diy co2

[nitrous]

im thinking about making a diy co2 system and i want to know what kinds of test kits do i need and im going to use this mixture
# 2 cups water
# 2 cups Sucrose (cane sugar)
# ¼ teaspoon Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast
# ¼ cup tepid (ideally 104ºF) water
has anyone tried this or have any hints on better mixes?
also what exactly is cane sugar, common sugar?

thanks and to put in my tank i just put it in teh filter intake right and just take off the bottom cap or drill a hole in thje bottom of teh intake?

edit
ive found different mixtures which i will use and ive read that they use an airstone and put teh airstone in teh tank for the co2 to go out of intsead of the intkae of the filter? which is betteR?

 

[czcz]

You'll want closer to 1 1/2L of water to keep the alcohol diluted and the yeast alive. More complex sugars should break down slower -- you'll see processed and cane and brown sugar, in order of complexity I believe, at your grocery store. You also have the option of using molasses or jello... I am of the opinion that changing easy sugar mixes every two weeks is easier than complicated recipies, but thats just me.

You don't need to drill a hole into the intake of the filter. Rather, cram in the tube into the intake guard. Airline reducer (at your LFS) may help here. Downside of using an HOB filter is noise.

Can use an airstone that produces very fine bubbles, but they often clog from the residue inherent with yeast-based CO2. A gas separator bottle per LeVassuer's qsl.net article (CO2 sticky) should help.

Best diffusion method in terms of effectiveness vs price is a powered reactor, also explained in Levasseur's article.

Try searching this forum. There has been much discussion on DIY methods here for different tank sizes.

Good luck!

 

[nitrous]

do i absolutely need a test kit?

 

[czcz]

You'll save a lot of headache with KH and pH kits. You could pull it off without one by using plants, algae, and fish stress to determine CO2 levels. You could have the LFS test KH with a liquid reagent kit to assure you have enough buffering to inject CO2 without crashing pH, then keep up on water changes to maintain the buffer. In a perfect world it can be done, but more than likely you'll need the tests to help troubleshoot during set-up and your first few algae blooms, especially if the tank is medium light or higher. If you can only afford one of the kits, get pH.

 

[nitrous]

i have 34 watts, 2 17w t8s on my 20 gal which is low to medium light and they sell the co2 level thing
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=4608&N=2004+113779
will that do anything useful?

 

[PrettyFishies]

Anyone have a pic of where they put the powered reactor (Python tube)?

 

[nitrous]

i have the fw master test kit and that has the ph test /high range ph test

 

[fish_4_all]

I have heard CO2 test kits reallt suck and are really inacurate. Testing the Kh and Ph is more reliable.

 

[nitrous]

will flourish excel help in addition to co2?