[boxboy]

Hase anyone tryed useing Brown Sugar for a DIY C02, instead of white sugar??
I mean brown sugar has some minerals, which include calcium, potassium and magnesium in small amounts no less... I was thinking, is it possable that some of these minerals may actually help the plants a little? Via C02 diffusion..

Once my 40B is ready I would like to try this out for a while and see what the results are...

If anyone has ever done this before, let me know how things went for you.

 

[wildstick]

before I used brown sugar, I used it as same as the white sugar. sometimes it has longer days producing CO2

 

[Bananableps]

Unless you're letting your yeast/sugar slurry leak into your tank (super bad idea), these minerals will not get to your plants. Yeast eats sugar, producing ATP for itself, and [censored][censored][censored][censored]ting out CO2 and ethanol into the surrounding environment. The CO2 escapes the yeast chamber as a gas and travels into your aquarium. The ethanol remains in the bottle and slowly creates a toxic environment which will eventually collapse the yeast colony. I can't imagine how calcium, potassium and magnesium would manage to become gaseous and leave the container.

These minerals might provide essential micronutrients for yeast, which could translate into greater yeast culture longevity. I don't know yeast micronutrient requirements off the top of my head, however, so this is just a random guess.

For optimal yeast culture health and longevity, buy some yeast nutrient online or at your local homebrew store.

 

[TekWarren]

Was going to say exactly what T.S. said...The *only* thing that should be getting to your tank is the CO2, make sure you use some sort of gas separator/bubble counter.

FYI...three 2 liter bottles using 1/4tsp yeast 2 cups of sugar each works well for me on my 40. Change one bottle every week using grocery store yeast not fancy stuff. I also don't bother with baking soda. Use a check valve off each 2 liter so the bottles don't feed gas into each other.

 

[boxboy]

Thanks for the info folks.

 

[jmsaltfish797]

just FYI, use raw cane sugar if possible. you can get it at most grocery stores with bulk bins. I mix one cup per liter of water, 1/4 tsp of yeast per liter. I use two one gallon bottles and they produce co2 for a little over a month at stable levels.

 

[Entomologist210]

I used sugar with a little molasses to great effect.

 

[thelub]

Brown sugar is just white sugar with a small amount of molasses in it.

I've heard of people adding in molasses as fertilizers to gardens because it contains so many goodies plants like. I imagine you'd have to be very careful adding it to your aquarium or things could get nasty.

 

[boxboy]

Ive got cane suger here Thanks. I will be just DIYing Co2 till I can get a good deal on a 2.5lb co2 tank and regulator, otherwise diy all the way...