[weaselnoze]

i did as much searching/reading as i could but couldnt find much on DIY co2 for nanos. the tank only has 2 gallons of water. i'll be using a gatorade bottle. i dont wanna overload the co2 cuz it'll kill my fish/shrimp. so is it ok to follow the recipes i find on the site or is that for larger tanks? if someone could tell me how much of each ingredient for a gatorade bottle and for a 2 gallon tank, that would be great!

 

[Alexplosive]

Well, its difficult to control the flow of CO2 when you have a DIY setup. I would say that you should probably figure out a way to diffuse less of the CO2. For example, instead of hooking it up to a diffuser thats going to make fine bubbles, I would maybe let it run on something thats going to give off larger bubbles and have quicker access out of your tank. Then you can adjust accordingly. On my 37 Gallon I had DIY pushing full size bubbles into a CO2 ladder. As the bubbles travelled up the ladder, it would diffuse into the water due to it having longer contact with the water before the bubbles were released to float to the top. I had a pretty high CO2 concentration that way.

 

[weaselnoze]

makes perfect sense. i will be using an airstone to diffuse. at this time i was hoping to do this w/o having to buy test kits. i dont test and dont wish to either. thats why im trying to find a good starting point with the right recipe.. theres just so much stuff out there its hard to find what i specifically need.

 

[Alexplosive]

Without testing for PH and KH you are not going to know if you need more or less CO2 in the tank. You're plants are either going to show signs of deficiency on the low end, or your fish are going to start gasping (and possibly die) on the high end.

 

[weaselnoze]

well they show signs of deficiency now. but yes i dont want to over load and kill my fishes. what about the shrimps? how do they handle c02? would u think it would easily overload with just a DIY?

 

[Alexplosive]

I cant answer for sure on the shrimp but there are lots of people who keep shrimp in their planted tank. I hope a shrimp expert can answer that one for you. I would guess that you can keep shrimp in a tank with CO2 injection, just stay between the recommended levels of CO2. If Im not mistaking, shrimp are sensitive to PH changes, CO2 will change the PH so you have to watch out for that. I will leave the rest to a shrimp keeper to reply.

 

[bartak]

I've been using diy in my 4 gallon ( about 3 gallons of water) with an air stone and getting around 13ppm of co2. I also use excel. and I'm getting great results.
I use a 1 liter bottle with 1c of sugar 1/4tsp yeast and a dash of baking soda.

 

[Alexplosive]

There is a Planted Nano Tank section where you could ask some members about this too by the way. The forum is great!

 

[weaselnoze]

i appreciate your comments! can anyone else give me some numbers?

 

[weaselnoze]

I've been using diy in my 4 gallon ( about 3 gallons of water) with an air stone and getting around 13ppm of co2. I also use excel. and I'm getting great results.
I use a 1 liter bottle with 1c of sugar 1/4tsp yeast and a dash of baking soda.

do u get the 13ppm using the KH/PH method?

 

[bartak]

do u get the 13ppm using the KH/PH method?

yes, but I found out yesterday that it is only accurate if you have a drop counter. but regardless my plants look good.