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Consistent Problem with DIY CO2

15K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  Mark Nicholls 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I have been having some problems with a DIY CO2 setup for my planted tank. Sadly, this has lead to the death of ALL my aquarium plants :( I have a gatorade bottle attached to airline tubing and a check valve, and a Fluval CO2 diffuser inside the tank to distribute the CO2. The mixture is 2 cups of sugar to 1/4 teaspoon of activated yeast.

Originally, I thought that my airline tubing connection was too short; when I shook the bottle, I could see a very small drops moving down the tubing, and it may have gotten into the tank. So I decided to extend the airline to about 2 feet. I also washed the diffuser to get rid of all the "gunk" built up inside of it.

When I check my tank, the CO2 reading is still low, even with the addition of Seachem Excel CO2. There is still some sort of substance built up on the diffuser but I don't know if it's yeast or not (and it shouldn't be, because I don't see fluid entering the tank through the airline tubing).... I don't know what is going on. Please, can someone help me? What the heck is that creepy substance on my diffuser? And why does it keep building up each time I wipe it off? I am so frustrated and I got this to work with my old tank by doing this exactly the same! :help:

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#2 ·
DIY CO2 tends to generate the white fungus like growth that you observed on your diffuser. It cannot really be avoided, though if you add a gas trap in between the bottle containing the CO2 mixture and the diffuser, it may help a bit.

Do note that some diffusers will not work with DIY CO2, as it cannot generate sufficient pressure.

If you remove the diffuser, do you see CO2 bubbles coming out of the end of the airline tubing? If not, you also likely have a leak somewhere along the line; I would thoroughly test your entire setup to ensure that no leaks are present.
 
#3 ·
I had no idea - that's really good to know! I'm super frustrated because this worked on my old tank with DIY CO2 and I never got this fungus before. I'm not at my house right now so I don't know if there are bubbles coming out of the general tubing end, but there ARE some CO2 bubbles that escape between the fungus.

I never saw this buildup before when I did the exact same procedure on an old tank I had. Perhaps the diffuser is shot? Is there a way to delay the fungus growth (as it's suffocating the CO2 movement through the tank and causing my plants to die)? It only takes a day or two for this bad boy to really cultivate and it's insanely frustrating to clean almost daily....
 
#4 ·
I believe darkblade's "gas trap" could be what I called a diy "bubble counter" when I was using one. That would just be another plastic bottle (smaller than a 2L) with the tubing going down into water at the bottom of the bottle and exiting through more tubing coming out of the cap (requires two holes in the bottle cap). When I was doing it that way, I never had any of the "white fungus" build up on the diffuser. Hope this helps-
 
#8 ·
This is a great diagram! Although I've noticed most of the attachments are CO2 reactors. Is having a diffuser bad/less than ideal?

Also - is there liquid in the bubble counter? Eg. Water? Or is that just fluid that built up through draining? I thought gas reactors were supposed to be empty bottles
 
#15 ·
I have a "budget" diy co2 system running in my 50L setup and it works perfectly.
I DID need to do a few alterations to the kit in order to make it perfect but it's now spot on.
The original kit was one of the generic kits available from Amazon. I've had it running using sugar/yeast and soda/acid and the soda/acid works perfectly!
The alterations to the original kit are:
Replacing the supplied needle valve with a good quality one that also has a bubble counter.
Purchasing a good quality diffuser.
Purchasing a basic solenoid so that output can be controlled via Alexa.
I would estimate that in total, the complete setup cost around £40 and bicarbonate and vinegar are both cheap and readily available in most grocery stores.
The mix lasts approximately 2 weeks and output is consistent and steady.
The plants are all flourishing too!
If anyone is on a budget, this system simply can't be beaten!
 
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