DIY co2 set up and running

[KC21386]

Set it up yesterday afternoon, and its making bubbles now today. I simply have a 2 liter soda bottle plumbed into the intake of the HOB filter. I am getting little bursts of 2-3 relatively large bubbles. About 2 bursts per minute, so maybe 4-6 bubbles per minute. Its the 20g tank in my sig, question is too much or too little co2? Is it helping at all?

[KC21386]

Now i'm getting around 6 bursts of bubbles per minute, so like 15ish bubbles per minute... someone please respond before I kill all my fish!

[Lady Hobbs]

How much yeast did you use? For my smaller planted tanks, I use 2 sugar + 1/2 teaspoon yeast. For the 55 gallon, 2 sugar + 1 full teaspoon yeast as I only have one bubbler in there. How high is your wattage on your lights? Never mind. Just saw it was 78 watts.

[Bobo the Clown Loach]

are you just letting the co2 bubble into the tank freely or are you using a diffuser? I'm going to try a diy setup this week and I am wondering whether or not I should have some sort of diffuser. Not to hijack the thread but I'm just looking for some info.

[slinky]

are you just letting the co2 bubble into the tank freely or are you using a diffuser? I'm going to try a diy setup this week and I am wondering whether or not I should have some sort of diffuser. Not to hijack the thread but I'm just looking for some info.
I got the Red Sea kit. It's OK but the key I didn't know about was the diffuser. The big bubbles talked about above supposedly don't make much of a difference of CO2 in the tank. The diffuser I got seems to make a lot of noise but also breaks up those bubbles into lots of small bubbles that supposedly are better absorbed into the water and eventually by the plants.

[Bobo the Clown Loach]

I got the Red Sea kit. It's OK but the key I didn't know about was the diffuser. The big bubbles talked about above supposedly don't make much of a difference of CO2 in the tank. The diffuser I got seems to make a lot of noise but also breaks up those bubbles into lots of small bubbles that supposedly are better absorbed into the water and eventually by the plants.

I got a bubble stone to put on the end of the diffuser. I am going to put the bubble stone under my cannister filter intake so the bubbles get sucked into the filter. I'm thinking that will allow the co2 to be dissolved better than a free bubbling system. Anyone have any input on that? Has anyone tried it?

[Bobo the Clown Loach]

Well, the DIY bubbler is in place as described above. Time will tell. Any input is still greatly appreciated though. thumbs2:

[Adrian]

From everything I have read, CO2 will leave the aquarium as fast as you can put it in, unless it can have the time to dissolve in water. There are numerous ways to get it to dissolve, some better than others, but if you are trying your hand at a planted tank, I would suggest getting a diffuser. They make them in nano sizes for a small tank, and release really small bubbles that are not noisy at all. They have almost a 100% dispersement, which means more co2 in the water for the plants. I got mine from ebay, and it cost me roughly 6.00 dollars. Easy to clean and maintain. Or, you can run the bubbles directly into the impeller assembly of your filter, though this is not recommended as the co2 will also create an acid which can destroy the impeller after a bit of time. It will definately rot the seals. I hope that helps.

[country_boy454]

Here (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=9509&page=2) is a link to one of my write ups on my DIY Co2. It has pics too! I modified my recipe since then. Now I make sure the bottle is about 3/4 full after it is all mixed up. I only use a 1/2 tsp. yeast also. It lasts about 2 weeks on one mix. This is on my 29 gallon tank.