Diy co2?

[drillsar]

Ok I did this, made the mixture but bottles are soft my friend said the bottles should be hard, whats wrong?

[ninoboy]

You only need hard bottle if you gonna connect the output to something that can create too much suction that might collapse the bottle.

[drillsar]

So how do I know this is working?

[cruizer]

When CO2 is dissipated into your aquarium.

[malkore]

watch for CO2 bubbles entering the aquarium. once you see that, start monitoring pH and watch for it to slowly drop.
If it doesn't, you're not dissolving any CO2.

[drillsar]

I see bubbles in the reactor and did a ph reading its 7.0. So should I do another one in a hour?

[ninoboy]

Test the pH early in the morning before the light is on and another one in the evening before the light is off. Also the pH and Kh of your tap water.

[Clone]

This is sort of along the the same line, so I figured I ask here instead of starting another CO2 thread. I was in the grocery store and saw the one gallon orange juice and thought that the container would make a good vessel for a DIY CO2. It's has a good firm handle which would make it easy to take in and out from the cabinet. My concern is if a one gallon container is too much for a 29 gallon tank. Then again I guess I can decrease the reactants to cut down on the CO2. I was going to take a basic mixture and multiply by however many liters in a gallon. Any comments or suggestions would be great.

[drillsar]

I have just one bottle hooked up to a 55gal. I wont get any major changes correct? I have to add another bottle correct?

[ninoboy]

I used to run 2 bottles for my 55 and getting close to 1bps. Unless your KH is extremely low, I doubt there will be any major changes.

Clone, check first whether the juice bottle is airtight (the cap). I tried different bottles before and some of the looked air tight but not.

[malkore]

Clone,

I run 2 1gallon bottles on a 20 gallon, and it's about the right amount of CO2 to keep 25ppm. 1 gallon bottle should be good on a 20 gallon

[Clone]

malkore,

What kind of one gallon container do you use? Orange Juice, Milk?

[malkore]

mine are glass jugs used for fermenting cider, mead, etc. If you remember years ago you could buy glass jugs of apple juice in a grocery store, with a metal cap....well these are pretty much the exact same jugs.
They work great because they're easy to clean since glass isn't porous, and I'm able to buy standard size rubber stoppers, and I just drill a hole and stuff some rigid tubing in there, and attach my airline that way. No messing with silicone sealant, plastic caps and bulkheads...just plain and simple, but functional.

[Clone]

Great idea I'm going to have to look around.