Question about my Hagen CO2 natural plant system

[iamaj]

I got this system for some low maintance plants in my tank. I dont believe any of the plants need c02 but i got a cheap system to do the job.

I know the instructions say it takes 24-48 hours for the system to start working properly. So far its been about 30 hours and it spits out 1-2 bubbles a minute. Is this normal? will it shock me in a few hours?

aj

 

[Guest]

Yeah, its normal. It may take up to a couple more days to get more like 1 bubble per 10 seconds.

I find mine work better with my own mix, not the Hagen packets.

1/2 teaspoon yeast (bread yeast, can get at the supermarket el-cheapo)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
water to the water line as marked on the cannister. i use warm water to get it started faster, but not too warm or it will kill the yeast.

 

[iamaj]

Okay. i read the instructions wrong the first time and added two packets of both (I have no clue why i did that). But i looked at the activator and saw yeast. the second packet looked just like salt (but that you ment baking soda, aha!) and geeze $6 for 3 of those, whata rip.

thanks for the help, ill try your mixture when this sucker goes out.

aj

 

[iamaj]

also, you saw one cup sugar. Do you mean one cup as in measured? or to the tab built in the canister?

thanks, again!

 

[talenzmeier]

Corvo to the Rescue

Corvos recipe is perfect! I have the same system and am grateful for his recipe. Also, one thing the instructions don't tell you to do is "mix well." The first time I did it, I simply added the ingredients, sealed it up, and waited. I did get bubbles, but they ended up being malformed. That is to say, they would stack up and not move up the lattice properly. Stirring solved that problem.

 

[Guest]

I hate to tell you this but until the lattice gets a bio-film on it the bubbles will stack up.

 

[iamaj]

Well i just changed the mixture in the co2 canister and withen 2 hours it was putting out more bubbles then the hagen stuff did in 4 days!

Thanks for the recipe!!!!!!!!

aj

 

[Guest]

you are welcome aj. just passing along what others have told me. pass it on.

 

[demurefemme]

this may be a silly question, but what if my problem was similar...but happened in a reverse order? when i first set up my system, i got several bubbles (very large) a minute after about 18 hours in operation. the bubbles then got smaller the next day, and now (day three or four), they have pretty much ceased all together! what's going on here?

 

[Jack]

Regarding the mixture

Regarding the mixture:

If you doubled the sugar, yeast and baking soda, would you get double the CO2?

 

[iamaj]

dem, im not sure. maybe it was a bad mixture?

jack. well id say it would work, but you would need a bigger container if your going to 2x the ingrediants.

aj

 

[Phlegethon]

I have a question about this system, can you double the output by using a Y-spliter to add a second canister, thereby avoiding putting a second diffuser into the tank?

 

[Phlegethon]

Also - I have a planted 5.5 gallon tank that gets about 4 watts per gallon of flourescent light - would one of these things be beneficial on a system that small or just lethal?

Thanks in advance for advice!