[wetbizquit]

I have a 80 gal medium to heavy planted tank, currently have one cannister with yeast running through an airstone, its a new setup so I haven't had time to add more, i will be going pressurized but need money. I'm using flouurish Excel daily and because of the bloom of algea from new tank setup I'm cutting lights back tob6-7 hrs, im running about 2.6 wpg me question is, I bought two 2lt bottles, should I run both with little surface aggitation?? Thoughts please

 

[DarkCobra]

One 2L bottle, even with an aggressive yeast recipe that burns out in a week, is woefully inadequate for an 80G tank.

Even two 2L bottles will not be enough. Especially if any of the CO2 bubbles from the airstone reach the surface undissolved.

For that size tank, I'd estimate two or three one gallon bottles. And make sure the bubbles from the airstone get sucked into a filter intake to ensure better diffusion.

But no matter what DIY setup you have, you still need some way to determine what your CO2 levels are, to verify they're adequate. Preferably a drop checker and 4°KH solution, which is cheap enough that you can probably buy it now. I think someone sells them together in the Swap 'n Shop here. And it will still be useful when you get pressurized CO2.

Otherwise, if you have PH and KH test kits, you could use a CO2 calculator to get a rough estimate of CO2 levels from that.

 

[jasonpatterson]

Honestly there's not much point to doing DIY CO2 on a tank that large. It's going to take a ridiculous amount of sugar to keep it going. You'll raise the CO2 levels above what you'd have without it, but not by much. A 2L bottle is enough to give a 10 gallon tank a worthwhile boost of CO2 (though still not as effective as pressurized.) 8 times that: you're looking at the volumes darkcobra is suggesting.

If you figure that you're refilling the bottles every 2 weeks, and you're using 8 2L bottles (or a rough equivalent) then you're looking at 16 cups of sugar and every 2 weeks, 1.5 5# bags. Over the course of a year, you'd use 39 5# bags of sugar, or roughly $100 of sugar each year. You can probably get a 50# bag of sugar for less, but then you've got to store the stuff. It's unfortunate that the startup cost for a good pressurized system is so high, but the maintenance on large volume DIY is a killer.

You've also got quite a bit of maintenance time involved in keeping it going, refilling half of the bottles each week to try to keep the thing going at a reasonably consistent rate. If you decide to go this route, I'd strongly advise buying an appropriately sized funnel if you don't have one handy.

 

[wetbizquit]

Yeah I know its a little much but I'm expecting a baby soon, and just got a new hiuse and new car so money is way tight, I'm just looking to keep plants healthy and alive for a month or two, I'm just thinking three 2ltrs for now until I get pressurized....

 

[Hoppy]

I assume you are using 4 x 54 watt T5HO lights on that tank? If so, that is way too much light, and it is why you have algae problems. Even a 2 bulb T5HO light with very good reflectors would be too much light to do without a good CO2 system.

 

[wetbizquit]

I'm running 3 coralife 67k 65 watt bulbs, about 2.4 wpg, one of my lights is out so i would have 4 bulbs at 3.25 wpg but I'm not replacing it until I go pressurized I need to get a timer set up, latdly I've been doing 7 hrs on, maybe shorten it?

 

[mrchach]

Well its going to get quite expensive/time consuming just for making enough yeast co2... if you want to keep them alive you don't need the co2 just use something to filter your light so its not so intense and they will be fine, no insane fert sucking growth or anything. Your tank will live and grow...

 

[wetbizquit]

yeah im thinking i will go without the diy co2 until i can just afford pressurized, most likely next year.... what can i use to filter my light? im going to take out one of my bulbs, that way im only running two 65 watts maybe that should do the trick? my algea is starting to thrive no matter how much excel i dump in its still growing....