Winterfoot

I think you guys are right, though largely to note I wasn't planning on roasting coffee to make CO2 for the tank, I was just curious if I could use my byproducts from a process I was doing anyways. There are definitely easier ways to do it if that was the intent, but I'm also fine just buying in CO2 as I need it. I will probably continue to test and measure my CO2 production from this roasting out of curiosity, but I don't think I will actually use it.

Oh I know prop 65 intimately. It's a pain! I work with ceramic coatings so everything has to be prop 65 tested. I probably spend around 12k a year just for those tests It may be about just the Mason jar size I fill with gas, maybe more because I do generate enough pressure for an audible pop after I open it. I know the fluval cartridges I get are 45g. Might not be enough to be worthwhile...

Yeah the other byproducts are my primary concern. I just don't know enough and don't want to pay to have it analyzed. My curing rig should be able to efficiently capture the gas though. It's just a mason jar with a through wall sealed fitting on the lid going to a pressure gauge and a venting check valve set to anywhere from 0.5 psi to 2.5psi. those valves have a push to connect fitting so I can get tubing on it, but where it goes to becomes the challenge. I could probably fit the push to connect up to a sealed co2 tank and fill that, shut it off at the valve, and disconnect losing a little, but I still won't know how full that tank is or how much gas i produce.

Hi guys, I had a thought, and this may be crazy. I don't have enough information yet to know if this is viable, but I wanted to collect some thoughts. So, as another hobby I've started roasting my own green beans for fresh coffee. One of the byproducts of the roasting is CO2 generation off the green beans post roasting period. This should be easy to capture (containing and transferring to a sealed container is a little more challenging, but not insurmountable.) What I don't know is how much CO2 is generated off an 800ml batch of beans, and whether or not there is anything else contained in that gas that could be harmful to fish. (i.e. gaseous sulpher.). I know some low tech people will use citric acid and sodium bicarb to generate co2, and there are some challenges in that. Things to learn too. I'm mostly interested in repurposing waste as a byproduct to something useful. Thoughts?

I'm adding the water direct into the tank, but it's tall and narrow so it should move fairly quickly through it. I'm kicking myself a bit as I think I have some spots with little to no flow which I don't want to try and fit a power head in there.

Hi guys, I'm blown away by the level of detail, and the promptness of response. Corey, thanks. I'm long time listener, first time caller so to speak. I was wondering myself why I change water since my last tank I got to a point where it was so heavily planted and stable that I went 6-7 months without a water change. This is a newer tank, so I wanted to make sure that it had time to stabalize before attempting that again. Granted the old tank was a 75 gallon as opposed to my desktop 7 gallon. My plants include: Anubias nana petite, taxiphyllum barberi, rotala nanjenshen, alteranthera reineckii "mini",and ulrticala graminifolia. They're all slow growers as the thought process was avoid constant pruning, but I realize they may not be taking up the nutrients as fast as they should as indicated by a high TDS reading. I'll cut the ferts, as the tank is roughly 2 months old. Should I also stop the CO2? the plants and algae blooms seemed to slow down their rate of growth when I introduced and it seemed to have no adverse effect on the fish as this issue happened both prior to and after the introduction thereof. Incoming customer reviews once I can sit and focus! For Andy and MMiller, My city water is touted as one of the cleanest in the US. Besides that point since I don't tend to trust what officials tell me, I have a whole home water filtration system which targets heavy metals, particulate, adds in a softener (I believe I need to check), as well as UV sterilization. I installed in on a bypass loop so I can switch it on and off at a whim. The system should also be removing chloramines as well, so I wonder if I overdo it with the dechlorinator. for Brandy, I'm only using the excel to spot treat the staghorn as it went wild. the nano 3.0 was too bright and too long when I first set it up. Once its cleared up I don't plan on using it. Althought today I may try to hunt down a Siamese algae eater. If identified properly it should eat the staghorn (according to the internet anyways). Jared: I'm not doing any calculations on my CO2 for accuracy, I'm using the drop checker with the color changing fluid. I keep it in the green, though once or twice I've forgotten to turn it on and dipped to the blue. I'm just using an old fluval co2 injection updated with some better tubing and glassware. The cost of a proper system for co2 with a timed solenoid is kind of excessive in my mind for a 7 gallon, but I may need to go automation. As previously mentioned, the fish died in this manner both before and after introduction of CO2 so my gut is that it's not related. Can you send a good website/explanation of those calculations? Anything that gives better knowledge, or control in my mind is good. MMiller, I like the gradual nature and aging process. I use something similar in my work. (Materials engineering) I'll adopt some of those processes. What product do you reccomend for surface skimming? Do you have more resources on education in that manner? Easy Green worked pretty well in my old large tank, I had reserve stock. Since the current tank is 7 gallons, the cost is nominal. I'm only using 1ml of it every 4 days. I do need to dig into the chemistries of other ferts on the market, and compare to what my plants require. Often I think of these chemical additives as situational. It's been a good product prior, but I had different plants at that point.

So I'm a little stumped and looking for guidance. I have a 7 gallon cylindrical tank, planted heavily with several plants (all slow growing which was a mistake.) I inject Co2, have a fluval plant 3.0 nano light run 8 hours a day. and an oase thermo filter. temp is maintained at 74-75F. I can provide plant species if neccessary. substrate is ADA amazonia, with ADA power sand as a sub layer. For stock, I've got 2 siamese flying foxes (one now...), 2 cardinal tetras, 2 otocinlus, and maybe 10 amano shrimp. Water parameters are stable, and I've not observed any spikes in any category. I measure pH, hardness, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, temp, phosphate, TDS, CaO, and MgO. last recordings were as follows: Temp: 75 pH: 6.6 Ammonia: 0.25 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Phosphate: 0.5 Calcium: 50 MgO: 50 TDS: 403 I fetrilize with Easy green, 1ml every 4 days, 1ml of Fe2O3 every seven days, and recently have had to treat staghorn algae blooms with flourish excel. The problem is, every time I do any level of water change, the fish will become unbalanced, swim upside down, and die. one or two shrimp will go as well. Curious behavior is they will all swim to the top of the tank as if they need O2, so I will adjust my return line to be above the water line aerate the water column, but it makes no difference. It happens with any % water change I've done. Though this last change, the behavior was delayed almost 24 hours. The shrimp will all also crowd at the top of a branch I'm got in the wood. I was thinking there was a temperature differential in the water change water, so I tested and got it within 1F of itself before adding the water. This still caused some death. I should note, water change is done in 800ml intervals with 1ml of dechlorinater and 1-2 drops of stress reliever. any insight would be super helpful cause I am stumped.