DIY CO2 Question

[Austin.b]

i have put together a DIY CO2 system with yeast and sugar. how do i keep CO2 from going into the tank at night when the plants dont use it? Thank you!

 

[mudraker]

With DIY you really can't, but if your tank is gassing off correctly it won't really matter.

I suppose you could pull the tubing out and let it into the air, but I'm not so sure you'd want that...

 

[Austin.b]

With DIY you really can't, but if your tank is gassing off correctly it won't really matter.

I suppose you could pull the tubing out and let it into the air, but I'm not so sure you'd want that...

Yeah I thought about doing that, but it didn't seem like a good idea haha thanks for responding!!

 

[mudraker]

You bet.

I am a veteran warrior in the DIY CO2 war.

 

[Austin.b]

You bet.

I am a veteran warrior in the DIY CO2 war.

Oh really? Haha did you have Lot of trouble with it?

 

[aqua_chem]

How big is this tank? I would think that it would be fairly difficult to kill fish with DIY CO2 with anything but a small tank.

 

[Atxpunx]

I pull my co2 tubing out every night and put it back it when the light comes on. No problem here!

 

[Austin.b]

How big is this tank? I would think that it would be fairly difficult to kill fish with DIY CO2 with anything but a small tank.

It's a 10G. Also, the glass diffuser won't let air through it. It seems to be airtight but I'll let water through it. What do I do?

 

[Austin.b]

It's a 10G. Also, the glass diffuser won't let air through it. It seems to be airtight but I'll let water through it. What do I do?

*it'll let water through it.

 

[Austin.b]

I pull my co2 tubing out every night and put it back it when the light comes on. No problem here!

Ok! Do you think it would be ok to leave it in or the night? Thanks!

 

[Atxpunx]

Ok! Do you think it would be ok to leave it in or the night? Thanks!

Plants need oxygen at night. Having the co2 depletes the oxygen quicker at night

 

[Austin.b]

What do you think about the "airtight" diffuser? It just dosent let air through into the tank. Yet it let's water in! How do I fix this? Also, my CO2 mix only has a bubble about every 2 minutes? What do I do? Thanks!

 

[blert]

I saw a DIY CO2 setup once that had a Mylar balloon as a reservoir (can't remember where). But they would pinch off the outlet tube at night and the CO2 would collect in the balloon so as to not waste it.

 

[rasbora]

You can do this in two ways:
1. turn on your air pump at night (using timer) so it will increase surface movement => thus reducing CO2 level in water. You can also use power head or water circulator pump pointing to the surface for increasing surface movement.

2. leave it as it is
During my research about CO2 on fw tank, I found two information somewhere on Internet.
a. keeping the CO2 on at night can cause pH drop because CO2 is not used by plants. However pH drop caused by CO2 injection does not cause any harm to the fish, because it does not change the osmosis pressure so it does not affect the respiration of fish.
2. increased CO2 level in tank does not cause a drop in Oxygen level.

Now my very overstocked 75 gallon tank is injected by DIY CO2, using more than 10 liter of yeast solution and I leave it as it is during the night without any sign of oxygen problem.

 

[Basefrog]

So the end of the day leaving your DIY CO2 system on/in over night will not really effect anything?

 

[JavaMoss]

Nope. The problem with diy is that if you were to clamp it off, the bottle of CO2 will explode due to the pressure. Your tank will be fine

 

[Basefrog]

 

[fort384]

Plants need oxygen at night. Having the co2 depletes the oxygen quicker at night

While it is true that plants need oxygen at night for respiration, leaving the CO2 on at night does not "deplete" oxygen quicker. Most folks who run DIY CO2 (myself included when I did it long ago) leave it running at night, with no ill effects. That's not to say that you shouldn't watch it carefully for the first several nights - you will see an increase in CO2 at night if your method of diffusion is at all effective - but aside from a slight rise in CO2 concentration, I would say 99% of folks do not have any issues to worry about so long as the DIY system is right sized to your particular setup.

 

[Austin.b]

Thanks everyone! But what about the diffuser!? It dosent let any CO2 through! In the bottle with plain waiter there's now a bubble every 2-4 seconds but after that I don't know what's wrong,bad diffuser? I'll pick up another one today just in case.

 

[Austin.b]

I saw a DIY CO2 setup once that had a Mylar balloon as a reservoir (can't remember where). But they would pinch off the outlet tube at night and the CO2 would collect in the balloon so as to not waste it.

Wow! That's a really good idea! I might try that haha