Here's An Interesting Thought...

[sketchy]

CO2 is something I considered adding to my old tank a while ago, and have recently invested in a new tank. I have been reading into how I would go about adding this to my tank, and think I may as well try a DIY jobby and see if it really benifits my tank (it's not heavily planted at all, although in the future it may be)

After all this hard work and effort in setting up, I figured I owed myself a couple of pints - off to the pub I trotted. When it hit me! A genius idea (Well, maybe, maybe not! )

I've been experimenting over the past few months away from the fish tank - with DIY beer! (You can see from my avitar that the last lot went down a treat )

I can't think of any reason that I wouldnt be able to modify my brewing vessel (read as large bucket with a lid!) to divert the CO2 into my tank. Obviously I would have to bodge something into the system to prevent any froth from the beer getting into my tank (or I would have rather happy fishes - the last brew was quite potent!)

I don't suppose that any-one has ever tried this, or could think of any reason why this would be a bad idea. At the end of the day, whats going on inside my keg is biologically the same as will be going on in a CO2 reaction vessel.
*Ponders*

Any help/thoughs/criticism will be much appreciated!

Cheers
Sketchy

 

[Colin_T]

it is commonly known as a do it yourself CO2 kit. There are plenty available but most use smaller containers and most people tip the end product (alcohol) out after it is finished.
I know a few people who do something similar for garden plants in a greenhouse. They have a couple of home made beer kits running in the greenhouse and just let the CO2 vent into the room. When the beer is ready they get drunk in the greenhouse too

 

[Neo8223]

yup. when i went down the diy co2 route, i tried my end product and my goodness was it potent

 

[lljdma06]

yup. when i went down the diy co2 route, i tried my end product and my goodness was it potent

You actually tried the product. You are very brave. It's pretty rank stuff, some seriously strong alcohol. If we kept planted tanks during Prohibition, we would have been the most popular people in our block, or arrested.

I suppose it would work rather well, just avoid getting the froth into the tanks.

llj

 

[sketchy]

yup. when i went down the diy co2 route, i tried my end product and my goodness was it potent

Good stuff! I've been looking for a project for the holidays, this could well be it. Not much of a big project, but its a start!

 

[Mystil]

my partner makes home brew all the time....hmmmm nettle beer and elderflower champagne, yum!..

we have pondered this idea as well.....it is just the fact that you have to set up the beer near to the tank that is the problem in our house......
good idea though!!!

tell us how it gets on....

 

[Egmel]

The only issue I can see is that unstable CO2 is worse for algae issues than no CO2 at all. If you were to do this method then you'd have to think about what to do when the CO2 production in your beer kit starts to drop off. Currently I change my bottles once a week (not on the same day) you can't do this if you want the end product. So either you have to make lots of beer and each time a demi-john starts to wane on the CO2 levels you hook up a fresh one or you'd have to run this alongside normal DIY CO2 that you can adjust to balance what's coming out of the beer brewing. It all depends on how much equipment you have (I'm assuming from the photos that you and your mates would be able to cope with the quantities of beer created ).

I did think about this but decided it was just too much hassle as far as I was concerned!

Good luck and let us know how it goes