[Loser]

would it be safe to use brown sugar in a diy setup? i ask because post turkey day pantry cleaning revealed that i have several opened and partialy full bags of the stuff. might as well put it to use.

 

[Loser]

i found this on the krib. old post so i would still like to know if anyone here has used it and pros/cons observed.




"by mengerin-at-cs.utexas.edu (Matthew William Mengerink)
Date: 15 Feb 1995
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Hello,

I've done a little experiment w/ using white sugar vs. brown sugar
in my CO2 bubbler. Here is the recipe for each:

In a three liter bottle add

1.5-2 liters of water which has been dechlorinated
1 tsp of Fleishman's Yeast.
1/2 sugar

Though this was not super scientific, here were my results...

White sugar had great bubble action for the first 2-3 days which then faded
off to a regular spurt every 1-5 seconds for the next 3-4. Then it petered
away to a spurt at irregular long intervals

Brown sugar had fantastic, regular bubble action for 3-4 days then *poop*
it went to about zilch.

As I have said, this is not super scientific. I've used the white for a
while and when I ran out I used the brown as a substitue. Since then, I've
used the brown once more. However, I think that I'm going to try to use
it more w/ more frequent changes due to the regularity that I'm observing.

I'd like it if those of you who regularly use white could sub in the same
amount of brown sugar to see if you get similar results.

Thanks,
Matthew"

 

[observant_imp]

I switched to dark brown sugar in the little Hagen cannisters when I was using them. It seemed the bubbles started faster, and had greater frequency. However, when the brown sugar died, it just died--no slow down.

When I started using the 2 liter bottles, I played with the Nyberg method. One of the optional ingredients is molasses, which I believe is part of the coating on dark brown sugar. I've finally settled on mostly white sugar with a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar mixed in.

My final recipe isn't that close to Nyberg any more, but it makes me pretty happy (probably not the best recipe, but works well for me).

For a 2 litre bottle:
1 1/3 C white sugar
1-2 T dark brown sugar
water to within a couple of inches of the top
1/2 a multi-vitiamin (optional, but seems to increase longevity)
1/4 (rounded) tsp yeast dumped on top after the bottle has been mixed.
Let it sit for a few hours before connecting--it seems to work better that way.

I also just dump the liquid from the bottle and leave the sludge in the bottom.

btw--i buy the old, hard, brown sugar that's on sale and it works fine.