DIY Co2

[Rudles]

Looking for tips on using the diy Co2 Citric acid/Baking Soda system. 

[Fish Folk]

1 hour ago, Rudles said:

Looking for tips on using the diy Co2 Citric acid/Baking Soda system. 

That looks fun! We did a far more “ghetto” DIY project with yeast a d sugar. It eventually.... inevitably.... exploded, leaving a stinking, sticky mess.

This looks to be an improvement. I do suggest something like a bubble counter. Biggest problem is too much CO2 at first. Also, remember that plants can only use CO2 when the light is on. At night, plants use Oxygen.

[Fish Folk]

We explained our DIY CO2 system in this video...

 

[Lowells Fish Lab]

I actually have some good things to say about the Fzone diy co2 kit. It's a 2.5L metal canister that can crank up to a few hundred PSI safely. I started with one of the soda bottle kits just to play with co2 for the first time and I don't much recommend that except for the same use case, which would just be using and learning about the effects of co2 for the first time.

The metal reactors take something like 200g of each reagent and will last two or three months on a smaller tank. The Fzone kit comes with a regulator and diffuser which is cool, but it doesn't come with a solenoid. That there is the problem. Cheap solenoids fail frequently and even when working properly they get ridiculously hot - burn your hand hot. That heat will evaporate the water out of your drop checker very quickly and having something hot enough to boil water sitting on top of a pressurized gas doesn't sit right with me.

Higher quality solenoids are much more expensive and at that point, when combined with the initial cost of the kit, you're really approaching the cost of just getting a 5lb tank of co2 and a quality regulator/solenoid kit.

All that said, DIY co2 works just fine and can be a lot of fun if you get a kick out of the process.

[Rudles]

I can't afford a high end system and I can't get bottled gas here. DIY is my only option. I even checked both hardware stores and after the paintball craze was over neither of them get paintball sized cylinders.