lyndatu

Hello

I'm planning to take a visit in the pet shop to see if they (finally) have live plants, but I heard that plants need CO2 and CO2 easily escapes from the water, so I'm planning to create a DIY CO2. I read the thread in the DIY section on making one, but we usually don't have beer or wine here in the house. We only get some in special occasions. Can I use softdrinks instead? Thanks in advance!

FishyFry

You would create CO2 with yeast and warm water. Soft drinks contain ingredients harmful to the fish.

Here is a link to a DIY CO2 setup using yeast:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/co2-narten.html

lilsoccakid

also, CO2 is only needed for heavily planted tanks. and if not sure about using co2, try to get very little surfact aggitation (movement). this will help keep the co2 from releasing into the air.

Dino

None of the 80 of so tanks with plants here have injected CO2.

Many plants do just fine without it. You will not, however, see the same rate of growth as you would with CO2.

Generally, the is only the high light fast growing stem plants that have to have it.

lyndatu

Thanks everyone! You saved my future plants!

I'll get an airstone for surface aggitation. I'm also planning to keep only a few plants, so my fish would probably be good at providing enough CO2.

Oh and I remember doing a science project back in school, where we combine baking soda and vinegar and put it in a closed plastic bag and then the bag was filled with CO2 that it exploded. Quite fun actually, we threw "bombs" at each other and we got smelly and sour. It's also similar in doing the volcano model projects. Hmmm.......might also release some chemicals......