DIY Co2 Instructions for a Freshwater Aquarium Planted Tank

Here is a simple way you can get your plants growing out of your tank
in no time. What I am talking about is a DIY (Do It Yourself) Co2
system for your planted tank. Most if not all of the required pieces
needed to make this can be found in your home.

Read Mo
http://www.tropicalfishforum.org/ind...-planted-tank/

Enjoy!
Tropical Fish Forum
http://www.tropicalfishforum.org/

In article . com,
tropicalfishforum.org wrote:
Here is a simple way you can get your plants growing out of your tank
in no time. What I am talking about is a DIY (Do It Yourself) Co2
system for your planted tank. Most if not all of the required pieces
needed to make this can be found in your home.

Read Mo
http://www.tropicalfishforum.org/ind...-planted-tank/

Two tips: put a small carbon filter on the airline so nothing nasty gets in the tank.

Add geletin to the mix so it's not so stupidly sloppy.

--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

There are a few things to note because I just tried this DIY
instructions.

1. Use only a soda bottle with plumbing tape around the threaded top.
This ensures an air tight seal. I bought a nice looking plastic jar
and I could never get the lid on air tight. Thus, I was losing my CO2
out the lid versus building up enough pressure to overcome the water
pressure.

2. DO NOT CONNECT HOSE until the warm water has cooled down to room
temperature. I had a FLOOD in my living room because when I connected
the tube to the CO2 generator while the water was warm because when the
water cooled the pressure in the bottle went down thus causing a siphon
effect out of the aquarium and into the bottle which then overcame the
air tight seal of the bottle and went all over the floor. (The reason
for overcoming seal is next).

3. When you put the hose (using a connector or not) DO NOT FILL CAP
WITH SEALANT because when you twist the cap you will also be twisting
the sealant around the outside edges of the cap thus breaking the bond
the seal had with the cap. Instead, place small amount of sealant
round the hose (or connector) leaving adequate space around the outer
edges of the cap for the bottle neck to fit. I filled up the cap with
sealant, twisted the cap which broke the sealant's bond, and then
hooked up my hose while the generator mix was hot which caused the
flood in #2 to happen.

4. If possible, have your generator as high as possible to reduce the
amount of pressure that is needed to overcome the water pressure of the
aquarium. Air stones require too much pressure. So, do not use them
either.

These are my mistakes that I have made in the last few days. And, I
hope this helps anyone out there.

If you put some a packet of geletin in the yeast mixture it won't be
so godawful messy (and doesn't hurt CO2 production).


--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

"Gregory Ho" wrote in message
oups.com...
There are a few things to note because I just tried this DIY
instructions.

1. Use only a soda bottle with plumbing tape around the threaded top.
This ensures an air tight seal. I bought a nice looking plastic jar
and I could never get the lid on air tight. Thus, I was losing my CO2
out the lid versus building up enough pressure to overcome the water
pressure.

2. DO NOT CONNECT HOSE until the warm water has cooled down to room
temperature. I had a FLOOD in my living room because when I connected
the tube to the CO2 generator while the water was warm because when the
water cooled the pressure in the bottle went down thus causing a siphon
effect out of the aquarium and into the bottle which then overcame the
air tight seal of the bottle and went all over the floor. (The reason
for overcoming seal is next).

3. When you put the hose (using a connector or not) DO NOT FILL CAP
WITH SEALANT because when you twist the cap you will also be twisting
the sealant around the outside edges of the cap thus breaking the bond
the seal had with the cap. Instead, place small amount of sealant
round the hose (or connector) leaving adequate space around the outer
edges of the cap for the bottle neck to fit. I filled up the cap with
sealant, twisted the cap which broke the sealant's bond, and then
hooked up my hose while the generator mix was hot which caused the
flood in #2 to happen.

4. If possible, have your generator as high as possible to reduce the
amount of pressure that is needed to overcome the water pressure of the
aquarium. Air stones require too much pressure. So, do not use them
either.

These are my mistakes that I have made in the last few days. And, I
hope this helps anyone out there.


I'm definately thinking of an off the shelf kit now.
Thanks

Peter

I'm not having a go here, but I honestly think people over-analyse this
whole DIY CO2 thing. Anyone who has done home-brew knows how simple it
is, really. If it doesn't work the first time, try again! It hasn't
cost you anything more than pennies.

You don't need sealant. Drill the hole slightly too small, cut the
airline at an angle and use pliers to pull it through the hole. Mine
hasn't leaked in 6 months. If it does, big deal, just drill another
cap.

The height from the bottle to the aquarium isn't an issue; it's the
depth that the airline goes into the water that causes back-pressure.
I have two non-return valves AND an airstone AND the bottle 3 ft below
the aquarium, and the pressure is strong enough to produce a good
stream of bubbles. So use non-return valves, and airstone if you want.

Extras
------

I use a small plastic juice bottle as a bubble-counter. The two non-
return valves are between it and the generator, and between it and the
aquarium. A non-return valve would have prevented the OP's flood.
(This small bottle is good for seeing if gas is actually getting out of
the generator bottle through the airline.)

I use a simple party balloon on a T-connection just after the
generator bottle before the non-return valve to act as a simple blow-
off valve. It's held onto the connection by a rubber band. If the
pressure gets too high, either the balloon will burst or the rubber
band will give way. It's never been needed, but the balloon has
perished once from the carbonic acid. (I'm more careful now not to
allow liquid into the airlines, so reducing carbonic acid.)

As another poster said, gelatin (Jello) is good for slowing the
reaction and making it last longer.

--
Nick

The height from the bottle to the aquarium isn't an issue; it's the
depth that the airline goes into the water that causes back-pressure.
I have two non-return valves AND an airstone AND the bottle 3 ft below
the aquarium, and the pressure is strong enough to produce a good
stream of bubbles. So use non-return valves, and airstone if you want.

I could never get my CO2 to work through an airstone that was placed at
the bottom of a 55 gallon tank. Heck, I had a hard time blowing into
the airline and pushing out bubbles with my own lungs. What I was able
to do was using an airine connector at the end of the airline tube and
inserted the exposed nippled into the plastic basket (the guard on the
suction portion of the filter) on my canister filter but this could
easily be done also on an external filter such as an Emperor 400.