regulating DIY CO2

[Evaunitone]

How do you regulate the CO2 in a DIY setup? Aren't you supposed to stop the CO2 at night time? If so, how would you do that? I could imagine using a spigot or whatever to close off the tubing at night, but couldn't that result in the bottle exploding?

 

[timwag2001]

with diy you DO NOT regulate how much is going into your tank. you dont want too much pressure building up or things will pop off or can explode.

as far as at night is concerned, you should at least turn on an airstone to off gass the co2. some people take it out of their tank all together

 

[marchmaxima]

Yeah you can't switch off the CO2 on a DIY setup.

I also had an airstone, but I connected the air pump to a timer. It would turn ON 1 hour before lights off and gas off the CO2 during lights out. It would then turn OFF 1 hour before lights on so that there was plenty of CO2 goodness for the plants when they woke up from their lights off period.

 

[newfound77951]

FWIW, when i ran DIY CO2, I didn't do anything at night. Unless the tank is really small, or you have a lot of bottles producing CO2, then it will be fine. I have pressurized on my 55g right now and the solenoid is dirty and doesn't completely shut off at night. No issues other than the fact that I'm wasting gas (which costs $) at night. I doubt that with DIY you could get your CO2 levels high enough (>50 ppm or so) to cause your fish any harm.

 

[mgamer20o0]

put it in a bucket of water with a heater. stable temp will give you a stable amount of co2 until it runs out. takes if i remember right 125 psi for a 2l to explode (thank you mythbusters) just leave the co2 do its thing night and day. at night the co2 will build up so the plants should have a good supply for the day.