My DIY Co2 plan

[Neffy]

This is a diagram of how im planing to do my DIY Co2 but i have some areas of confusion and was wondering if there was more efficient way to do it, because the amount of pipes, cables and junk round my tank is getting large lol.

Also in my tank is a Filter and an airstone (not illustrated) it is roughly 20 liters(LOL) and houses one fantail goldfish. The plants so far are Anubis, Java fern & Milfiol or something that looks like it.

Here are my questions

1. Is it required to have a bubble counter on the Co2 ?? (Like this)

2. how many bubbles per hour I lost my resorce/forgot ?

3. do you have to sit there for an hour counting bubbles ? (that sounds so boring)

4. I dont know what the valves are called? they stop the stuff travelling back up the pipe from where it came. I need its name so i can shop for them XD know a shop ?

5. At the end of my pipes is a box where i hope the Co2 will be churned up enough to dissolve into the water (like this). I heard an airstone could also be used which would be a prefered method ? Im just wondering because if i can hook up the airstone to the co2 & air (instead of my box) i wont need to have it (airstone) seperate in the tank.

6. Will I need a heater for my plants and goldfish ?

7. Will it work ??

8. Anything ive missed ?

sorry im so paranoid/newbie haha XD

[Peter16]

I will try and Help.

1.No

2. every tank is different, mine is at about 1-2b/pm, but thats pressurized and i can control it, unlike diy.

3.Easier to do it bubbles per minute (b/pm

4. check valves

5, Dont use the air pump, the added air will just deplete the added co2, and the extra water turbulance will let even more co2 out. either put in an air stone, timber ones work well, as do chopsticks, experiment a little, I once shoved some sponge in the tubing. Maybe buy a cheap 2 pack of diffusers from ebay, the ceremic disk ones.

6. No

7. Hopefully what i said above will help, atm it will work, but can work better with less clutter

8. You have grasped the concept pretty well, Use an extra small bottle as a container to catch spew from the solution and stop it entering the tank, this small bottle can be filled 3/4 way with water and works as a diy bubble counter.

Here is a link showing what i mean by spew bottle.

http://zedomax.com/image/200702/diy-co2-system.jpg

hope this helped, a little rushed, so feel free to ask and we can clarify more.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Peter16

[Bettarazzi]

I think you should consider using an internal power filter or just a power head to diffuse the CO2. I know some people say that it wrecks the impeller in the power head. But I've used this method quite a lot and my power heads still work just fine. Love the drawing btw. Very cute. :)

[Neffy]

Cool thanks alot =D

Is this what you mean Peter

ebay link I like the look of it =D definetly more tidy then a box (and cheap)

thankyou for the image of the spew container i always work better with image guides I will work that into my design !

Bettarazzi: My filter dosent seem to have any place for a thin pipe to go

hehe thanks

[Queenserpentine]

I might have found something interesting for your CO2 setup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xELv1lMjTw...feature=related

Its seems pretty cool and easy to make

anyhow, hope it helps.

[Peter16]

Yep their the ones.

I suggest getting maybe a 2 or more pack, as they are probably pretty brittle being cheap china stuff, and will break. and plus by having more then one, you can rotate them whilst you clean out one.

The one queenserpentine suggested looks good, talk about 100% dissolution.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Peter16