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Complete Aquarium DIY CO2 System for tank up to 500L

The yeast or citric acid kits are only About £20 whereas second hand co2 seems to run at about £60odds
 
jagillham said:
How much is this yeast set up going to end up costing? I bet for very similar money you can get a more reliable system which requires much less hassle.

Second hand full CO2 every time for me I'm afraid.

If you need a CO2 bottle I have an empty sodastream bottle which you can have for the cost of postage assuming where you can refill / exchange it local to you?
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The diy kit off eBay for full kit no more than 20 pounds on a good day 15 yeast = 39p sugar = 55p if that b carb and c acid eBay say five pound each
 
ray copeland said:
The diy kit off eBay for full kit no more than 20 pounds on a good day 15 yeast = 39p sugar = 55p if that b carb and c acid eBay say five pound each
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That soda bottle 17 pounds to fill then your need the adapter etc before your up and running I mean same for the welding kit I have looked my self don't get me wrong the diy for a smaller tank even my 120 some people prob done it on bigger the co2 can run 24 7 for cheaper. Where gas runs out need refill
 
Heagney said:
The yeast or citric acid kits are only About £20 whereas second hand co2 seems to run at about £60odds
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Mate honestly your on a nano tank right? It's up to you what you want to do but if your looking for a cheaper start up for now trust me this will be ok you can cut your lost if it don't work out for you for the 20 pounds than a few Hun maybe but up to you.
 
Intralabs.co.uk do the citric acid and bi carb for pretty cheap for 1kg so ill prob try that out like. Defo going the diy before I fork out for co2, would do co2 on a bigger tank.
I need to get new lights (going for 30w LED floodlight) buy in my salts and get my co2 sorted before I start any of them. Prob a month of so before I've got it all.
Plants are doing well at the mo though. Cabomba is growing, new leaves on Java fern, anubias and my dwarf hair grass has some bits really shooting up
 
Heagney said:
Intralabs.co.uk do the citric acid and bi carb for pretty cheap for 1kg so ill prob try that out like. Defo going the diy before I fork out for co2, would do co2 on a bigger tank.
I need to get new lights (going for 30w LED floodlight) buy in my salts and get my co2 sorted before I start any of them. Prob a month of so before I've got it all.
Plants are doing well at the mo though. Cabomba is growing, new leaves on Java fern, anubias and my dwarf hair grass has some bits really shooting up
Click to expand...

Cool yeah shop about try both maybe should work out fine for you keep us updated
 
jagillham said:
How much is this yeast set up going to end up costing? I bet for very similar money you can get a more reliable system which requires much less hassle.

Second hand full CO2 every time for me I'm afraid.

If you need a CO2 bottle I have an empty sodastream bottle which you can have for the cost of postage assuming where you can refill / exchange it local to you?
Click to expand...

On this note, OP I'm in a somewhat similar situation; not trying to spend a tonne of money, but on the C02 art website they sell a sodastream kit for £99, which looks really good for that size of tank.

It is £59 more, but from my limited experience so far; the convenience would probably be well worth saving up that little bit more for...

Just my thoughts!
 
Aqua360 said:
On this note, OP I'm in a somewhat similar situation; not trying to spend a tonne of money, but on the C02 art website they sell a sodastream kit for £99, which looks really good for that size of tank.

It is £59 more, but from my limited experience so far; the convenience would probably be well worth saving up that little bit more for...

Just my thoughts!
Click to expand...

Valid point I did mine on a diy still am as was new to co2 I don't have any fish in so no worries to OD but I will def be looking to update so I agree hold off if u don't need it yet if you can lose 20 then that's fine
 
It's just a small tank I have any my plants have grown loads so think I'm gonna leave the co2 just now. It's getting there 🙂
 
Heagney said:
Intralabs.co.uk do the citric acid and bi carb for pretty cheap for 1kg so ill prob try that out like. Defo going the diy before I fork out for co2, would do co2 on a bigger tank.
I need to get new lights (going for 30w LED floodlight) buy in my salts and get my co2 sorted before I start any of them. Prob a month of so before I've got it all.
Plants are doing well at the mo though. Cabomba is growing, new leaves on Java fern, anubias and my dwarf hair grass has some bits really shooting up
Click to expand...
Here look you can get a kit for 10 pounds off eBay now but look I found a cheaper way for you check this out ce096965bea4cbc664b04db210770a82.jpg

Two caps 99p each free postage some good tubing say 1.49p for say enough to do the setting up with I could half this to around 5 pounds your get the same kit as this d153d8140a037db828dbcff3f8a4ae47.jpg

I could even tell you how to make it up set it up
 
One thing I found (before I decided pressurised CO2 was the much fish safer and better way to go) was some people were standing their yeast bottles in a bucket of water with an aquarium heater on low to keep the yeast a temperature constant. This meant the CO2 output was constant, preventing CO2 level variations that cause algae outbreaks. They also fitted a solenoid valve on a timer that opened at night to vent CO2 during the night. Also vented via a smell removing "bubble bottle" or else the fish room smelt of yeast in the morning.

The failure they did have (before moving to FE) was the aquarium heater melted a hole in the storage bucket and ended up empting a gallon of water onto the floor.

The other two most common failure modes people have suffered are:-
- Pipes popping off and yeasty fluid venting forth. As explained below the cleaning and wife flowers cost far exceed a pressurised CO2 setup in the first place.:arghh:
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/posts/310010/like

- Yeast getting into the tank, despite bubble bottles etc and wiping out everything in the tank. (link to follow).
 
If it helps... one week ago I refilled my 2kg modified FE for 10 euros. It has been working non-stop with 1 bps for 2 years in my 25 liters. 10€/24 months = 0.41€/month and the best thing, no need to hassle with yeast, jelly, sugar, leaks, changes, etc. Just switch it to your solenoid/reg and forget about it. Stability IME is a key aspect in a tank.
I have a 8kg pic cylinder that is running between 1 and 2 bps in a 60 liters tank for one yearend a half now... and I expect it to last for 4 years at least.

Jordi
 
I am getting nearly 200 days on my 2Kg fire extinguisher that costs me £10. Which is 5p a day or £1.50 a month for hassle free plant growing.
 
Thanks for all the info folks. I'm not in a rough at the moment so may save my pennies for co2. Undecided at the mo as I would need to purchase new lighting before using co2. I take it I can't dose salts without new lighting and using co2?
 
Heagney said:
I take it I can't dose salts without new lighting and using co2?
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Correct, the ferts & CO2 uptake is driven by the available light, so you would be just wasting your salts as the plants will not be able to make use of the ferts levels you are providing. However, you can of course, just run low tech, low light, just dose say 1/10 (or more 1/5 ?) of EI levels and use liquid carbon as carbon source.
 
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