natdc2

Well I added a second 2L bottle to produce the CO2 in my 30gal tank and diffuse it through an elite mini powerhead. I measured my ph and gk a day before and a day after and the Ph is still at 7.6 and Kh at 7-8. Looking at the co2 chart...it saying that I'm producing about 5-6ppm of co2 only lol. Is something wrong?

hoppycalif

Yes, something is wrong! My guess is that you have a leak or leaks of CO2, so not much of it gets to the diffuser. You can buy or make a cheap drop checker to get a more accurate indication of how much CO2 is in the water.

natdc2

Gotcha. A drop checker is on the way.

natdc2

Iiight got my drop checker in with a 4dkh solution and about 4 drops of the ph indicator. I left it undisturb for about 7 hours so far and the solution is still blue...There is no leak around the air line whatsoever, because I spray some soapy liquid on all the connections to check. So my question is....for the people that are running diy co2 on a 30 gallon, how many bottle of 2L are yall using and which method are you using to diffuse the co2? Thanks.

natdc2

Ok so after a week of fraustration, I finally got the ppm I wanted from 2 2L bottle. I took off two of my h.o.b filter and put in a magnum 350 with the outlet pointing more toward the bottom to prevent surface agitation. My drop checker is now registering green and sometime in the morning yellow.

Jerroldw91

Hey thanks alot for making this guide! I have everything finished and ready to go, except for the actual "getting it into the aquarium and diffusion" step.

snagtooth

Forgive me, I am new here and although I read through the thread I am a bit confused as to the correct answer to this question.

I just purchased the Nutrafin CO2 System to do some DIY CO2 for a 6 gallon planted nano. I plan to set up the CO2 system tonight, but was trying to get a clear answer on whether the glass nano diffusers on ebay work better than the ladder that comes with the Nutrafin kit? Do they just look better, but not perform better?

Also, I see some varying opinions on using check valves inline with tubing and it makes sense to me that given the nature of how the check valve works it would be useless to use one as it would still allow the mix to pass along with the gas. Am I missing something on this too? Seems to me a second bottle to "catch" the mix would be a better solution, but this may compromise the Nutrafin system's pressure?

I like the look of the glass diffusers better and they are cheap enough, but would appreciate anyone's experience that has a Nutrafin system on a small tank and whether or not they left it stock or enhanced it a bit (and how it was done.) Thanks for helping on what I am sure is a tiresome question by now.

narcoleptic

I finished my DIY CO2 last night with the bubble counter syringe. This morning everything works. However there is more water in the syringe than I had previously put in? I filled it 3/4, but this morning it was almost full. I can still see the bubbles inside, it and the diffuser inside the tank seems to be working too.

What happened here? Should I be worried?

critter333294

Hate to necropost, but just wanted to throw this out there.

Has anyone tried using the Sugar in the Raw(its natural cane sugar instead of processed)? It's the kind that's bigger brown crystals and comes in the brown boxes at the grocery store. I used it in my mixture, and I noticed that it's been producing much longer than my regular sugar mix.

ghengis

I use brown "Raw" sugar. Only because it's all I have in the pantry. I have read of prople preferring to use this, or white sugar with a spoon or two of brown for longevity...