Nutrafin Natural Plant System Yeast Reactor

[Paul]

Anybody using this product? Was wondering if it really will supply a 20g with adequate CO2 for a month as the ads claim. I've used DIY yeast reactors in the past and they were always unreliable in terms of amount and duration of CO2 production.
Just wondering,
Paul

[anonapersona]

Have you searched the forum for Hagen or Nutrafin? It is discussed around here pretty frequently.

Adequate, maybe. How much do you think you want? What sort of filter do you have? What is your water like?

A month, maybe. I get more like 3 weeks of good production, some report a month. That 4th week is pretty low rate and the Algae kicks up so I change.

Some of us are working with new DIY yeast recipes with good results. I just reloaded a 2 liter bottle with a gelatine mix using 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of water, and 2 packs of Knox gelatine, chilled and cut into cubes, with 4.75 cups of water, 2 teaspoons baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon bread yeast. The last batch on that tank lasted 30 days. The same mixture on a different tank lasted 16 days. I'm still working on the details of what was different between the two situations.

[anonapersona]

I am using a hagen system on a 10 gallon with 1.4 wpg, lightly planted, a hagen diffuser with DIY gelatine mix on the 20 gallon with 2 wpg, and a DIY vortex diffuser with DIY gelatine on the 29 gallon with just under 2 wpg. The hagen was actually fine on the 20 galllon, but the gelatine mix lasted so long on the 29 gallon that I started experimenting in earnest on the 20 gallon also.

I was impressed with the Hagen system overall, but the cost was steep for refills. The system is pretty much flawless, but for the size, and the damn snail spawn that gums up the thing. Buying the refills online would have helped the costs a lot, and if the tank was in a spot where looks mattered, like an office, it would certainly be the way to go.

I keep experimenting with different mixes in the hagen bottle but I can't get one to work as well as theirs. I haven't yet tried the gelatine mix there.

[Paul]

Thanks for the info, I'll look more carefully on the forum for other threads on this. I'm really looking at a "moderate light, moderate growth" kind of approach, so I figured a yeast reactor might be enough CO2 for my needs. My water is RO/DI, reconstituted with Equilibrium and alkaline buffer, shooting for GH/KH around 6 dKh. Filtration is just a tiny 80gph hang-on and a Rio 50 for a little extra flow. Sounds like the state of the art in DIY yeast reactors has progressed much since I last tried it, will look into it.
Thanks,
Paul

[Rex Grigg]

Why are you using RO/DI water? Unless your water is so foul that you can't drink it there is really no reason to go through the hassle of taking everything out of the water just to turn around and put it back in.