# Citric Acid CO2 DIY



## iDigit (8 Nov 2016)

Hello,

I am in the process of setting up a Trigon 190 planted tank. This will be my first venture into a CO2 equipped tank. However, I want to use a DIY citric acid/baking soda mixture. I have found many recipes, many designs and tons of ideas ... but no information on how much citric acid / baking soda mix needed for x size tank. 

2 soda bottles seems hardly sufficient for a 200 l tank ... or at least, not where I won't need to make frequent refills ....

So my question is the following : in order to do a refill once every 2 or 3 months, what quantities of citric acid baking soda would I need ? 

Knowing the answer to this question will determine the size of canister I build for the mixture.

Thank you for any assistance


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## zozo (14 Nov 2016)

Well not finding information about that says enough in itself.. Probably all who tried to run a large tank with it failed at one point and went for a pressurized setup. 
DIY co2 is something for small tanks and even in this is extremely touchy and if you plan to house lifestock it can be considered extremely difficult and dangerous for the lifestock in the tank.. It is very unstable, it reacts to invironment temperatur changes and pressure constantly fluctuates and even small changes in recipe can have drastic effects on the co2 output volume.

Next to that diy setups are usualy not designed to hold an x amount of pressure.. You do not shut off the co2 production, this goes on 24/7. You can play a bit with temperatur to make it more or less but it keeps on producing. I have no idea if a larger volume of mixture produces co2 longer or just more over the same time periode. And if you would like to build a diy system able to hold the pressure it builds up. Then you most likely wont be any cheaper then buying a pressurized setup and still you have pressure fluctuations..

Bottom line, best advice to give.. Calculate how much you would spend in a year on a large diy system like that if you size it up 5 times to lets say a 5 litre mixture. 

I guess if you do that and build a low tech aquarium for a start, run that a year long and put aside the money you should have spend on the DIY setup. I kinda have the hunge you'll be able to buy you a presurized setup for the money you saved a year from now.


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## ahjoe0digi (14 Nov 2016)

Go for pressurized co2. Save money save lives on long run. 

Get steel canister instead of aluminum. 

Get manual instead of solenoid regulator. 

Get good quality product instead of branded expensive product. 

Just my opinion, hope will help

Sent from my MX4 using Tapatalk


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## kadoxu (14 Nov 2016)

This thread may have some useful opinions about DIY CO2.
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diy-citric-acid-co2-complete-system-for-£35-or-less.42720/

I though about it for a nano tank... gave up and went for pressurized. For a bigger tank I would even think twice about it... pressurized is, above all, a safer solution.


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