Hagen Nutrafin CO2 Natural Plant System

[scarf]

Hi,

I'm bit lazy and thinking of just getting the Hagen's Nutrafin® CO2 Natural Plant System for my CO2 generator n reactor. I was wondering has any1 used one of these before, and what impressions they were of it (for a 20g).

Also, for those people that do use it, when they have finished off with the CO2 tabs, they just use their own recipe that they would use for a DIY soda bottle generator, don't they?

Thanks

 

[ringfinger]

I just barely ordered one for myself, so I don't know yet. The common opinion around here seems to be that yes, it will work fine with your 20g. But any tank bigger might be a stretch. You could possibly make up your own activator tablets, but since they are so cheap it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. I beleive they are about $6 for a 3 month supply, and you could just combine shipping with something else at the same time. People also seem to favor using CO2 and Flourish Excel together with the setup you have. That is also something I am gonna try. Good luck, sorry I dont have any more experience...just things I've heard.

 

[Tiffi]

If you make a DIY mixture you have to sum up the price for sugar, yeast and maybe some baking soda (for stabilisation). I would go with the Hagen tablets, it's not really expensive (~ $2 a month) and less messy.

 

[Hoovercat]

The Hagen packets contain only the yeast and baking soda so they're not that great a deal. For the $6 they cost you could buy enough yeast and baking soda to make 40-50 mixtures and experiment for best production/duration.

 

[tetrin]

i use the hagen setup, but i got rid of the ladder a few weeks ago. it had a lot of problems staying clean - snails (when it was in my 10g), dead or live plant matter etc. prevent the bubbles from coming up sometimes, lowering the efficiency. so i feed it into the intake of my AC now.
regarding the recipe - sugar to the bottom mark in the bottle (distinctly visible), 1/8th tsp fleishmann's (sp?) yeast dissolved in lukewarm water in a cup and poured in the bottle, and finally the bottle filled to the upper mark. this lasts me for about 3 weeks (too lazy to change it after 2 weeks ).
HTH.

 

[gheitman]

I use the Hagen setup on my 30 gallon tank (with the ladder). I fill it to the bottom mark with raw cane sugar along with 1/4 tsp of Fleischmann's yeast and 1/4 tsp of Arm & Hammer baking soda and then fill it with luke warm water to the upper mark. This will last me just over two weeks and appears to give a higher output rate than using white granulated sugar. I've read that brewer's yeast does better than regular yeast but I haven't tried it yet.

I found that the effectiveness of the CO2 injection went up dramatically when I replaced my HOB filter with a canister filter.

 

[Purrbox]

Until last week I was using the Hagen system. It's a great starting place, but I decided to upgrade to two reactors and to buy a smaller diffuser. The ladder took up a lot of space in my 5 Gal Tank and I wanted more consistant CO2 levels in the tank than I could get with one reactor.

I would definately suggest using your own mix instead of buying the packets which will end up being much more expensive. I use 1/8 tsp of Champagne Yeast and 1/2 tsp of Baking Soda (half of a stabalizer packet since I've got hard water).

If you don't have a local shop that sells brew supplies, you can get the yeast online pretty inexpensively. I bought mine from ebrew, both price and shipping were very reasonable. One packet of this yeast will get you several batches of CO2. I'm still on my first packet and have made up four batches with plenty of yeast left.

This mixture lasts me over four weeks, though the production slows significantly by the end of the fourth week.

 

[An t-iasg]

Purrbox,
I also have a 5 gallon tank and I'm thinking about ordering the Hagen system, but I had concerns about the ladder. Just in the pictures it looked too big for a 5 gallon tank!

What are you using for a diffuser, since you stopped using the ladder?

 

[Purrbox]

I'm using the Rea Sea CO2 Reactor 200. Both ThatPetPlace and BigAlsOnline carry it. It takes up barely any space at all in my 5 Gal tank while the Hagen Ladder took up nearly an entire wall of the Hex. It puts out a fine mist of bubbles that seem to dissolve just as well or better than the larger bubbles making their way up the ladder, plus it has a check valve and bubble counter built it. I really like it a lot so far, need to do a test soon so I can compare CO2 levels before and after the new diffuser.

 

[An t-iasg]

Thanks, Purrbox! The Red Sea diffuser looks like it would work out well, and it's a much better size for a 5 gallon tank. I'm still pretty new to planted tanks! How do you check the CO2 levels in a small tank?

 

[Purrbox]

Same as in a larger tank, test your PH and KH levels and then either use a CO2 chart or formula to calculate the level of CO2 in you tank. I prefer using the formula since I don't have to guess if my numbers can't be found on the chart.

CO2 (in PPM) = 3 * dKH * 10^( 7-PH )

Scroll down slightly to view the chart in this link.

 

[rich311k]

If you down load Chuck's calculator it will do the math for you.

 

[czcz]

Chuck also has a web app that does it for you (half way down):
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

Malkore uploaded an Excel spreadsheet with the formula IIRC - should be in the archives.

 

[An t-iasg]

Thanks very much, guys! I was just reading some of those sites the other day. (they didn't sink in yet, lol!) I did download the calculator but didn't really play with it yet. I just got a new pH test kit, and I have a GH/KH kit too, so I'm all set!