DIY CO2, what size bottles?

[fish_4_all]

Ok, what size bottles, in tandem do you recommend for the following tanks and where do you think pressurized becomes essential?
10
12
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55

 

[azn_fishy55]

IMO pressurized becomes essential after the 30 gallon mark.At thirty gallons I used 2 1 gallon water jugs and it was doing great.

 

[Purrbox]

One of the general recommendations I've read is 2 Liters of generator bottle for every 10 Gallons of water. This will vary some depending on the efficiency of the diffuser that you are using. If you are using an inefficient menthod of diffusion you'll need more bottles to reach the same targets, however, if you are using an extremely efficient method of diffusion you may need less. Also make sure to always have at least two bottles running. That way you can stagger the changes and keep a more consistant CO2 level in your tank. So for a 10 Gallon you would want approximately 2 Liters for generating CO2, but would probably want to use 2 x 1 Liter bottles so that you can stagger the mix change outs.

There isn't a definate answer to when pressurized becomes essential. For most people it becomes easier to use pressurized somewhere between 30 and 55 gallons. However I've heard of some very successful tanks 55 gallons or larger that were using DIY CO2.

 

[Zezmo]

I used to run 4x 2-liter on my 55 gallon and that was quite effective. On a tank that size pressurized is really the way to go. It is easier and more importantly, stable.

 

[Toirtis]

I suppose that for larger (25-30g+)tanks one could use a large wine/beer carboy bottle, but simply switching over to pressurised tanks would seem simpler and likely cheaper.

 

[fish_4_all]

Funny you would say that becuase I was thinking about using a 2.5 gallon water bottle but figured it would be just too much.

 

[malkore]

bigger isn't necessarily better in terms of jug size. You'd have a more consistent, reliable output from 2 one gallon jugs, than one 2.5 gallon jug.

 

[Alshain]

IMO there is no point at which pressurized systems become essential, but there is a point when they become worth the cost. A 55 gallon tank can run with a DIY yeast mix, you just need more of it. As with any size tank, DIY can not be controlled like a pressurized system so when the tank gets larger it becomes easier to manage with a pressurized system.

 

[fish_4_all]

I like the idea of 2 1 liter bottles because they are compact and easy to change out. I use a combination of a 2 liter bottle, 2 juice jugs and 1, 1 liter bottle for my 2 tanks now and they do well. The 1 liter bottles are just really nice becuase they are so small and easy to change out. I may switch to 2 2 liter bottles for each tank but that seems overkill for 10 gallon tanks. Lots of good advice here, keep it coming. I had set up two 3 liter bottles and tried to pipie it into both tanks but only one line would get enough pressure to actually feed the tank. Is noteworthy to make sure other know that they need a setup for each tank with DIY. As for pressurized, I don't know, will one regulator feed 2 different tanks?

 

[Purrbox]

In order to feed CO2 into more than one tank from a single CO2 source you need what is called a Manifold. This allows you to set the flow rate for each tank individually. I doubt that these could be used with DIY CO2.