Anyone have homemade CO2?

[redwingbum19]

Hey guys i've got 3 planted tanks and was wondering if anyone has any homemade CO2 systems for their planted tanks. I was talking to one customer at work and he said he uses a wine jug. thanks guys
~Zack~

[downset21]

The cheapest and easiest way I've done it is with those c02 cannisters by hagen i think it is. They sell the packets that you mix with sugar, add water, screw on the top and there you go, home made c02. The difference has been unreal. I'm sure you can do it with a jug if you can seal the top well enough and figure out what other chemicals you need to throw in with sugar to make it produce C02. If you look online I'm sure you can find a science experiment that will explain it. Good luck and definitely find a way to use co2. Makes a world of difference.

[sohfatfish]

I use those 1.5L or 2L soft drink bottles and drill a hole in the cap. Then stick an airline tubing through it and use glue and silicone to make it air tight. I use about 1 cup of sugar and a quarter of a teaspoon of yeast to about 1 litre of water.
here is a pretty detailed website on DIY Co2 http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

[Propz]

I also use pop bottles w/ 3 cups of sugar, 1 tsp of yeast, 1 tsp of baking soda & water up to where the bottle begins to curve inwards. It made a huge difference towards my plant growth, however, when I added a second bottle to help control algae, my ph dropped from 7 to 6.5. Now I have to constantly monitor my ph just in case it crashes :(

[tom h]

sorry don't know how to do links yet, but go to aquariumfish.com look under plants, then go to the article about reactors revisited.

[fishboy]

i just took a 2 litre coke jug and drilled a hole into it and sealed a foot long piece of airline tubing to it and then did the same with a smaller jug and routed it into the aquarium and into my filter works great check out www.kingvinnie.com and go to the diy aquaria page and click the co2 link i usually get a strong co2 output of about one bubble every 3-5 seconds for about 15 days then i just mix up a new batch

[LeGrandB@t]

Also it depends on the size of your tank. For tanks larger than 20 or so gallons you may have to run more than one 2 litre reactor to see any results, depending on what plants you have and how much lighting you have. I have a 1 litre bottle on my ten gallon tank and the results are better than I expected.

[FormulatedFire]

could u run the feed hose through a powerhead to produce more bubbles faster or no?

[ShadowVengance]

How large of a bottle would I need for a 55 planted tank?

Any pictures of how you guys set it up?

How long does it last for?

Anything like this? :

[garnpet]

I am using the the CO2 pop bottle method. I found that connecting the tubing with silicone was problematic and had to be resealed often so I use the method suggested in http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html and I use the nylon bulkhead fittings.

Click --> CO2 pop bottle (http://www.garneaufamily.ca/images/co2-airplane.jpg)


IMHO, the Hagen system is really only useful for the ladder, the canister is just too small to really generate enough CO2 to do any good. However, here is my recipe for the Hagen setup.

375ML water
1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 sugar

For the 2L pop bottles I use:

1.5L water
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar

Here are the results in my two tanks. The 26 gallon tank needs a good trim. :eek:

Click --> 26G (http://www.garneaufamily.ca/images/t26.jpg)

Click --> 48G (http://www.garneaufamily.ca/images/t48.jpg)

[garnpet]

ShadowVengance,

Sorry I was intending to reply to your questions.

I am using 2 2L pop bottles in my 48 gallon tank without any problems. A batch will usually last 15-20 days, so what I do is stagger the changes so that I am refilling one bottle every 10 days or so.

Sorry I can't look at your picture yet... not enough posts! :cry:

[ShadowVengance]

Thanks a lot, welcome to MFK, keep on postin, amazing tank specs by the way!

[GynMonkey1044]

the airline going from the soda pop bottle can that just connect to an airstone that sits at the bottom of the aquarium?

[Alx510]

now, if we could just use this system to make beer at the same time....

[garnpet]

the airline going from the soda pop bottle can that just connect to an airstone that sits at the bottom of the aquarium?

I believe that you can use an air stone. However I have a couple of concerns about it, I don't know if they are valid or not.

1st.. How much pressure is needed to expel the CO2 from the airstone? Perhaps the pressure needed might be a bit more than you would like in a DIY system.

2nd... How much CO2 will get into the water? I use the Hagen ladders with my DIY setup and the bubbles are pretty small by the time they get to the top of the ladder.

Anybody have an answer to these questions?

[fishnutham]

I believe that you can use an air stone. However I have a couple of concerns about it, I don't know if they are valid or not.

1st.. How much pressure is needed to expel the CO2 from the airstone? Perhaps the pressure needed might be a bit more than you would like in a DIY system.

2nd... How much CO2 will get into the water? I use the Hagen ladders with my DIY setup and the bubbles are pretty small by the time they get to the top of the ladder.

Anybody have an answer to these questions?



airstone nope not enough pressure i've tryed many variations no go bubbles too big i use bubble counters cheap and effective or if you can stand the noise put the airlin directly in the intake of your filter and let the pump do the work be warned the noise will drive ya nuts FNH.....

[GynMonkey1044]

so you can just set the airline tube like under a rock in the tank?

[garnpet]

You could, but I don't know how much good it would do you. The idea is to get the CO2 to dissapate into the water. Wwith just the tube under a rock all you would get is a large bubble going straight to the top of the tank. Very little CO2 would actually get into the water.

You really need a CO2 ladder of some type.

[GynMonkey1044]

what can you use as a ladder? Does anyne have a pic of their whole co2 system?

[GynMonkey1044]

The tank I plan on putting this on is a 40 breeder, it has a penguin 330 filter, would it work if i drilled a hole in to the side of the intake and put the airline tubing into that?

[garnpet]

Here is a picture of my CO2 ladder. It is the Hagen one that you can buy in pretty well any fish store. The idea is that the large CO2 bubble starts at the bottom and by the top it is very small, having disapated into the tank water.

http://www.garneaufamily.ca/images/ladder.jpg

[fishnutham]

Here is a picture of my CO2 ladder. It is the Hagen one that you can buy in pretty well any fish store. The idea is that the large CO2 bubble starts at the bottom and by the top it is very small, having disapated into the tank water.

http://www.garneaufamily.ca/images/ladder.jpg





that would be a bubble counter cheap and effective not worth doing a diy

[garnpet]

If you truly want to DIY see the web page below. However it seems like a lot of work to save a few bucks. :screwy:

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

[GynMonkey1044]

so would this be correct; 2 liter soda bottle with the mixture in it air line tube going through the cap, check valve, and tube runs in to the hagen ladder? Thanx for all the help

[garnpet]

That would be it. You will probably find that the bubble go very quickly up the ladder at first, but after a week or so they will slow down considerably.

Things to remember...

1. A check value would be good, I don't use one but I should!

2. Don't squeeze/shake the pop bottle, this will cause a lowering of pressure in the bottle and the tank water will start to back up into the bottle. (See #1) Been there, done that, cleaned up the mess. :cry:

3. I would suggest using the nylon bulkhead fittings as I mentioned previously in the thread. The silicon just doesn't always work the best.

4. If you have smaller fish in your tank, block off the area behind the tubing in the ladder as fish have some idiotic idea that swimming up it is fun. Usually they get stuck and then die. You can see in my picture to the right of the bottom suction cup where I have blocked it off.

5. Get the ladder, skip the CO2 cannister from Hagen, it is just too small to do anything useful.

Best of luck

:thumbsup:

[fishnutham]

hi garnpet you ever see a fish swallow a bubble i have, had a baby gourami that kept on doing this did'nt hurt him though wich surprised the heck outa me i freaked when i seen him
even unpluged the co2 for a while just like watching a kid eating mud :)

FNH...

[garnpet]

My BN plecos play in the ladder a lot without any ill effect. I must say though I have never seen them eat the bubbles.

[aquafever]

I used the HAGEN DIY CO2 system initially it works on tanks up to 40g and it was only 30 bucks. You can get it a little cheaper at www.bigalsonline.com. As a matter of fact you get a whole lot of your aquarium supplies there cheaper. If I were you I would just get the right equipment, CO2 is very tricky remember its pressurized gas and if for some atmospheric reason you "coke bottle" over pressurizes them BOOM - Big smelly mess and God forbid the mixture gets in your tank you will need to take a month off from work and strip down your tank a couple of times to get it right. IMO the best CO2 system with the least amount of maintenance is the Carbo PLus CO2 system. it works on the principle of electrolysis, no Pressurized tanks, tubing or reactors, you control the output and each unit works for tanks up to 125g. Check it out. For info about the product go to http://www.belowwater.com/products/carbo-plus/. Big Als online sell it also... cheaper

[fishnutham]

I used the HAGEN DIY CO2 system initially it works on tanks up to 40g and it was only 30 bucks. You can get it a little cheaper at www.bigalsonline.com. As a matter of fact you get a whole lot of your aquarium supplies there cheaper. If I were you I would just get the right equipment, CO2 is very tricky remember its pressurized gas and if for some atmospheric reason you "coke bottle" over pressurizes them BOOM - Big smelly mess and God forbid the mixture gets in your tank you will need to take a month off from work and strip down your tank a couple of times to get it right. IMO the best CO2 system with the least amount of maintenance is the Carbo PLus CO2 system. it works on the principle of electrolysis, no Pressurized tanks, tubing or reactors, you control the output and each unit works for tanks up to 125g. Check it out. For info about the product go to http://www.belowwater.com/products/carbo-plus/. Big Als online sell it also... cheaper






greetings and welcome to MFK:


have you personly experianced a bottle exploding because this has turned into a myth from the old days of the first plastic bottles exploding after dropping them the bttle manafacturers correct this years ago

I have been using 2ltr bottles for 15 yrs never had a misshap as long as you have a check valve in place and dont over fill this will work great even if the airline became obstructed the cap has safety measures in place

I have the afore mentioned systems i use them on my book shelf tanks they are smaller and look more pleasing then pop bottles but for my large tank the pop bottle is the best for longtivity and cost just make sure they cant get tipped over now thats a mess

[ronj]

I use those 1.5L or 2L soft drink bottles and drill a hole in the cap. Then stick an airline tubing through it and use glue and silicone to make it air tight. I use about 1 cup of sugar and a quarter of a teaspoon of yeast to about 1 litre of water.
here is a pretty detailed website on DIY Co2 http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html
I have been looking for more ingo on DIY CO2 systems thanks for listing the link.