DIY Co2 Mixture

[brian1973]

I made a crude drawing of the setup i did experiement with a while ago. the
2x 2liters are filled 2/3 full with mixture of one tablespoon or individual packet of yeast, 1 cup sugar and water, the 1liter bottle is to catch any liguid incase of a problem this will keep any liquid from reaching the tank if a bottle tips or gas builds to high and pushes fluid instead of just the gas. the one way check valve keeps any aquarium water from going back into the bottles and them i installed the tubing right under the inlet on the power head. Hopefully this helps. I personally do not like DIY CO2 because there is no real way to regulate it.

 

[anshuman]

Thanksss Brian, studying it gives me the confirmation that CO2 filter bottle in middle to remove alcohol/odour before putting it in tank is must , i saw LOTS of setups which put the pipe from CO2/yeast reactor directly into tank.

I am thinking of doing something like barr-venturi internal reactor setup , which will use my powerhead to mix and spread co2 mist in tank.

I am also not really keen about making and maintaining a CO2 setup. I am looking at this more like booster for plants to grow fast and thicken up. i recently trimmed all excess leaves etc but now they are looking kinda thin and not really growing up. I read water wisteria can grow really fast compared to others. And my amazonia swords have melted away. donno why.

Also as i see my tank has completely cycled up after a month, i am not keen on regular water changes like every 3-4 days, it was necessary to do that till the cycling was going on. the nitrates/nitrites are good (none) now. no sudden spikes. the water change was helping CO2 exchange for plants i guess, thats why they havent died/rotted/melted away (wisteria) is my guess.

To give you idea here is the latest vid which will show slight rearrangement and trimming of plants as demanded by goldfish (as they wont stop nudging the plants till i moved it around ) .

YouTube - Goldfish Fishtank with plants latest vid

If i do DIYco2, will post update

ps: Hope i am not hijacking this thread. I will definitely create my own thread for any updates.

 

[JRB__]

Also as i see my tank has completely cycled up after a month, i am not keen on regular water changes like every 3-4 days, it was necessary to do that till the cycling was going on. the nitrates/nitrites are good (none) now. no sudden spikes. the water change was helping CO2 exchange for plants i guess, thats why they havent died/rotted/melted away (wisteria) is my guess.

ps: Hope i am not hijacking this thread. I will definitely create my own thread for any updates.

Hey anshuman,
Hate to be the one to tell you but, if your nitrates are at 0ppm your tank is NOT cycled... ammonia & nitrites should be at 0ppm but nitrates (unless you have just done a massive water change) should always register some level of a reading. You definately don't have enough live plants to consume all of the nitrates so that you can't even get a reading, especially with an overstocked tank of goldfish.
Post all readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Feel free to highjack the thread I already got the answer I needed.

 

[anshuman]

tehhh strips making me mad. the nitrates might be registering the strip mark on nitrates goes Extremely faint pink so i cant take any accurate reading.

And yes i sure dont have enuf plants. I will be getting proper test kit and some more wisteria by this weekend i guess.

 

[JRB__]

....I am also not really keen about making and maintaining a CO2 setup. I am looking at this more like booster for plants to grow fast and thicken up. i recently trimmed all excess leaves etc but now they are looking kinda thin and not really growing up. I read water wisteria can grow really fast compared to others. And my amazonia swords have melted away. donno why....

If you want more of a booster maybe you could just use fert tabs. I think most of your plants are root feeders and will appreciate a fert tab. Anyways I suggest you write up a list of what plants you have and or want to get, and what you want to get out of them and then PM the member OrangeCones with all that info. She (I think, maybe a he..?) has got more than 20 years experience with planted tanks and will be able to tell you ALOT more.

 

[anshuman]

I went to one big LFS (nautilus-aqua bandra) they have tons of plants on huge property (literally tons, both for aquarium and home/office plants) . the guy there sounded pretty clever. Below are some concluding points from what he said to me.

* All my amazon melon/swords melted out due to constant nitrate spikes during cycling of tank not due to lack of fertilized substrate, he said this plants are hardy and should live initially on their own stock of nutrients in their stem, they should had gone yellow and brown first before melting if lack of nutrients. (In my tank they simply melted away directly within a week when i added them , this was during first week of cycling of tank with fish in it).

* He said the i indeed have huge goldfishes so that means LOTS of waste, so he says, I dont have much plants (2 bunches of Water wisteria, 2 v small bunches of water wisteria, 1 bunch melon amazon another small died out sword amazon) as compared to fish bio-load in tank etc.

* Water wisteria will keep growing even with low-light , v low co2 . Only thing is v v slow growth.

* Water wisteria shoot out small roots throughout the stem , Liquid fertilizers will work for them, no need to add rich-substrate or nutrient soil (he said waste of money/effort on substrate-soil just for bunch of wisteria).

* He also said I should keep the roots of sword/melon amazons planted in sand, even if the leaves have rotten out, he said I will see new small leaves growing from roots as nutrient conditions improve in my tank with my daily dosage of nutrients that he has given me .

* He said, I can get away with liquid Co2 too, he said no real need for DIY-Co2 or pressurized Co2, as i am not really aiming for heavily planted tank, he said i dont have much plants to begin with so they are not totally starved of Co2 due to regular (30% to 50%) water changes .

Can someone ( OrangeCones ) please confirm this? i think what he said makes sense. I am going to get some more water-wisteria as Goldies are not really eating them outright and it looks v cool too in my tank .

In coming months i will be setting up second tank and that's when i will have chance to add some more plants to this tank on carpet level, i am thinking of adding Dwarf-sag and some fern on drift-wood. (but this is long time away).

 

[OrangeCones]

I have no experience with swords other than microswords. They get too large to me for my tanks.

Leaving the roots in the sand is a good idea. Most can recover to put out new leaves if the root mass has enough stored energy. Don't give up on it just because you see no leaves right away.

Water wisteria will grow for you if you freeze it, burn it, and then plant it. You really can't kill it! It can take nutrients from the substrate or water, so I agree with the fish store employee that you don't need to spend money on a nutrient rich substrate for them.

I don't use any CO2 anymore since switching to soil under gravel for substrate. The swords don't really need it, but will grow faster if you use a carbon source. With you goals of not having a heavily planted tank, you'd do just fine with just liquid carbon. Its quick and easy and for a sword or two, wouldn't cost much. The wisteria can get its carbon from the air if you let some of its leaves reach the surface to float.

 

[anshuman]

Thanks OC

Top of wisteria (two taller bunch) already touching water-surface i have noticed. i guess in two weeks they will start popping out of water. i have noticed some long horizontal growth too on this tall bunches. as if they are entire stem, it seems i can cut off this long horizontal leaves/stems and plant them again ? Once they are really long, i will test cutting them off and replanting .

 

[OrangeCones]

Its best to do the cutting before the above-water growth starts. It is 'emerged' growth then and doesn't do as well. It looks completely different too, like a totally different plant. But you can 'top' the underwater growth and plant the top with no problem at all. It can become quite a forest of plants underwater.

 

[anshuman]

ah. i like what i read. thanks.