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Why does every site or person that suggests DIY CO2, say to use a 2 liter bottle when a 1 liter holds everything perfectly, it would seem to me like it would take less time to start producing bubbles (less space to pressurize) and would possibly waste less (cause at the end you have the whole empty part of the 2 liter filled with CO2)??

The mix I make up uses 6 cups of warm water which I don't think would fit in a 1 liter seeing as it fills up a 2 liter up to the part where it starts to curve.
For smaller tanks 10 and under, using a half mix and a 1 liter bottle may make more sense... IMO anyway .

^_^


[hr width='40%']"Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
and I am waiting for disaster"

exactly what babel said: the 2L bottles are able to hold more mix and will last longer. if you don't mind changing your 1L bottle every week or so when it runs out then you have nothing to worry about

---

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

Most recipes I heard are usually 2 cups sugar, 2 cups water and some yeast. This fits near perfectly in a 1 liter, and is said to last 3 weeks, but they say to use 2 liter bottle...

The recipe you are describing is for initial mix, you are supposed to fill the 2 ltr to the top right where it curves. To the best of my understanding it's simple. If you don't have enough water in the mix, the fermentation will be greater, and I think if I remember correctly 15% alcohol is high enough to kill your yeast.

So it needs to be diluted to keep the alcohol level down a bit also.

Sure using half the recommended dose for a 1 ltr will probably work, but like what has been said earlier you will be changing your mix 2 times as much.

Heck I'm wanting a 3 ltr bottle setup. Too bad most stores near me don't sell them anymore.

*sends shannen her stockpile of 3 litre bottles*
I have them all over the house - they're what I store top-up water in between water changes.

You could also make yourself a nice, indestructable, high-pressure CO2 bottle from some 4" PVC piping and a couple of end caps (although you would need to modify one for an outlet)....probably would cost all of $3-$4 to make.

I see someone has a background in pipe bomb making.

I have never made a pipe bomb....now nitroglycerine....

The PVC idea is a natural, though....the tank on the Hagen CO2 system is not at all dissimilar to the PVC model.

Indeed. Good show old man!

I do not post here often, but I have begun tinkering with DIY CO2. At first I bought the Hagan/Nutrafin CO2 generator from Petsmart. It worked pretty good for about 4 weeks before it needed to be changed. It was at this point that I decided to put one on my other tanks. I was not about to spend $30 on every one I bought when I felt that I could do as good or better myself. I decided to build it into a 32 oz Gatorade bottle, and I reverse engineered the Nutrafin recipe. The contents of the Nutrafin kit fit perfectly in the Gatorade bottle 2 times, but the fluid level was too high so I reduced the amount of water. I haven't gotten my results yet, but here is the Hagen/Nutrafin recipe:

1/8 Tsp yeast (Activator)
1 Tsp Baking Soda (Stabilizer)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 3/4 Cups Luke Warm Water (68 – 86 Degrees F)

Here is my Gatorade bottle recipe based on the Hagen/Nutrafin recipe:

1/4 Tsp yeast (Activator)
2 Tsp Baking Soda (Stabilizer)
1 Cup Sugar
Enough Luke Warm Water (68 – 86 Degrees F) to cover
the embossed Gatorade logo on the bottle.

For those of you who have larger applications in mind I doubled the recipe again for a 2 liter bottle. Here is the 2 liter recipe:

1/2 Tsp yeast (Activator)
4 Tsp Baking Soda (Stabilizer)
2 Cups Sugar
Fill the bottle with Luke Warm Water (68 – 86 Degrees
F) to within 2 inches of the cap.

There are several different styles of DIY CO2 reactors that you can build that will increase your efficiency rates. I am using an air stone personally, but I intend to build a CO2 reactor at some point in the near future.