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I'm making a DIY Co2 injector and have a 5' 198 litre tank. Is it right that I should use a 6 litre bottle or should it be bigger. Any comments would be appreciated. The mixture I have is for a 2 litre coke bottle using yeast, sugar and baking soda, but I will adjust accordingly to the size I require.

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My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90

Hi Bubblelover - Let me know how u get on with it. I was thinking about doing the same thing myself.

Cheers
Crusha

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

bubblelover,

5 Feet, that is quite a long tank for 198 liters, or about 52 US Gallons. It must be really skinny then, or really low. What are the other dimensions?

Also, looking at your profile I see that you sure seem to have quite a fish load in there .

Now, I am not an expert in DIY CO2 systems, so I will not be able to give you any advice there. But I have a few questions regarding this setup:

a) Why not get a pressurized system (cost)?
b) What is your lighting?
c) What plants are in the tank and how many?
d) what is your substrate?

I hope you don't mind me asking all this stuff, I am just trying to get a better picture of your situation.

Thanks in advance,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hi Little Fish,
Thanks for your reply. Firstly my apologies, I have changed my profile as it should have read 298L (73gal) not 198L. I don't mind you asking questions at all, the more info I can get from other hobbiest the better....
My tank is fitted with 36 watt Sylvannia Fluro light.
My tank is heavily planted with Swords, Anubias with some growing on driftwood, Crypts, Banana plants, mongo grass and various others. The bottom of my tank has a fine natural gravel and my filter system is the Eheim 2215. I would attach a photo if I could to give you a better idea.
I've heard this Co2 injector system works well and yes, the reason I'm making one is because of the cost involved of buying one. Any comments would be appreciated Thanks Bubblelover

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My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90

Little Fish,
Sorry I forgot to mention if you look at my profile again it will tell you in more detail the number of fish I have.

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My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90

bubblelover,

Well, 298 liters makes much more sense over 5' .

Anyway, I assume your reason for adding any form of CO2 is to enhance growth, or maybe health of your plants. While I think that the CO2 will do something good, I also think it will not do a lot. One reason is your light. You say you have 36w over a 73G tank, that is really very little. In order for plants to grow better they need improvements in 3 areas, Lights - CO2 - Fertilizers. These elements are linked as an improvement in only one or two of them will maybe create a little effect but not a solid effect as long as the third one lacks behind. Actually, doing the before mentioned might also be an invitation to algae.

Most of the plants you listed are low light plants (crypts and anubias, at least are) and can do ok in your setting, others would like to have a little more light (in anyway, even low light plants do better in more light).

Conceptually, given that light and ferts are ok (which they are not), I know nobody who adds CO2 via a DIY CO2 systems to a tank of your size. Obviously, you realize that one bottle would not be enough and that is your reason to ask how to do 6 of them. The problem here is that you will go crazy trying to maintain a steady flow of CO2 to the tank. Some of the bottles will just start to produce CO2 (new batch) while others will be in full swing and others again start to be on their way out. It would be very hard to almost impossible for an even CO2 flow over longer periods of time.

About yout fishies: You sure have an interesting assortment in there . You have more fish of species that would do fine by themselves then you have fish that like to be in schools (for example - 4 Rams and 1 Clown Loach or 2 Rainbows). But I think that would be a topic to discuss in itself, so maybe (if you are interested and/or concerned) you could create a new thread discussing your fishies.

Well, so much from here now, I hope this gives you some info. Fire away with any questions you may have

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Personally I am fed up with trying to keep my DIY CO2 bottles going I have one on two seperate tanks and keeping up with both ot the bottles and fending off the smelly ants from any sugar laying around is driving me BATTY. I am buing a CO2 setup ASAP! I will have a large bottle of co2 for my breeding tanks with a gang valve and then one for each of the freshwater ones in the house. at this point cost be darned. Otherwise getting off my high horse, I added the diy co2 to my tank and shortly after started dosing the tank with ferts nothing really special and didnt see a lot of differnce in most of the plants till I added the second T8 17w bulb (I think the 24" bulbs are 17) and then the rest of the plants ESPECIALLY my three crypts took off like a weed. I am impressedwith the differnce and can not wait till I get this move done so that I can get the established tanks transfered painted resetup and start in with the mass ordering of wood plants lights co2 etc. I sometimes find the plants to be a more rewarding thing to tinker with than the fish themselves but for observing the fish take the prize.

Anyways hope this rant about DIY CO2 helps in your thought process here.

mrwizerd,

If I am not mistaken then a 24" T8 bulb is 20W.

These lights go on a 6" = 5W increment.

Ergo: 24" / 6" = 4 --> 4 x 5W = 20W

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I've decided that it is all to hard and scary
LITTLE_FISH I have posted some pics of my aquarium if you'd like to preview. They can be seen here;
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90
I enquired at my lfs about the cost of a injector system and I'm looking at AU$400.00 for the set up plus another AU$400.00 for the computer that looks after the ph level.
Way out of my price range at the moment. Guess I'll keep replacing plants as needed.
Thanks for all the comments everyone.

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My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90

Guess I'll keep replacing plants as needed

Noooooooo

That doesn't sound right. I don't know if AU$800 is equal to $200 here in the US, but if not then this seems to be way too much.

I am sure that people like upikabu can help you in finding much cheaper online places where you can purchase good CO2 equipment. And scratch that Computer for ph adjustment, useless .

With prices here in the US: All you need is a bottle, maybe 5 liters for about $80, a regulator with solenoid - bubble counter - check valve for about $90, a glass diffuser for maybe $10, and CO2 tubing for maybe $4.

Seriously, before you give up, create a thread in the planted forum called something like "CO2 Equipment in Australia Help".

Ingo

EDIT: But you still should get better light.

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Bubblelover,

Another alternative is to keep it simple and forget about adding CO2. You can still grow quite a range of plants in a non-CO2 tank. The trick is to keep lights on the low side (between 1-2wpg, so you still need to add one or two additional flouro bulbs or go with power compact light), stay with low light plants (I think most of the ones you have are already), and space out your water changes (once every month or so). Don't forget the ferts of course (you only need to add them once a week for a non-CO2 tank).

But if you do want to add CO2, then pressurized is the only way to go for that size tank IMO. You can rent a CO2 bottle from BOC (I think it works out to be about $10/month) - they'll also refill it for you. The rest of the stuff (regulator, bubble counter, diffuser) will cost around $100-150 (I can hook you up with someone who has good prices on these). Forget about solenoid or pH regulator - they're too expensive here (as you've found out already) and not absolutely necessary.

HTH!

EDIT: Just saw LF's post. AU$800 is definitely not anywhere close to US$200. (About US$615.) Yes, those things are that much more expensive here (especially in LFS), it's ridiculous.

-P

Hi,
Generally speaking a 30-40 gallon tank is about the
largest that you would want to permanently use DIY CO2
injection on. The reason is that it takes so much more
CO2 to achieve the 30mg/l saturation that most are looking
for in a tank. You would need at least two bottles running
at all times, and need to have several replacements
cleaned, and ready to mix. Honestly, it would turn into
a CHORE instead of a "labor of love."

I ran DIY for a month and when I saw the difference in
the tank between CO2 and no CO2, I decided to purchase
a bottled system. My 5 pound bottle I purchased from
a Beer and Tap store. (they sell CO2 and supplies to
any restaurant that has carbonated drinks (sodas) and
to bar for pouring tap beer.) I bought it so long ago
that I forget the price but it was less than 100$, I'm
thinking 50-75. A 5 pound bottle refil costs me $9 and
some change (tax) and lasts 6 months. After a while I
purchased a second bottle so that when one runs out, I
swap bottles and get the empty refilled, but the tank
continues to receive CO2.

The regulator was nearly 150$ and I purchased mine
online from Arizona Gardens. At that time they were selling
a "kit" that included a regulator, reactor, bubble counter,
and "CO2 airline."

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Just checked T8 bulbs at 24" are 18w T12's are 20w which I knew. The lower the T number the lower the wattage of the grow lamps but higher the lumen output.

Hi All,
Thank you for all your comments. Originally my girlfriend (Crusha) who has a 4' tank and I thought we would be clever in making our own DIY CO2 injector kit. As you can see by all my questions and also her thread titled CO2 and PH Quatlity under 'Water Conditions' it's really done our heads in
Upikabu I agree the best is to keep it simple and forget about adding the CO2....it's all toooooo hard
LittleFish you mentioned a couple of times about my lighting not being good enough, but I'm afraid that's all my lfs sells. Ok you guys to keep my plants healthy and happy what in Oz would I buy to do this. Keeping in mind I want to afford to run my airconditioner and buy food this month!!! Can you give me a brand name and wattage or the terminology I need to use to obtain this lighting from maybe someone in perth like Aquotix or Vebas. Sorry all this wpg,T8's and T12's just make me think of Edison and I didn't really pay attention in class all those years ago when we did social studies
Thanks again you guys are great with helping me out on this.

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My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90

Hey Bubblelover, I know what the wpg is ... its watt per gallon and you work that out by dividing your globe wattage by the number of gallons in your aquarium.

Maybe you should have paid more attention in science as well

Cheers
Crusha

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

Bubblelover,

I think your cheapest option for light upgrade at this point is to get a good quality double flourescent reflector (brands like Aqualina, Heto, NOT Dalbarb), which should have 2x40w bulbs (costs around $100-150 online). Together with your current 36W of flouro light, that would give you about 1.5wpg of light which would be perfect for a non-CO2 setup.

Compact flourescent reflectors (1x96W + 1x55W for 5' unit) will be a lot dearer ($200+).

The only other thing you need are ferts. I've heard the cheap dry ferts (KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, etc.) are readily available in Perth through a local chemical company (Sigma Chemicals, http://www.sigma-chem.com.au/). PM me if you need more details.

Cheers!

-P

Thanks for your comments everyone and special thanks to upikabu who helped me with what I need to keep both my fish and plants happy.
This is what I will be sticking with instead of opting for a CO2 injector. (CO2 just isn't for this bubblelover)
Ok this is now what's on my tank.
1 x double Heto Light
1 x single Heto Light
1 x Sylvannia Aqualux White 36w Tube (Came With Heto Double)
1 x Coral Blue 36w Tube (Came With Heto Double)
1 x Sylvannia Growlux Pink 36w Tube
I have also purchased the following:
1 x Sera Florena
1 x Leaf Zone
All up cost $194.75.....a LOT cheaper than a co2 injector kit.

Cheers BubbleLover /:'

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My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90