5g Planted DIY co2

P

Peixe

AC Members
Dec 29, 2009
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Yonkers, NY
I was wondering does anyone have DIY co2 on a 5g, i have 2-2 liter bottles on both my 20g long and 20g high and see accelerated plant growth i want to put one on my 5g but I'm not sure how much.

I will be taking the DIY co2 hose out of the filter intake at night and just let it sit in the water so it does not dissolve as good during the night and replug into the filter intake in the morning, i was planning on using half a 2 liter bottle with half the the ingredients or just use the same ingredients just only use half the bottle?

Give some opinions, its a planted with eco-complete some guppies and a nice aquaclear 20.
LOL I'm redoing the co2 on all m tanks right now so a fast answer would be nice.

Thanks
Chris
 
1) IMO--That would be a good idea.
2) I think an Aquaclear (with the water-fall effect) will disperse most of your CO2.
 
I have two 1-liter bottles going into my 5g tee'd up to a single line. I think I split a normal batch (2 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp yeast, 1/2 tsp baking soda). I use a chopstick diffusor and have a Zoomed 501 canister filter. Usually average 1 bubble every 3 seconds.

If the lip of your HOB is below your water line, the dissipation shouldn't be too much.
 
Well i tried it with a regular batch, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast and 1/4 of baking soda, and lost 1 fish and the rest are at the top of the tank in the corner, they don't seem to be gasping but i got the hint and riped the co2 right out of the filters intake.(1) 2 liter soda bottle is to much for a planted 5g Planted tank, maybe down the line I'll try it with half the ingredients and half the bottle. Losing 1 fish isn't to bad but i just hope i dont loose more, i put a water pump near the surface the aerate water.
Now I'm down to 7 guppies, the plants didn't get a good chance to settle and i think the 2 liter was to much + the water is 80 so it has less oxygen to begin with compared to my 20g long which is at 76 degrees.

Thanks
Chris
 
tanker said:
1) IMO--That would be a good idea.
2) I think an Aquaclear (with the water-fall effect) will disperse most of your CO2.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you put the CO2 output to the intake of the filter? If that's what you meant, I can't because my AC filter intakes can't fit the CO2 hose. Should I put it near the filter so it gets sucked into the filter then? I just set up a DIY CO2 for my 20g long tonight, and I'm wondering where I should put the hose where CO2 is coming out.

Also, CO2 is starting to come out of the hose for me, and I'm wondering how many bubbles/sec is ideal for my planted tank. Right now, it's one bubble every several seconds, but this rate has been increasing slowly. I used 2 cups sugar and approx. (eyeballed) 1/2 teaspoon of yeast.
 
lake_tuna said:
Are you saying that you put the CO2 output to the intake of the filter? If that's what you meant, I can't because my AC filter intakes can't fit the CO2 hose. Should I put it near the filter so it gets sucked into the filter then? I just set up a DIY CO2 for my 20g long tonight, and I'm wondering where I should put the hose where CO2 is coming out.

Also, CO2 is starting to come out of the hose for me, and I'm wondering how many bubbles/sec is ideal for my planted tank. Right now, it's one bubble every several seconds, but this rate has been increasing slowly. I used 2 cups sugar and approx. (eyeballed) 1/2 teaspoon of yeast.
Click to expand...


what's being mentioned is that the surface agitation created by the flow of a HOB filter is often enough to gas-off the CO2 before it has any real utility in the tank. However, in my experience, and as mentioned above, keeping your water line above the level of the filter's output should curb most of the CO2 losses from gas-off.
 
lake_tuna said:
Are you saying that you put the CO2 output to the intake of the filter? If that's what you meant, I can't because my AC filter intakes can't fit the CO2 hose. Should I put it near the filter so it gets sucked into the filter then? I just set up a DIY CO2 for my 20g long tonight, and I'm wondering where I should put the hose where CO2 is coming out.

Also, CO2 is starting to come out of the hose for me, and I'm wondering how many bubbles/sec is ideal for my planted tank. Right now, it's one bubble every several seconds, but this rate has been increasing slowly. I used 2 cups sugar and approx. (eyeballed) 1/2 teaspoon of yeast.
Click to expand...


How are you diffusing the co2? Airstone? Chopstick? If it just bubbles into the tank, the bubble flies up to the surface and the co2 won't have time to be absorbed into the water. An airstone is a bit coarse, I'd go with a piece of bamboo chopstick, makes smaller bubbles.
I cut out a small section of one of the vertical slats on my intake to make an opening for my airline. The co2 is chopped into much smaller bubbles this way.
 
fishycat said:
How are you diffusing the co2? Airstone? Chopstick? If it just bubbles into the tank, the bubble flies up to the surface and the co2 won't have time to be absorbed into the water. An airstone is a bit coarse, I'd go with a piece of bamboo chopstick, makes smaller bubbles.
I cut out a small section of one of the vertical slats on my intake to make an opening for my airline. The co2 is chopped into much smaller bubbles this way.
Click to expand...

I'm using the chopstick method, but it doesn't seem to work that well. I don't have the bamboo one, so I'm using the regular chopstick. It either fits too tight and blocks the gas passage or fits too loose and releases large bubbles (smaller than what comes out of the hose, though). I think I will have to find a higher quality chopstick if this is to work well. I noticed that the cheap chopstick I have absorbs water pretty well for wood and expands.

This one seems to work well:
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/forum/equipment/748-great-diy-co2-diffuser-diy-co2-yeast.html
 
Sorry for the late response, yes i take the output of my co2 and put it into my intake of my filter, it should be fine. I also rise the water level so that it is above the filter output but i have found that even if i don't it still has plenty of co2 dissolved into the water.

I also found out that the (1) 2liter bottle of co2 wasn't to much because i later found out they had a case of ick, i sadly lost all of them to ick, so I'm going to try the co2 again but this time make sure they don't have anything wrong and let them settle for a little longer, by then the planted tank will be already settled in. Now I'm dosing with (2) 2 liter bottles in my 5g since it doesn't have any fish. On top of that I'm using excel.

Thanks( with a 20g light strip my plants are going crazy.)
 
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