rwood

Hey all,

I'm looking at making my own CO2 infuser. Just wondering what the affect of CO2 can be on Ph, hardness and algae.

Cheers.

Wolfgang8810

ive been using DIY co2 for a while now and havent had any ill effects in my tank in any of those regions. How big is your tank and how many watts and what kind of bulb? everything depends

rwood

The current tank is 22 gallon - not sure how much wattage is in the light though I think it's a fairly decent amount. And it's a fairly well planted tank

Wolfgang8810

are you using compact fluorescents or incandecant bulbs?

rwood

I'm using the compacts

Wolfgang8810

sweet. i would go wiht a 2 liter bottle of diy yeast reactor 2 cups sugar 1 tsp yeast and 1/2 tsp baking powder. you can run the airline to a co2 diffuser like this http://cgi.ebay.com/Live-Aquarium-Fi...QQcmdZViewItem

rwood

I'm actually running my c02 line into an internal filter - my tank could do with a bit of extra filtration so it's win-win What do you think?

Wolfgang8810

so its running into the filter intake? ive heard of this but i was always scared it would hurt my beneficial bacteria. if its another filter you have ont here just for despersing the co2 through the water than thats fine can yu post a picture? id lke to see

rwood

When I have it set up I'll be more then happy to post a pic for you. I had a talk to a few people and they all seem to think that it won't hurt the beneficial bacteria in the slightest. It is a second filter though so it's not my main filter in any case.

I think I'll see a lot of improvement in my tank when I add it in - as simply having the second filter will make a big difference; as atm my filter is slightly smaller then what I really should have for my tank (20 gallon filter for a 22 gallon tank) - the filter I bought should add another 300lph so that'll make it much better water quality wise I believe.

Also because of the large amounts of plants I have and the lighting my ph is really high and my water hardness is high - from what I've heard and researched adding c02 should pretty much solve those problems.

I'm giving my tank a thorough clean on Saturday and buying some more plants - I'll set up the c02 at the same time. I'll make sure I let you know how it goes.

Wolfgang8810

sweet. i have hard water in my tank also and my co2 hanst affected it at all

rwood

I've bought myself a hardness down pillow so that should help

Wolfgang8810

yup thatll do it