# Basic C02  - any good ?



## george29 (30 Oct 2018)

Hi,

Was in our LFS today and saw this little C02 system, price just £6.99 inc gas, with replacement gas bottles for £3.99, but the shop keeper did not have any experience of its use.

Now I know most folk will just laugh about it , did wonder how effective it would be in our little 40cm /55ltr cube ?

Seems like the diffusion is just from the bottom of that bell, so would think its quiet low, though suppose something is better than nothing?

Has anyone used it on a small tank ?

I know there are the liquids like EasyCarbo but a bit unsure about which plants it may affect and if it reduces algae will it affect fish like our otocinclus.

   from 1m.25s a clearer demo.


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## alanchown (14 Nov 2018)

I saw someone using something similar in a fish house. But he was filling from a large cylinder. It's the cost of the CO2 that would make this crippling.i would think this would be significantly more expensive than any other option after a very short while.


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## BubblingUnder (14 Nov 2018)

Thank you for posting this, I was looking at this system in my LFS to use a small amount of CO2, on a try it & see basis, but only saw the diffusers not the bell option.


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## Edvet (14 Nov 2018)

It wil increase CO2 in the tank, so it will help. Ofcourse not for high light situations.
Expensive in the long run indeed.


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## Kezzab (14 Nov 2018)

Expensive in the long run. Also it's like an aerosol can, so you spray a bit and then it diffuses in rather than a continuous feed. I suspect it will be more hassle than it's worth.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (14 Nov 2018)

I tend to find that adding a small bit of co2 to a tank that doesn't need it produces some great results. If you keep the lights down and pick the right plants you could get one and switch to DIY when the can runs out using yeast and sugar with the bell you already have. Buying the refill cans is the expensive bit when you take into account you can get a regulator/solenoid and gas bottle for around £60 these days. I would get it for the price and see if it improves things, you can always make your own co2. Even at £3.99 per refill if you used one every couple of months that's not bad for a years worth of co2.  The ones I've seen were far more expensive for refills. just raising the co2 levels in a tank is better than using liquid carbon from a source of carbon POV.


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## Nuno Gomes (14 Nov 2018)

That will become very annoying and expensive in the long run. Just out of curiosity I bought a similar product from Tropica to use on a 43 liter tank I use for growing rare mosses and it only lasted about a month, and of course you got to remember to pump it every day, it's so incredibly annoying that I just gave up on it. I'd rather save up and get a proper setup.


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## alto (15 Nov 2018)

george29 said:


> did wonder how effective it would be in our little 40cm /55ltr cube ?
> 
> Seems like the diffusion is just from the bottom of that bell, so would think its quiet low, though suppose something is better than nothing?


It does work surprisingly well - I decided to try it out of curiosity 

As others mention, it’s not the most economic long term but is an easy cheap way to try out CO2 
- just don't let any friends or guests near the canister as they’ll spray all your CO2 out in an evening  

It can be a good “assist” when starting a tank 

Yeast based CO2 (also look at the Aquario bio system) can also be “low tech” and effective - I just wasn’t very happy/consistent about making up the CO2 on schedule etc (ie too lazy) ... but did run my 90cm and 60cm tanks well enough for a couple years ...
- pressurized gas is better though, likely just because it’s more consistent ...or maybe I’m just happier doing it so am more consistent


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## AverageWhiteBloke (15 Nov 2018)

Nuno Gomes said:


> That will become very annoying and expensive in the long run. Just out of curiosity I bought a similar product from Tropica to use on a 43 liter tank I use for growing rare mosses and it only lasted about a month, and of course you got to remember to pump it every day,



I don't suppose it would be much more hassle than say dosing ferts everyday. Delivering co2 through a pressurised system comes with its own set of hassles.



alto said:


> It can be a good “assist” when starting a tank
> 
> Yeast based CO2 (also look at the Aquario bio system) can also be “low tech” and effective - I just wasn’t very happy/consistent about making up the CO2 on schedule etc (ie too lazy) ... but did run my 90cm and 60cm tanks well enough for a couple years ...



Passive co2 can work out well in certain conditions. I guess because essentially the bell works in much the same way as a drop checker in so far as only the surface area of the co2 is interacting and dissolving so as long as there is some co2 in the bell it should be a pretty constant dose. Putting more in just means it will be longer between filling and it will be dissolving through the night which won't be such a bad thing as I doubt co2 levels would ever get too high using one of these systems. I would imagine just keeping the bell full at all times would be better than trying to work out how much to put in so it was gone by lights off.

When I was trying low tech non co2 tanks one of the things I found was that the plants seemed to hit a point where they were in suspended animation, not dieing off or suffering from any ailments as the ferts were covered but they just lacked "something" Even with what I would consider low lighting I would say the were just on the edge of co2 starvation and I wasn't using a soil substrate. The choice was liquid carbon or a little co2 but as I wasn't about everyday to be dosing LC and you get very little carbon from it anyway without doubling up on doses I added a small amount of co2 and the effects were near on miraculous. It seemed to be the missing piece of the jigsaw in that particular tank. Also when going low tech I tended to find the plants I chose for that setup didn't get on with LC as well.

To make using the bell cost effective in a low energy setup if I was to do it again I think I would team the can up with diy to iron out the unstable ferment issues using one of the bottle caps you see on ebay. Connect the can and the diy through an airline "Y" piece and use the other connection on the bottle lid as an open valve and just keep the bell full at all times. When ferment is strong you can open the valve if needs be and inject nothing and just use the can to back up the ferment or while you're getting another diy yeast bottle going to swap over, that way you have some level of control of the ferment. Even if you used a couple of cans a year it would cost no more than a bottle of LC for the tank.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (15 Nov 2018)

That kind of thing, can and ferment bottle on A joined through Y piece and into bell with an open/shut valve on B


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## alto (16 Nov 2018)

I’m still not very consistent on CO2, most plants seem happy enough though my recent Elatine hydropiper attempt has pretty much Failed ... undoubtedly due to my inconsistencies 
All started out well but then I had a busy few weeks and


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## Craig Matthews (17 Nov 2018)

Ok so I've recently (yesterday) just received my last bit of kit...the reg/solenoid and bubble counter for my fire extinguisher and set it up. To be blunt and to the point mate please don't bother. I first got a canister bell system for my 70 litre and found that a full bell after pressing the canister would last 2hrs and of course people need to work and do things so can't just sit there and refill. I then went onto a cheap ista pressurised bell system which was a bell,16g disposable co2 cartridge which kept the bell going for the photoperiod all of about 5 days. The replacement 16 cartridges for a pack of 3 is £13. Do 15 days. Upon using this disposable pressured system I had black beard algae rapidly as I would come home to find the cartridge had lost pressure thus not feeding the bell as I set it at. Do yourself a favour as I didn't looking for the cheap alternative at the time and get a fire extinguisher,£20, the barn regulator which is also a solenoid and bubble counter and comes with 2 metres of tubing for £35-£45 including postage,drop checker for no more than £15 and your good to go for a long while. I spent more than that walking around the tree's to get to the woods pal.well worth the money and hassle because eventually you will end up at this point.


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## Craig Matthews (17 Nov 2018)

I will just add that these cheap introduction systems do not help the plants much because of unstable co2 which causes bad rubusco effect on the plant.


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