Should I give up on co2? Also algae issue

[Carissa]

I have been having serious trouble lately keeping my co2 stable with diy. I can't afford pressurized. Would the plants be better off if I just stuck with non-co2 rather than having fluctuating levels like this? It's to the point where I'm just throwing up my hands, I can do the exact same thing twice, using yeast out of the same bottle, same recipe, and have it work for a week once and then barely work at all the second time. I think the ambient room temperature is an issue perhaps, lately it's been colder than normal so I'm thinking that's allowing lots of co2 to stay in the solution rather than building up enough pressure to get into the tank. So should I just stop doing co2?

Also in my 10g (which up until recently actuallly had the most stable level of co2) I have issues with what I think is green spot algae. It is growing on the tank walls mainly but also on my crypts, small lighter green spots. When I scrape it off the tank it smells like really strong cooked greens (not the bga rank smell). I was told to increase phosphate which I did but if anything, it's getting worse. What else would be causing this problem? Is this gsa? I have 20 watts of light on the tank, 8 hours /day but I just cut it back to 7 to try to slow down the algae before it takes over. I have two oto's but they don't seem to be eating it. I'm dosing ei. Up until the last couple of days I've had enough co2 for my plants to all be pearling when the light is on. Not sure of exact levels though. The only thing that might be deficient that I can think of is calcium, I have no hardness in my water and I don't think Plantex csm+b has calcium in it. All my plants are growing wildly though.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
Well, non-CO2 seems to be in vogue now specifically because of the suffering endured as a result of living on the knife's edge with instability, high lighting and it's incumbent problems. Folks with pressurized CO2 have their fair share of problems too though so it's not exactly a panacea. It might be worth giving non-CO2 a try. I've seen some brilliant examples so there's proof that you can in fact have a nice looking setup without the popular stresses. The problem will be weaning yourself from the dependency of the kicks of seeing 3 inch per week growth rates. It's very easy to clinically analyze the pros and cons of each method and to conclude that less is better but at the end of the day you have to confront your Id and your Ego and ask; "Does my tank thrill me?", "Do I like the bright lights?", "Do I hunger for the pretty colors?", "Am I willing to climb a mountain to see the view from the top?"

If the answers are yes...Yes...YES and YES! then I say to heck with non-CO2, and dig deeper to find solutions to your problems. A "no", a "maybe" or a "sometimes" anywhere in that sequence fails the test and non-CO2 method should be immediately given a try.

Never having failed the test myself due to a profound addiction, and never having used DIY CO2 I can only parrot what I've read and suggest that perhaps you aren't using enough bottles. I've read that you should have 2 or more bottles staggered so that you can just change a bottle weekly without interrupting the flow too much. Perhaps the quality of the yeast is poor or inconsistent, especially if it is dry. Maybe you should culture the yeast in a separate container a few days ahead of time so that you have a good population built up by the time you do the bottle change and add the sugar. I'm a home brewer so I do have experience with yeast but in a different context. Different yeast types have different tolerances to alcohol levels so you might get better production from better quality yeast. Normally, in beer brewing you normally want a lower ambient temperature since this gives a more stable and linear population buildup. Higher temperatures cause a population explosion and then a population crash as they are poisoned by the alcohol spike.

Anyway, none of these ideas may be valid. They are just the result of brainstorming. Good luck whichever path you take.

Cheers,

 

[Carissa]

Hm. Well what I'm doing now is using 2 - 2L bottles on my 32g, and 1 - 2L bottle on my 10. The 10 is doing ok. I think the problem with that one was that it back siphoned when I took the bottle off last time to the check valve, and the new bottle wasn't building up enough pressure to blast all the water out of the line. I think it's ok now.

The 32g is what's giving me trouble. I know the yeast is actually working because when I take off the bottles there's co2 in solution. It's just not building up enough pressure to get into the tank. I don't know why or where it's going. I've tested for leaks over and over and can't seem to find any, but I think I'm going to hook up the air compressor and give it a real good test. That's the only thing I can think of that could be going wrong. If it's producing co2, and it's not coming out in the tank, it's going somewhere else.

I love co2. But I only have 40watts on my 32g so I'm ok to go with non-co2 on that tank too. I finally have a good sized amount of plant growth in that tank so maybe I'll just scrap the co2 for a while on that one. I don't know.

 

[Tom Barr]

Did you try the DIY internal venturi DIY CO2 reactor?
Do that if you are having trouble with the CO2.
2$+ some 15-30 min to make.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Carissa]

Will that help in actually getting the co2 out of solution into the tank? My problem is that nothing is actually coming into the tank to be diffused. I have the hose attached to the intake on my hob filter so there's a very slight suction on it but probably not as much as a venturi system. I got a 4L bottle today, I think I'll scrap what I have there and build a new system with the one bottle and see what happens. I'm still thinking there must be a leak somewhere, I just can't find it.

 

[Tom Barr]

Colder temps also produce much less CO2 from DIY.

Sounds like a leak to me.

Tom Barr

 

[Carissa]

I think I'm going to start over with a new bottle, connections, hoses, etc. and see what happens. If I need to I'll get a bucket and another aquarium heater to regulate temperature.

 

[VaughnH]

Mini Heater is a cheap little non-regulated heater that might be all you need. I'm assuming you can find it somewhere at a reasonable price. I used it in a 2 1/2 gallon tank and it raised the temperature about 5 F throughout last winter. But, I gave it away with the tank a few months ago.

 

[Carissa]

I have an unregulated heater which I was using for a while. The problem is that the room temperature fluctuates so I'm not really getting consistent output. That's why I was thinking that I could see if maybe I can get a small thermostatically controlled heater for a bucket of water, it should only cost me about $10 or so for the smallest one.