CO2 System: How-Tos?

[Baphijmm]

Gonna ask now, even though I'm currently flat-broke after my recent emergency surgery, because I can at least try to educate myself:

Anyone have a good recommendation for a "how-to" on setting up an injected CO2 system? There have been many times I've wanted to, and once I actually did just buy the Fluval kit; however, due to poor instructions I had the bubble-counter installed backwards, so I went through some hose and quite a bit of the little bottle of CO2 figuring that out. Then, never went back, because I ran out of gas within a couple days. 😛 I know it was because of the aforementioned losses, but still, it had soured the kit for me. (Besides, I never could get it to dissolve much CO2 in the water column.)

I'm particularly thinking about setting up an injection system on my Socorro community tank, since I know the scarlet temple will greatly benefit from it; however, I've also considered trying it in other tanks, like my Rio Negro biotope or the recently-posted "sorority" tank (to which I'd like to add a larger variety of plants anyway). So, it would be super-helpful if I knew how to, you know, actually set one of these things up, instead of just pie-in-the-sky daydreaming about it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/9/2022 at 9:15 PM, Baphijmm said:

I'm particularly thinking about setting up an injection system on my Socorro community tank, since I know the scarlet temple will greatly benefit from it; however, I've also considered trying it in other tanks, like my Rio Negro biotope or the recently-posted "sorority" tank (to which I'd like to add a larger variety of plants anyway). So, it would be super-helpful if I knew how to, you know, actually set one of these things up, instead of just pie-in-the-sky daydreaming about it.

the co-op has their own regulators either released or about to be which will let you run multiple tanks. It's based on the CO2 Art products in spirit I would say and has a lot of similar design features.  Here is a breakdown of how..... but I'll explain a bit more.  Adding CO2 is extremely easy, I really think it's a great thing to do as long as you can run it on the tank in question.
 

Here is the latest video from the co-op regarding setting up CO2 and the diffuser.
 

When I added Co2 I had a lot of the same reservations you did.

I always had issues with cost, I wanted to make sure I didn't get something cheap / crap and end up replacing parts.  On Cory's recommendation I got one of these to go with the regulator.

https://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Homebrewing-Winemaking-Supplies-RLC02LSC/dp/B0064OFAQU

The main thing is to take your time, do the soap test and check for leaks. Be careful because a lot of the parts are glass or acrylic and take a gentle touch to make sure you don't cross thread.  As for results and if the tank can handle it, I was dumping CO2 into my tank and I didn't have things pearling.  I had some balance issues. I had slow growth, but I absolutely enjoyed the process and having that in the tank to help with algae. I never had a concern about fish health, and I had enough flow to make sure the CO2 was mixed through the tank.  When my CO2 did crash, so did pretty much everything because I wasn't doing things to take care of the plants. I screwed up..... needless to say and that's a tough lesson to learn. I'd recommend having a small bottle (for big tanks) to hold you over, but I highly recommend not being afraid of running CO2 with a planted tank. It's just fun and gives you quicker results.

 

[Baphijmm]

On 5/9/2022 at 11:29 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

the co-op has their own regulators either released or about to be which will let you run multiple tanks.

I was looking on their site and hadn't seen anything, save for a diffuser (which I will likely be getting) and Dennerle test kits. Also, unfortunately all my tanks are pretty far spread out, one being in an entirely different room (and the primary one I'm talking about setting up being in an entirely different house), so running multiple tanks off one system is probably not gonna happen.

But thank you for the video links! I'll definitely check them out. (And I'll have to look at the CO2 Art regulator, at least.) Honestly, outside of that Fluval kit, I really didn't know any of the hardware that might be necessary, so this is a pretty good start. I'm also not sure where to actually get a tank and/or gas, but I can probably look around; I'm sure there's someone in Albuquerque, at least.

[nabokovfan87]

See if you have a metal shop or hydroponics store locally for a tank

[Ben Ellison]

I sourced all of my kit from Amazon and the LFS. The clyinder I bought off Amazon and it was about 60-70 bucks for a 5lbs cylinder that lasts me about 4-6 months per fill on a 40 gallon tank. The regulator I am running is a hydro brand one that was about 110. The diffuser I'm running is also a hydro brand and was like 40. I use just black CO2 grade line to run from the regulator to the diffuser. The bubble counter was some off brand the lfs had on hand that was brass and glass and was like 20 bucks. I run RO water in it but I've heard mineral oil is better and lasts longer. I use the wifi timer off the coops site to turn the gas on one hour before lights on and off one hour before. I started out running 1 bubble a second and monitor the little pH thing that is in the tank that changes color with water pH. I then adjusted the gas over the course of weeks to keep that pH monitor in the optimal color for growth. It makes a massive difference in plant growth. More than a factor of 10 imo