DIY CO2 System not working- Help?

[Jdh]

Hi everyone,
I set my DIY CO2 last night, and it isn't working. It's for a 10 gallon tank. Here's the specs:

Setup:
Ocean-spray style bottle
CO2 Resistant Tubing
Glass Diffuser

Recipe:
2 Cups Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Yeast (Stirred in a small bowl with a pinch of sugar to activate first, had a few bubbles.)
Lukewarm water (sugar is melted.)

I have two theorys of it didn't work. The first one being water in the tubing. I set up a DIY Bubble Checker (Syringe without needle with a check valve in it, filled halfway with water), and the water dripped out into the tubing where the syringe tip met the tubing. Here's a picture of what it looked like (Although the one in the picture is completely verticle) :

The second one being, could the yeast of died? Is there any way I can check if it did?

Thanks for any help
-Josh

 

[neilanh]

There's a few things to watch for with the DIY method.

1) it's not uncommon for it to take up to 24 hours for the yeast mixture to build up enough pressure to start moving gas through the tubing. It has to bubble enough first to pressurize the bottle that you have it in before enough pressure will be made to start actually moving the gas.

2) Check for leaks. The lid on the bottle, the interfaces for your tubing at all locations, etc. If you have any leaks anywhere, this will prevent the system from building up the necessary pressure to push the gas.

3) on occasion you do get a bad batch of yeast. You said you saw it forming bubbles, so I would suspect that this batch was okay, but if you used too hot or cold water it could have killed it. I believe my wife once told me you want "tepid" water temperature for mixing yeast, which is actually 104 degrees F. To check the yeast, gently swirl or lightly shake the bottle where the mixture is to see if it foams up, kind of like a soapy solution or a soda would if you shook it. Not too much though, that can burn through the yeast too fast.

 

[mudraker]

I have been fighting diy co2 setups for months now. 99% of the time I couldn't get it going it was leaking somewhere. You can easily check to see if its leaking where the tubing meets the bubble checker by sticking it in the water. If bubbles come out, its leaking there.

You didn't say if you have a check valve, but that's another place where the tubing can be leaking. If you don't have a check valve on there, please do yourself a favor and get one. As you already found out, water will backfill into the tubing. If you aren't leaking and its just taking its time about building up pressure, the yeast can get into your tank. Enough said about that kind of disaster....