Which 'cheap' CO2 starter kit

[Justal]

Hello,
I think I might treat myself to a CO2 system for my new tank (Journal here: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/fusion.36180/ )

I've been looking at relatively inexpensive kits so that I have everything I'll need and will probably go with a soda stream cylinder as they should be easy to get hold of. I have seen a couple of kits I like the look of:

Either this one from CO2 Art: http://www.co2art.co.uk/products/advance-complete-aquarium-co2-system

or this one which is cheaper: http://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/aquarium-co2-kit-with-sodastream-adaptor-793-p.asp

The latter works out about £25 cheaper by the time I've bought a soda stream adaptor for the first one - Is there much difference between them as they both look fairly similar to me? If they are then I'll go for the cheaper one, but if someone thinks there is a reason to spend the extra I will.

Can you share your pearls of wisdom and help me choose please?

Thanks,
Alan.

 

[ian_m]

Neither.....I would go for a fire extinguisher set up has 2Kg of CO2 vs 425gr in soda stream bottle, considerably cheaper, I pay £10 for 2Kg. Also, the biggest difference, go for an inline diffuser. Moving to an inline diffuser (16/22mm in my case) made such a difference in CO2 levels and ease of distribution and one less thing in the tank.

 

[Justal]

I knew the answer would be 'neither'!!!

Getting FE cylinders refilled will be difficult here, I tried it once before and no one locally would do it.

Inline diffuser - is that for use with an external filter? At the moment I only have an internal filter so can't use that. Exernal filter is on my shopping list, but I can't get all the toys at once!!

With that in mind, are any of the options I've been looking at any good? Could I upgrade them to use an inline diffuser at a later date?

Thanks,
Al.

 

[Wisey]

I think the soda stream bottles are probably quite good for a small tank, but it will get expensive and required regular changes on your larger tank. I personally think you would be better running low tech for now and putting the money towards getting your filtration sorted out. Adding CO2 would be a bit of a waste if you did not have the system in place to effectively distribute it around your aquarium.

 

[ian_m]

At 180litres you will have a very very very very very very very hard time getting good CO2 levels and distribution from an in tank diffuser. That is a lot of tank to get the CO2 around from an in tank diffuser, it is possible, just not easy. If you are going high tech, you really should be looking at an external filter (at least 1800l/hr rate) with a spray bar to get water flowing across the whole width of the tank.

My 180l tank gets through 20gr of CO2 a day, therefore a soda stream bottle will last you about 20days, giving you a running cost of £180/year. My FE cost is about £30 a year.

Remember probably 99.99% of all tank problems people have here are CO2 related (other common reoccurring one is not dosing MgSO4 as they mistakenly think there water contains enough ).

If you don't want to get an external filter now, you could just make an external CO2 loop to diffuse the CO2. You need to get a inlet pipe, spray bar, and inline diffuser and a pump. Done.

 

[Julian]

Cheaper to buy a new FE than get it refilled. I've got 6 empty ones, might try shift them on gumtree.

 

[X3NiTH]

I've used sodastream on the single stage regulator (co2art link) for nearly a year, it will run stably but it will run out of puff before the bottle is empty, you're faced with opening the needle valve to maintain pressure or change the bottle, if you change the bottle about 100g not used will be left in it. If you get the dual stage regulator it will hold the line pressure almost until the bottle is very nearly empty. The less fiddling with the needle valve the better, less fluctuation in gas output towards the end of the bottle the better leading to happier plants.

 

[Justal]

OK... Looks as though an external filter should be next on my shopping list instead then rather than CO2.

The filter and pump that I have in the tank at the mo are rated at a total of 1450l/h. If I get an external filter I'll get rid of the internal (which also gets rid of the big black box at the back of the tank), but I'll keep the pump that pumps water over the LED lights.

The pump that pumps water over the LEDs is rated at 810l/h... So, with that in mind I'm guessing that a 1800l/h external won't be necessary. Am I right in thinking that it's all about the flow around the tank rather than actual filtration? Would a filter such as this: http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/a...al-filters/aquarium-external-filter-1400-l-h/ be OK in conjunction with the other pump. That would give me a massive 2200l/h in total.

Has anyone use this brand of filter? Are they any good?

Looks as though I've hijacked my own CO2 thread with filter questions now!

Al.

 

[greenmac75]

justal I asked a few guys about the filter and was recommended, I'm just about to get the 2000l/h one can't go wrong at the price they are selling

 

[GreenNeedle]

Don't forget that an external will outperform an internal of the same rating as they take much much longer to clog than internals.

 

[Justal]

Just an update on what I actually did... I probably shouldn't admit it but I didn't really follow the advice here and did my own thing in the end - sticking with the internal filter that came with the tank and getting a Soda Stream CO2 system. I went down this route as it was the easiest to do. Not changing the filter was obviously as easy as could be and the Soda Stream CO2 system with an in tank diffuser seemed fairly inexpensive and easy to set up, which was indeed the case.

I bought two Soda Stream bottles so that I have a spare and can easily get them replaced / refilled locally. Whereas getting hold of and getting FE bottles refilled was next to impossible here. So far so good, I installed the system in August (http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2015/aquarium-update-wheres-the-carpet-and-adding-co2/). Before doing so plant growth since flooding the tank had been a little disappointing with lots of plants dying back despite having done well during the dry start phase. There had also been a constant war against algae. It took a little bit of tweaking but after a few weeks I had things settled down and about 5-6 weeks Iater plant growth started to improve and the constant battle with algae was being won. It's now been over 3 months and things are looking fairly good. I still get the odd bit of algae on the glass that needs cleaning off every week or so, but nothing too bad and a quick wipe gets rid of that. Plants seem to be growing well, although I've yet to grow a lush carpet of Eleocharis - it is beginning to spread and grow I think so I'm still hopeful. I'm still on my first Soda Stream cylinder too which has surprised me, with a bubble count of just over 1 per second it's been going strong for over 3 months so it doesn't look as though it's going to cost too much to run either.

Updates and photos in my journal: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/fusion.36180/page-4#post-423677

Al.

 

[Justal]

And the Sodastream cylinder eventually ran out over Christmas:
http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2016/aquascape-update/

That's about 4 months of use from it so the annual cost should be around £30.... So far I'm glad I went with the sodastream option as it's working well, was easy to set up and the gas is easy to source. The FE option may look better on paper, but sourcing refills here would have proved difficult and it would probably have worked out more expensive.

Al.