Help with DiY CO2

[KatieJ]

Gotcha, gotcha. I switched the tubes but am still not seeing any bubbles - I don't think the pressure is high enough yet. Is there a max amount of time it takes to re-generate the CO2 to a good enough pressure after being set up/having part of the line briefly disconnected?

 

[jetajockey]

One issue that I have had with DIY Co2 is the diffuser portion, if the line is deep in the tank, the co2 generator would have trouble giving a steady flow of co2. You could try disconnecting the diffuser portion and taking the line out of the tank to see if that could be part of it.

Otherwise it just takes a few hours for it to build pressure back up, if things were disconnected then it'll have to generate enough co2 to fill the space in the yeast bottle before you start seeing any bubbles.

 

[abrahamavelar]

You could hooj it to the intake of the filter.or power head

 

[lee_0082]

I may have missed it, but just wondering.. how big is your tank? I was thinking about doing this on a 55 gallon tank but.. from what I've read it would take a serious amount of bottles to keep this sort of thing going. I don't really want to spend a lot of money on a co2 system.

 

[abrahamavelar]

I may have missed it, but just wondering.. how big is your tank? I was thinking about doing this on a 55 gallon tank but.. from what I've read it would take a serious amount of bottles to keep this sort of thing going. I don't really want to spend a lot of money on a co2 system.

Not really im running a 3L bottle on my 75 gallon and it keeps the indicator on green fir over 2 weeks

 

[lee_0082]

Really? That is awesome! I definitely need to look into this as opposed to buying an expensive system. I just bought some T5HO lights for my tank and I'm probably going to need to do something along these lines to prevent algae from building up.

 

[abrahamavelar]

Ya for me has been really good making my plants grow really good

 

[jetajockey]

What kind of drop checker and reference solution are you using abraham?

 

[lee_0082]

how do you "turn off" the co2 at night?

 

[abrahamavelar]

A glass one I got on ebay hold on let me see if I can find it again and the solution I got it there too and its the same brand the lfs uses on their planted tanks which r really good n its a really good lfs

 

[abrahamavelar]

I couldnt find the brand but iy looks like calc aqua they sell 3 for ten bucks plus the solution on ebay

 

[jetajockey]

So are you using 4dkh reference solution? The reagent is the same thing as the low range ph test drops in the API kit. If you aren't using 4dkh water in the drop checker then it's hard to say how much co2 you actually have in there.

 

[abrahamavelar]

Hmmm I thought that solution or liquid was all that u needed

 

[jetajockey]

Some of the drop checkers just require addition of tank water thats why I was asking. I think some of them are 'all in one' but i'm not sure. Do a google search for 4dkh and you'll get more info on that particular subject.

 

[abrahamavelar]

This one is suppossed to be all in one

 

[jetajockey]

I just mentioned it because I was running 3 bottles of DIY co2 on a 40b and still barely got to 30ppm at peak production. I've also talked with several others that have had issues keeping a decent ppm in larger tanks.

 

[abrahamavelar]

Ohh ok ill check that, r those test kits expensive