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I am new to co2 and I am interested. I just don't know where to begin Should I go into my lfs and ask, or does anyone have any useful sites on it so I can educate myself on it before I walk into a store and buy abunch of things I don't need. I don't have a lfs in my area that I trust the employees. They all either are too smart for me, or they have no idea what they are talking about. But anyway I have a 75 gallon tank, so I know a diy won't work, but I don't know where to start Thanks for any help

Mia,

I would suggest you read through various threads here in this forum, the Aquascaping forum, and the Technical Tinkering forum.

This should give you an idea of what this CO2 is all about and it will help you to create more specific questions regaring this topic.

The answer to your question above would require a response in the lenght of a (small) book.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

the two most important things you can do right now is to check your ph and your kh of your tank water. this will tell you how hard the co2 will have to work to get a good saturation in the water column. if you don't have these kits, go out and get them because you will need them if you are doing co2.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Well there's about 3 ways you can do co2. A diy setup involving 2 liter bottles, air tubing, yeast, and sugar, Pressurized co2 with a cannister you refill every few months, or systems like the carbo plus which use a carbon plate and electricity. The cheapest but most involved is the diy, a bit more cost would be pressurized co2 but it's mostly just the startup cost that makes it more expensive, and the most expensive but least maintenance is the carbo plus where you just slide in a new carbon block every other month or so. To explain any of those in detail would require a small book but if you search for co2, pressurized co2, diy co2, carbo plus, etc... you should find plenty of information.

were i work the most populay brand of CO2 units is Red Sea

Umm, I don't think that CO2 injection is so complicated. Yes, you can do as much research as you want, but the basics are pretty easy.

Firstly, you say yourself that your tank is too big for DIY. That's ruled out. Of the two other possibilities, the pressurised system is more commonly used and by reading people's accounts with carbo plus, I can say why. So my recommendation would be to go with pressurised system and I'll focus on that one.

What you basically need for a pressurised system are:
1. A CO2 gas bottle.
2. Pressure reducer with a pressure gauge.
3. A needle valve, to adjust the flow of CO2.
4. CO2 tubing.
5. Diffuser or reactor to inject the CO2 into your tank.

Extras (not necessary):
1. Solenoid valve - which can be plugged into a timer to stop CO2 injection (at night, for instance)
2. pH meters which can be connected to the solenoid valve to control a steady pH in the tank.

You have two options then. One is to buy bits and pieces and put your own system and the other is to buy an "off the shelf" system which has everything you need. This is probably more expensive, but at least you know that you got everything right and you don't have to fiddle around with how to do it.

I don't know what's available in North America but a search on online retailers will will show you some options. If you are not into welding supplies, go to your local fish shop and see what they have in stock and ask whether they sell gas bottles (they actually only replace your empty bottle with a full one for a fee) and then compare prices online. CO2 systems are not sports cars and they all give the same result, the only thing that might make a difference is the diffuser/reactor where some are better than others, but this can be replaced at a later stage for something better.

I myself have a JBL proflora profi2 system which I'm very happy with, but I don't think they're sold in N. America...

These are the basics, if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask.

Last edited by untitled at 05-Sep-2005 10:37

Great post, untitled.

Mia, what part of Canada are you in?

That is a great post Untitled. That is so the amount of info that I was looking for. I think that I'm going to lower my watts and not have co2 for a while. Maybe I'll be smart and save up for a co2 kit i'll just keep my eyes open for a sale. I'm in BC, where are you trystianity?

No worries Mia. I think you're taking the right decision not to go for CO2 at the moment as it will be a waste of money on the plants and the amount of plants that you have.

If you can be bothered you can fiddle with DIY CO2. Won't give the same results as pressurised system, but will definitely do something, and there's more room for trial and error. This forum is full of information about DIY CO2 if you want to look into that, but in any case, it's not a must for your plants so far.

Mia,
[link=This]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Planted%20Aquaria/55803.html" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] is one of my favorite threads on CO2. The barb adapter was the answer to one of my problems . For a 75 it'll be tough to do DIY you're right. But if you want something for while you save up for a pressurized system there are ways that you can get some benafit from DIY.

^_^[hr width='40%']"So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind.
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time...
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right
[link=I hope]http://babelfish.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] you had the time of your life"

Two bottles of DIY with an efficient reactor would at least help raise your CO2 levels in the tank. You may not get 30 ppm of CO2, but even 10-15 helps a bit IMO.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I'm in BC, where are you trystianity?

Near Toronto.

BTW you will probably enjoy non CO2 more if you're just starting out, much less work although the plants grow slower. Instead of DIY yeast stuff I would use Flourish Excel, it will be of much greater benefit on a tank that size. Or just go without, you don't need it. Just make sure you keep your other nutrients balanced with the appropriate fertilizers.



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