DIY CO2

[Dakota Ice]

I need help!

I took a 2 liter sprite bottle, 2 cups of sugar, and half a tablespoon of yeast with luke warm water and hooked it up to my 10 gallon. Nothings happening. I put the end of the airline tubing in my filter, but its a hang on the back filter. Im not sure if this works..

Also, I have a blue airstone thingy.. I heard you could use that for diffusion.. but how do I do that?

 

[endparenthesis]

SUGAR... not salt...

 

[Dakota Ice]

Woops.. sorry.. meant to put sugar. I put two cups of sugar. You can even see the bubbles in the bottle, but nothing happens on the other end.

 

[sinistral]

It usually takes an hour or so for the pressure to build up enough for the CO2 to start bubbling into the tank. What people usually do with an airstone is put it at the end of the airline tubing and put that in the tank. That disperses the CO2 gas a bit. If you put one end of the tubing into a hang on the back filter I don't think that would be very effective, as I bet most of the CO2 will disperse into the air as the water cascades into the tank. Most of the DIY plans I've seen use a powerhead and the big tube from a gravel vac, or a cannister filter to disperse CO2. I can't explain that very well, so here's a good reference: link

Just to be sure, is the airline tubing sealed with silicone glue to the top of the bottle? And is the top screwed in securely to the bottle?

 

[Dakota Ice]

Its been up for about 5 hours.. I dont see any bubbles coming out of the tube anyways.. just in the bottle. And yes, its sealed with aquarium sealent and is secured tightly.

I dont have a powerhead filter, and dont have the money to buy one..

I think the biggest problem is I dont see any bubbles coming out of the tube AT ALL. Whats up with that?

Also, the air stone thing completely confused me.. could you throw together, real quick, a little diagram thingy? If not, thats ok. B)

Thanks so much!
Dakota

 

[sinistral]

Sounds like you might have a bad batch of yeast. What kind of yeast is it?

I'm not the handiest with paint, but here goes my attempt at showing where the airstone goes (as Chris Lloyd said in Back to the Future III "I apologize for the crudity of this model"). I've omitted some details that you might have like an aircheck valve.

Note that this is generally not a really effective way to disperse the CO2 into the aquarium. Some people will put a "bell" over the bubbling CO2 to capture it and allow more of it to diffuse into the water. Here's a nice link:

link

Hope that helps

 

[Bol]

Did you activate the yeast (soak it in a little water at about 90-95 degrees until the yeast swells up) before adding it to the water/sugar mixture?

 

[endparenthesis]

I say wait. Every batch is different.

 

[Bangin]

I agree with endparenthesis. Twenty-four hours passed before my DIYCO2 produced bubbles.

 

[Dakota Ice]

I hope it does take 24 hours insead of just being broken, but the yeast I used was "fast rising".. not sure if that makes any difference.

When I squeeze the bottle, TONS of bubbles just explode from the other end but without me squeezing, nothing happens.. does the tubing have anything to do with it?

Thankies!
Dakota

 

[endparenthesis]

Wait!

 

[Dubby]

When I squeeze the bottle, TONS of bubbles just explode from the other end but without me squeezing, nothing happens.. does the tubing have anything to do with it?

Is there any water in the tube? All that squeezing might have caused water to get sucked up This maybe causing the delay.

 

[Lateral Line]

Something else to consider, is your tubing at the bottle top gas tight? It could be the pressure builds up enough to force the gas through a leaky seal but not enough to push down to the bottom of the tank. Easy trap to fall into...

 

[Max]

how long should i leave mine on?

 

[Nidge]

Sorry i came in late on this one, Im thinking of doing something like this myself and i was wondering what was the amount of water that is added to the mix? and how long would a mix like above last?




Disregard this post, i just found a previous post with everthing in it