Help: DIY CO2 disaster
 

Yesterday my DIY CO2 reactor (coke bottle) fell over and managed to dispense
just under 1/4 of the total mixture in to my tank(tube goes in to Fluval
filter). My wife just called to tell me the aquarium water is a milky white
color and some fish are dead. She indicated that It looked "alive, like
plankton". Is this possible? Perhaps a chain reaction? Help.

default wrote:
Yesterday my DIY CO2 reactor (coke bottle) fell over and managed to dispense
just under 1/4 of the total mixture in to my tank(tube goes in to Fluval
filter). My wife just called to tell me the aquarium water is a milky white
color and some fish are dead. She indicated that It looked "alive, like
plankton". Is this possible? Perhaps a chain reaction? Help.


Someone had this happen last month. I believe the advice was to do big
water changes daily until the mess is back under control.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

I guess my main concern is if the alcohol slurry has wiped out all of the
previous biological filtering, and the "living" plankton my wife described.
I don't leave work for a few hours still....

"Elaine T" wrote in message
m...
default wrote:
Yesterday my DIY CO2 reactor (coke bottle) fell over and managed to
dispense
just under 1/4 of the total mixture in to my tank(tube goes in to Fluval
filter). My wife just called to tell me the aquarium water is a milky
white
color and some fish are dead. She indicated that It looked "alive, like
plankton". Is this possible? Perhaps a chain reaction? Help.


Someone had this happen last month. I believe the advice was to do big
water changes daily until the mess is back under control.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

default wrote:
I guess my main concern is if the alcohol slurry has wiped out all of the
previous biological filtering, and the "living" plankton my wife described.
I don't leave work for a few hours still....

Hard to know what's happened to the biofiltration without an ammonia
test, but the total percentage of alcohol in your tank should be
vanishingly small. The "plankton" is probably strings of yeast or
bacteria growing on the sugar. You could tell your wife to add a dose
of an ammonia neutralizer like Prime, AmQuel or Stress Coat if you have
any around. An airstone would also be a good idea if she can set one
up, since the yeast and bacteria will be depeleting oxygen.

Good luck with it.
--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

Thank you.
That makes sense. I only hope it is not a total loss before I get home.

"Elaine T" wrote in message
om...
default wrote:
I guess my main concern is if the alcohol slurry has wiped out all of
the
previous biological filtering, and the "living" plankton my wife
described.
I don't leave work for a few hours still....

Hard to know what's happened to the biofiltration without an ammonia
test, but the total percentage of alcohol in your tank should be
vanishingly small. The "plankton" is probably strings of yeast or
bacteria growing on the sugar. You could tell your wife to add a dose
of an ammonia neutralizer like Prime, AmQuel or Stress Coat if you have
any around. An airstone would also be a good idea if she can set one
up, since the yeast and bacteria will be depeleting oxygen.

Good luck with it.
--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

"salcini" wrote in news:cvgc5b$7un$1
@gnus01.u.washington.edu:

Thank you.
That makes sense. I only hope it is not a total loss before I get home.


Once you get it under control (water changes) there should be no lasting
damage (been there done that). You might want to switch to a wider CO2
bottle. I found the large plastic jugs (think they are about 3-4) you can
get juices in (cranberry, ocean spray etc.) are great and much less
tippable.

P.

"Pete" wrote in message
...
"salcini" wrote in news:cvgc5b$7un$1
@gnus01.u.washington.edu:

Thank you.
That makes sense. I only hope it is not a total loss before I get home.


Once you get it under control (water changes) there should be no lasting
damage (been there done that). You might want to switch to a wider CO2
bottle. I found the large plastic jugs (think they are about 3-4) you can
get juices in (cranberry, ocean spray etc.) are great and much less
tippable.

P.

That's what I did and haven't had anything get tipped over since. Look at
the bright aside of it ..... you don't sound like you were using Jell-O.
Now that really makes a mess :-(

Bob

Thanks again for the help! I only lost 2 loach's but It looked horrible,
smelled bad too. The water change did help considerably though. I think I
might have to invest in some hardware soon. I am going to use different
containers for sure, try and cat proof them. :)

"Robert Flory" wrote in message
...

"Pete" wrote in message
...
"salcini" wrote in news:cvgc5b$7un$1
@gnus01.u.washington.edu:

Thank you.
That makes sense. I only hope it is not a total loss before I get
home.


Once you get it under control (water changes) there should be no lasting
damage (been there done that). You might want to switch to a wider CO2
bottle. I found the large plastic jugs (think they are about 3-4) you
can
get juices in (cranberry, ocean spray etc.) are great and much less
tippable.

P.

That's what I did and haven't had anything get tipped over since. Look at
the bright aside of it ..... you don't sound like you were using Jell-O.
Now that really makes a mess :-(

Bob

I am going to use different
containers for sure, try and cat proof them. :)

The 2 liters are superior because the bottles and caps are co2 resistant
and designed to contain pressurized gas. Juice bottles and caps are not
so there is an inherent risk involved with using them. Many people do
use them apparently without incident, but over time I think the chance
for failure of some kind is increased.

My 2 liter bottles are stored under the tank in the stand cabinet where
my 15lb cat likes to play. I put an adhesive hook strip of velcro
vertically on each bottle and the matching loop velcro strip on the
cabinet. The bottles are very secure and easily removed and replaced.

Rich M

"Rich M" wrote in message
...
I am going to use different
containers for sure, try and cat proof them. :)

The 2 liters are superior because the bottles and caps are co2 resistant
and designed to contain pressurized gas. Juice bottles and caps are not
so there is an inherent risk involved with using them. Many people do
use them apparently without incident, but over time I think the chance
for failure of some kind is increased.

My 2 liter bottles are stored under the tank in the stand cabinet where
my 15lb cat likes to play. I put an adhesive hook strip of velcro
vertically on each bottle and the matching loop velcro strip on the
cabinet. The bottles are very secure and easily removed and replaced.

Rich M

I've been using some for a year. The only problem I've had us seal failure
around the fancy poly tubing I use. I am switching to small brass bayonet
fittings .... the tubing slides over. I don't think I've ever had a lid
not seal, if it did... I'd just get no pressure to the tank. That's a pain
but no disaster.

Bob

"Robert Flory" wrote in
:


I've been using some for a year. The only problem I've had us seal
failure around the fancy poly tubing I use. I am switching to small
brass bayonet fittings .... the tubing slides over. I don't think
I've ever had a lid not seal, if it did... I'd just get no pressure to
the tank. That's a pain but no disaster.

Bob



For sealing you can also look for a glue called Goop. Comes in different
varieties but Household Goop is the one I use. Good thing about it is it's
one of the few glues that sticks to the plastic these bottles are made of,
it also stays flexible so acts as a sealant. I just drill a hole in the
cap of the juice container (nice big cap which is another advantage), put
the tube in, use the goop to glue/seal, push a little more tube into the
top which pushes the glue into the hole and it's sealed. With the big cap
I actually have two bottles in series. One bottles line goes into the other
bottle (so two holes in that lid) which goes to the canister filter.

Here's a trick for anyone inj into a canister filter. If you are feeding
your CO2 to an intake that's low or near the bottom of your tank, then you
do need lots of pressure and a perfect seal to get the CO2 down that far.
But, if you drill a hole just under the water line in the intake tube (this
is the tube that fits IN your tank and is under water, not the tube that's
outside your tank going down to your filter) to the canister filter and put
your CO2 hose there (a good fit is needed but not airtight), the water flow
will actually create a suction on the hose so you don't need a heavy seal
on your CO2 bottles to make lots of pressure. A good way to remove the
worry of whether your air hose is CO2 permeable and such.

In article ,
default wrote:
Yesterday my DIY CO2 reactor (coke bottle) fell over and managed to dispense
just under 1/4 of the total mixture in to my tank(tube goes in to Fluval
filter). My wife just called to tell me the aquarium water is a milky white
color and some fish are dead. She indicated that It looked "alive, like
plankton". Is this possible? Perhaps a chain reaction? Help.

Nah, that's the yeast. Some people claim you can feed yeast to daphnia
but that's sure never worked for me. It justmakes a white stringy mess no
matter how litle I use.

--
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"Pete" wrote in message
...
For sealing you can also look for a glue called Goop. Comes in different
varieties but Household Goop is the one I use. Good thing about it is
it's
one of the few glues that sticks to the plastic these bottles are made of,
it also stays flexible so acts as a sealant. I just drill a hole in the
cap of the juice container (nice big cap which is another advantage), put
the tube in, use the goop to glue/seal, push a little more tube into the
top which pushes the glue into the hole and it's sealed. With the big cap
I actually have two bottles in series. One bottles line goes into the
other
bottle (so two holes in that lid) which goes to the canister filter.

Here's a trick for anyone inj into a canister filter. If you are feeding
your CO2 to an intake that's low or near the bottom of your tank, then you
do need lots of pressure and a perfect seal to get the CO2 down that far.
But, if you drill a hole just under the water line in the intake tube
(this
is the tube that fits IN your tank and is under water, not the tube that's
outside your tank going down to your filter) to the canister filter and
put
your CO2 hose there (a good fit is needed but not airtight), the water
flow
will actually create a suction on the hose so you don't need a heavy seal
on your CO2 bottles to make lots of pressure. A good way to remove the
worry of whether your air hose is CO2 permeable and such.

A good tip, but as a safe guard I would be placing check valves on the
bottle lines to stop the intake siphoning the bottle contents if a low
pressure situation should arise. OR. use an external bubble counter made of
a 1.25L bottle 50% filled with water to buffer the gas.

When I place my line on a venturi I do this because I don't want the filter
sucking yeast mixture into the tank.

Oz

--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith

"Ozdude" wrote in
:



A good tip, but as a safe guard I would be placing check valves on the
bottle lines to stop the intake siphoning the bottle contents if a low
pressure situation should arise. OR. use an external bubble counter
made of a 1.25L bottle 50% filled with water to buffer the gas.

When I place my line on a venturi I do this because I don't want the
filter sucking yeast mixture into the tank.

Oz


I don't get THAT much suction :P, it would have to be enough to crumple the
plastic of the bottle to get the yeast/suger high enough to be sucked up as
I don't fill my bottles up to the top. Be useful though if for some reason
you get your yeast foaming up which I have heard of, haven't hit it myself
though.

Pete.

"Pete" wrote in message
...

I don't get THAT much suction :P, it would have to be enough to crumple
the
plastic of the bottle to get the yeast/suger high enough to be sucked up
as
I don't fill my bottles up to the top. Be useful though if for some
reason
you get your yeast foaming up which I have heard of, haven't hit it myself
though.

Apparently yeast foams in the absence of Baking Soda. I always add baking
soda and i've never had a head form on the yeast. The mixture just turns
from a dark brown (dissolved raw sugar) to a light tan as it metablolises.

Oz

--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith

The only problem I have put our seal failure polyethylene pipe tricks I use around. I switched to the small brass bayonet accessories slide the tubing. I do not think I have had a lid not sealed, and if so I just want to get any pressure tank. This is a painful but no disaster.