens to all the extra CO2
pressure? Won't it rupture the bottle? I was pretty worried about that
actually. It seems however that by poking the airline into the
regulator with no adhesive bleeds off anything over about 60psi. Whew!
It's kinda wasteful though.. Gotta work on that too.

Oh, my pH hasn't changed either.... Hmmmm? my GH & KH = 125ppm

my aquarium page, info and pics at:
www.geocities.com/spiral_72/Spirals_page.html

[Mandrake]

Thanks for a great post. When I have time, I want to try this also.
Hope you post any modifications you make.

Hal



On 14 Mar 2005 09:48:16 -0800, "spiral_72" >
wrote:

>Yup, just as the title says. This is my first attempt BTW. I searched
>through the Google forums and was able to answer all my questions about
>the subject so far.
>
>I used a 2Liter plastic bottle
>1.5 cups sugar (I intended on using 2cups but I run out)
>1 tsp baking soda (I have pretty soft water)
>1/4 tsp yeast
>
>I run some tap water at 95F to mix the sugar and baking soda in. I
>added the yeast and let it sit. After 12 hours I noticed nothing. I
>added another 1/4tsp of yeast and let it sit thinking the water was too
>hot and I killed the first yeast. Uh, huh.... That did it!
>I was giddy.
>Now, I've obviously never did this before but I think my yeast are a
>little excited or the 1/2 tsp total yeast kicked in all at the same
>time. I am getting on the order of 200bpm. It's a steady stream. This
>rate as held up for about 2 days now.
>
>I hooked the bottle up to my tank with an airstone and WOW! I watched
>things for a bit and decided I didn't like the airstone idea. The
>bubbles were too big and floating straight to the top. I hooked the CO2
>line up through a tiny regulator to the air injection port of a 300GPH
>powerhead. Now that works better :) I get so many tiny little bubbles
>that it looks like a cloud until they dissipate. Although I'm not sure
>my little fish like the "jetstream". All this is temporary. I gotta
>come up with something else. I plan on using that power head, a can and
>some tubing. The idea is to pull water from the tank, inject the CO2
>and pulverize the bubble with some screenwire or something in the water
>stream.
>
>I suppose the this post is a little long but I had to vent this
>weekend's events..... My wife just didn't understand.
>
>P.S.
>if anyone thinks like me..... what happens to all the extra CO2
>pressure? Won't it rupture the bottle? I was pretty worried about that
>actually. It seems however that by poking the airline into the
>regulator with no adhesive bleeds off anything over about 60psi. Whew!
>It's kinda wasteful though.. Gotta work on that too.
>
>Oh, my pH hasn't changed either.... Hmmmm? my GH & KH = 125ppm
>
>my aquarium page, info and pics at:
>www.geocities.com/spiral_72/Spirals_page.html

[Robert Flory]

"spiral_72" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Yup, just as the title says. This is my first attempt BTW. I searched
> through the Google forums and was able to answer all my questions about
> the subject so far.
>
> I used a 2Liter plastic bottle
> 1.5 cups sugar (I intended on using 2cups but I run out)
> 1 tsp baking soda (I have pretty soft water)
> 1/4 tsp yeast
>
SNIP

try using Gatoraid lemonade gallon bottles, of ocean spray gallom juice
bottles. Mine run about 4 weeks on a run. I've heard rumors that a solid
connection to a power heads intake COULD collapse the bottle.

Bob

[kev]

On 14 Mar 2005, the world was enlightened by spiral_72's opinion about...

> Yup, just as the title says. This is my first attempt BTW. I searched
> through the Google forums and was able to answer all my questions about
> the subject so far.
>
> I used a 2Liter plastic bottle
> 1.5 cups sugar (I intended on using 2cups but I run out)
> 1 tsp baking soda (I have pretty soft water)
> 1/4 tsp yeast

I use a similar formula:

2 cups sugar, 1/2 baking powder, 3/4 tsp yeast, and a drop of dechlor.

>
> I run some tap water at 95F to mix the sugar and baking soda in. I
> added the yeast and let it sit. After 12 hours I noticed nothing. I
> added another 1/4tsp of yeast and let it sit thinking the water was too
> hot and I killed the first yeast. Uh, huh.... That did it!
> I was giddy.

If you are using city water, dechlor should help fix the yeast die-off.

> Now, I've obviously never did this before but I think my yeast are a
> little excited or the 1/2 tsp total yeast kicked in all at the same
> time. I am getting on the order of 200bpm. It's a steady stream. This
> rate as held up for about 2 days now.

It should be good for weeks.

> I hooked the bottle up to my tank with an airstone and WOW! I watched
> things for a bit and decided I didn't like the airstone idea. The
> bubbles were too big and floating straight to the top. I hooked the CO2
> line up through a tiny regulator to the air injection port of a 300GPH
> powerhead. Now that works better :) I get so many tiny little bubbles
> that it looks like a cloud until they dissipate. Although I'm not sure
> my little fish like the "jetstream". All this is temporary. I gotta
> come up with something else. I plan on using that power head, a can and
> some tubing. The idea is to pull water from the tank, inject the CO2
> and pulverize the bubble with some screenwire or something in the water
> stream.

I've been using the venturi on a powerhead for months now, the fish don't
seem to mind the breeze. And it sure does the job at busting up the
bubbles. One caution though - you need to check the venturi input on the
powerhead every once in a while. It will get clogged by a bacterial (I
think) colony living off the small amount of alcohol that gets through.
The alcohol condenses in the airline.
>
> I suppose the this post is a little long but I had to vent this
> weekend's events..... My wife just didn't understand.
>
> P.S.
> if anyone thinks like me..... what happens to all the extra CO2
> pressure? Won't it rupture the bottle? I was pretty worried about that
> actually. It seems however that by poking the airline into the
> regulator with no adhesive bleeds off anything over about 60psi. Whew!
> It's kinda wasteful though.. Gotta work on that too.
>
> Oh, my pH hasn't changed either.... Hmmmm? my GH & KH = 125ppm

It takes some time to get the co2 saturated.

>
> my aquarium page, info and pics at:
> www.geocities.com/spiral_72/Spirals_page.html
>


kev

--
Civilization.

An organized system of alternatives to the stone age - CJCherryh

[spiral_72]

Hey, my pH has now dropped to 7.1 from 7.6 over the last 2 days. COOL!
I closed the regulator off a little more to (hopefully) keep the pH
just around there. I don't really want it lower than 7.0 right now.

Also, my little yeast buddies seem to have slowed a little. If this
continues I am gonna give the bottle a little shake to mix things up.
That's what I read anyhoo.

I have considered all the gas that is bled off my regulator into the
air. It'd be good if I could hold the extra CO2 in some sort of a tank
until needed. Like an accumulator. What about a balloon on a
t-connection at the bottle? It's not real significant, but it's the
simplest thing I could think of.

Oh, and a Gatorade bottle is definitely a good idea........ On the next
batch I am gonna be drinking some Gatorade.

In all, I am very pleased so far. This has been one of those (many)
projects that actually went as I had hoped. It's so easy! And I only
have like $4 in the whole thing!

my aquarium page, info and pics at:
www.geocities.com/spiral_72/Spirals_page.html
(no pics of the CO2 stuff yet)

[spiral_72]

ummmmm,

one of those (few) projects..........

a little typo there.

[spiral_72]

For those interested...... pH is holding at 7.1 and CO2 production
seems to be steady. No noticeable plant growth just yet. It's only been
a full 4 days though. I anticipate changes as soon as things stabilize.

my aquarium page, info and pics at:
www.geocities.com/spiral_72/Spirals_page.html

[spiral_72]

Not real sure how that is happening...... I didn't even have my
computer on at 8:04 this morning.
.... an' I sure didn't have it on at 5:39am!!!

[kev]

On 17 Mar 2005, the world was enlightened by spiral_72's opinion about...

> Not real sure how that is happening...... I didn't even have my
> computer on at 8:04 this morning.
> ... an' I sure didn't have it on at 5:39am!!!
>

It looks like somebody at Mindspring thought our messages were cancelled
and they decided to repost them. From the headers:

X-Reposted-By:
X-Comments: This article is being re-posted. It was canceled
X-Comments: in error. For more information, please contact:
X-Comments: >.


kev

--
Civilization.

An organized system of alternatives to the stone age - CJCherryh