DIY CO2 for well planted 70gallon tank?

[Tiffi]

Hi,

I am originally from Germany and live in TN, USA now. At my parents house in Germany I had a 55g tank before with lots of plants and Dennerle natural CO2 system. It all worked very well and grew over my head. 8O

I want to get a 70g here now and was wondering if natural or DIY CO2 would be enough for a tank that size?

What would I have to look for to get enough CO2 dissolved? What kind of diffusor?

Thanx for your answers,
Vanessa

 

[greenmaji]

for a 70 gallon tank you would likely need bigger CO2 generators..

 

[cplawrence]

I understand why most people say you should be looking at pressurized CO2 for that large of a tank, but could one in principle simply use many DIY reactors?

 

[Tiffi]

I was planning on building a system with two 2liter bottles (if that's ok) and maybe a power reactor. Could that work or not enough?

 

[koffee]

The problem with DIY is keeping it consistant. I'm learning just how much work that is with two bottles on a 29 G. So much, in fact, that I am really leaning towards removing it until I can afford pressurized CO2.

Things to keep in mind:

Always use at least two bottles and never change all of them at the same time.

Check the pH often! The pH will rise as less CO2 is generated by the yeast. Your plants might just slow down until there is more CO2, but these fluctuations will be really hard (if not fatal) for your fish.

NEVER do anything to slow or prevent the release of pressure from the CO2 generating bottles. They can and will explode, cause a big smelly mess and possible damage to things and/or people. You can NOT just put in an air valve to slow down the CO2 release.

If you think you are getting too much CO2 (test results, gasping fish), your only option is to remove some CO2 (surface agitation, etc.) rather than slow it down - unless you remove the CO2 injector entirely.