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Cheap CO2 system for nanos?

LondonDragon

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Opened up my YouTube and this popped up in my feed:



Looks interesting for smaller tanks and people that don't want to deal with pressurized cylinders!
I remember when I first started the journey into CO2 in my Juwel Rio 125 I used the yeast and sugar DIY approach and that worked well with two system that I alternated remixing every other week each container, but this one seems like a better and easier solution!

They even give instructions on how you make the refills yourself rather than buying them!
 
I thought so as well. Don't think it is available in the UK though. I found it in an EU store and the postage was £15. I would definitely consider this as it works straight away and lasts a while!
Let me know if you find it in the UK?
 
Man, that thing is painful to set up. 1 drop every 8/10 minute 😜. At the same time I never had any DIY CO2 system so I guess I am spoiled with a proper CO2 system. I do know one thing though. All these DIY CO2 might be cheaper to buy initially but become more expensive afterwards due to the recurrent raw material purchases.
 
Quite a neat little bit of kit that for a nano tank or similar. You could easily add a cheap solenoid to turn it off at night, and even a needle valve in line if you wanted finer control of the dosing rate, given the container has its own pressure release. DIY systems have come on a long way over the "yeast and sugar solution in a pop bottle" system In started with 20 odd years ago!
 
Yeah I know. Why I would consider it is strangely I like the simplicity/DIY/chemistry aspect of it. I have previously done two of my own DIY systems and had really good results and fun getting it right. Until it gets cold and all grinds to a halt. I run a heavily planted low tech and would see it as a fun way/experiment of adding a small amount of Co2 to my system. If I could get one cheap enough? The Colombo one has become something, I'm sure it was not set out to be?
 
Don't think it is available in the UK though. I found it in an EU store and the postage was £15.
That is not a bad price considering its a one off purchase! Could be worse!

I have previously done two of my own DIY systems and had really good results and fun getting it right. Until it gets cold and all grinds to a halt.
These days USB heat matts are cheap and could put one under the bottle to keep it as a constant temp ;)

You could easily add a cheap solenoid to turn it off at night, and even a needle valve in line if you wanted finer control of the dosing rate, given the container has its own pressure release.
I did wonder that, and if you would wake up to a cabinet full of sugar! lol that would be a nightmare to clean up

Man, that thing is painful to set up. 1 drop every 8/10 minute 😜.
Yeah bit of a pain, but once you have it tuned to your needs you can forget about it.
 
I did wonder that, and if you would wake up to a cabinet full of sugar! lol that would be a nightmare to clean up

I think its citric acid and sodium bicarb, so you'd end up with a salt water solution, but yeah you'd be heavily reliant on that built in pressure release valve - if that fails and somehow seals shut, you'd end up with a 'bottle bomb'!
 
I think its citric acid and sodium bicarb, so you'd end up with a salt water solution, but yeah you'd be heavily reliant on that built in pressure release valve - if that fails and somehow seals shut, you'd end up with a 'bottle bomb'!
Or you could have an overfilled co2 tank and have it blow in your car’s trunk like it did to me. Never seen so much snow in Thailand… 😙🤫
 
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I just bought one of these to try it, I've been using the Ali express DIY cylinders, which has worked well, so it'll be interesting to see how this goes.

According to manufacturer it lasts 45 days on a 100l tank, however I didn't note the bubble rate etc, but time will tell!

PS mine cost £54 Inc delivery, came within 4 working days
 
Didn't know about these guys! Thank you
They also do good quality fish food and customer service is great.

I've got the fzone stainless steel reactor and like it. My only thought with this one being made of plastic is how durable it will be with citric acid. Before getting the stainless steel reactor I read about people's DIY citric acid bicarb reactors failing because of the plastic bottles weakening over time.
 
Right I will have a look at fzone too then! Does people buy the dedicated refills or getting the ingredients separately and doing a DIY?
Guess you just need to ensure that the quantity is perfect!
 
Right I will have a look at fzone too then! Does people buy the dedicated refills or getting the ingredients separately and doing a DIY?
Guess you just need to ensure that the quantity is perfect!
Definitely buy separately, much cheaper, and easy to get pure ingredients
 
Some people have put these reactors in a bucket of water with a heater to maintain a constant temperature and they manage to get much more reliable CO2 rate. You turn the heater off at night to reduce the CO2 rate if required. Heating tape wrapped around the container is probably a safer, but more expensive option, as one of the people doing this with a heater and bucket of water allowed the heater to touch the bucket, which melted a hole and flooded his lounge.

Other issues encountered were, if using a solenoid to turn CO2 off at night, actually vent CO2 to room rather than tank, made the room smell of fermenting yeast !!!

Also a "catch bottle" in line with the CO2 output is almost essential to catch any thing other than CO2 getting into the tank. Someone knocked over his yeast reactor whilst tank fiddling and the pressure emptied the fermenting contents into the tank, promptly killing everything.!!! A catch bottle would have caught this and prevent it entering the tank.
 
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