How To Inject Co2 For A Small Tank?

[hadjici2]

Hello people,

my Glossostigma is coming in tomorrow and I have my lights, my fertilizers, a few plants and 3 ghost shrimp in my 20 littre tank.......I want to inject CO2 but the usual DIY CO2 injector with a bottle, yeast and sugar will inject very high levels of CO2 for such a small tank....I use an airstone and the levels seem to reach as high as to cause a pH of 6.....now with the shrimp in I have no CO2 injecting in the tank but I will need to when the Glossostigma is in the tank....

Any ideas?

Thanks....

 

[Lateral Line]

The usual DIY CO2 reactors are very cheap but very uncontrolable. It is not really possible to throttle the CO2 rate without generating dangerously high pressures in the reactors. So smaller reactors? Of course a small reactor will produce less, but will still produce at a very erratic rate.

Airstones are a very inefficient way of injecting CO2, most of it bubbles straight to the surface and escapes acheiving nothing. Even with this inbuilt inefficiency you have problems. Maybe take the airstone off and make the reactor even less efficient may help?

To get the right CO2 level, you may need to use a pressurised system with a bubble counter or pH controller.

You are discovering the troubles of running small tanks. Large tanks are so much easier to be stable.

 

[nicklfire]

I made up this AWESOME list of links...

the first 3 links of the post are probely what you wanna get...
unless you have money then go pressurized

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=112292

 

[hadjici2]

Doesn't this system insert CO2 so as to reach a high level on CO2 in the tank?

 

[Lateral Line]

If you mean a pressuirised system - no. Pressurised systems are actually much more controlable then yeast reactors, you can reduce the flow to very small amounts. To do the same in a yeast reactor would require allowing the pressure in the reactor to rise, often to the point where it would burst - with a pre presurised system, this is not possible.

 

[hadjici2]

Well now I have the Glossostigma in the tank. I have dosed the appropriate PKN, trace elements and iron. I have also added Seachem's Excel. Nothing else is added in the tank. I have 32W over the tank. Everything was added yesterday exept the Excel which was added today morning when the lights were switched on. After one hour of adding the Excell I do not see any signs of photosynthesis (by any of the plants)as when DIY CO2 was added. The plants do not relaease oxygen bubbles...

Is it to early to see such an effect?
Will this effect be seen by adding Excell or is it only seen when adding CO2?
If this effect doesn't occur, does it indicate that photosynthesis isn't happening?

 

[Lateral Line]

The lack of pearling does not indicate that photosynthesis is not happening, it only indicates that the rate of photosynthesis is low enough for the O2 to dissolve without bubbling out.