Co2 For A Little Tank

[Miss Wiggle]

contemplating setting up Co2 on my little 10g. Ian's offered to set me up a DIY pop bottle jobby but the tank's on my bedside table and right next to the bedroom door so there no cabinet to hide it in, and not really any floor space near by so we thought we could put a little shelf above the tank and have something on there.

now I have no desire to have a shelf above the bed with a manky pop bottle or fire extinguisher on..... so I want suggestions for a Co2 kit that is compact and looks fairly nice, preferably cheap too although I'm accepting that I might have to pay through the nose a bit for what I want

 

[Themuleous]

Probably your best solution would be the NRG CO2 system, as its small and compact. However you'll see the price and for the money you can get better kits that'll last a lot longer, but if you want small and compact and don't mind the initial outlay and the fairly pricey refills, it could suit your needs quite well.

Other than that is the nutrafin kits are neat and tidy as are the red sea turbo bio and dupla CO2 set omega, most you can get from AE.

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i like the look of the hydro 'exclusive' one, Ian showed me that before..... it is pricey though..... hmmm

got a big re-scape planned in the next few weeks though, think i'll plant it up and just see how i'm doing with flourish excel and if I'm not happy then I may invest

 

[nry]

yeah i like the look of the hydro 'exclusive' one, Ian showed me that before..... it is pricey though..... hmmm

got a big re-scape planned in the next few weeks though, think i'll plant it up and just see how i'm doing with flourish excel and if I'm not happy then I may invest

PFK used a Sera setup for their 5-gallon nano project, it isn't injected CO2 nor is it able to use a homebrew mix, but it certainly is small and is pretty cheap at ~£13 for the setup and £4 for 20 tablets. Found it here http/www.fishandfins.co.uk/aquarium-co2.htm after a quick search.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i like the look of the hydro 'exclusive' one, Ian showed me that before..... it is pricey though..... hmmm

got a big re-scape planned in the next few weeks though, think i'll plant it up and just see how i'm doing with flourish excel and if I'm not happy then I may invest

PFK used a Sera setup for their 5-gallon nano project, it isn't injected CO2 nor is it able to use a homebrew mix, but it certainly is small and is pretty cheap at ~£13 for the setup and £4 for 20 tablets. Found it here http/www.fishandfins.co.uk/aquarium-co2.htm after a quick search.

mmm yes your right i remember that, anyone used it, know if it's any good??

how often do you think you'd need to add a new tablet?

 

[Themuleous]

The sera kit will be crap, cant see there being nearly enough diffusion of the CO2 into the water and a nutrafin kit would be about the same price, hell if you want you can have one of my old nurtfain kits, I never use them anymore.

Sam

 

[nry]

PFK said they had used it in previous tanks with good results, hence their use of it in the 5-gallon. It must work to some degree, though horses for courses.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The sera kit will be crap, cant see there being nearly enough diffusion of the CO2 into the water and a nutrafin kit would be about the same price, hell if you want you can have one of my old nurtfain kits, I never use them anymore.

Sam

ha ha ok then, i'll not get that one then!!

do you mean this nutrafin kit?

does the black bit sit outside the tank and you just have the little ladder thing in the tank? having used them what do you reckon to it? I'm not after maximum plant growth, just a bit sick of dosing flourish excel every day (or rather sick of not getting the results cos I forget as I get up at 6am and I'm really not on the ball then!) and it's only a little tank.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh that's the one, and they are tried and tested, and work particularly well in small tanks. The only thing in the tank is the ladder, the rest (i.e. the bottle and co2 tubing) goes outside the tank, but to be fair in small tanks the ladder does look a bit crap, so people have started to replace them with these diffusers.

If you swap the supplied yeast ingredients for those in the pinned nutrafin article then you'll get around a weeks work of CO2 before you need to change the mix.

My only other suggestion would be to get a separate bubble counter, not really so you can count the bubbles which cant be controlled anyway, but there is a white fluff (that's the technical terms you realise ) that grows on the ladder/diffuser when you use DIY ingredients. A bubble counter stops that getting into the tank and clogging up the diffuser (it wont do any harm to the fish or plants just doesn't look very nice). It also stops the yeast mix getting into the tank should it overflow, which is not very common but can kill your fish. So a bubble counter is worth the money.

Hope that helps, if you want one of my kits PM me

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hmmm well Ian's got a spare diffusor kicking around, sure I can bat my eyelids at him and blag it.

changing it once a week shouldn't be too bad..... is it a lot of work making up the mixture (not read the nutrafin article but it's my next stop!!)

and the money i'd save compared to the hydro kit i could get this bubble counter mostly to wind Ian up

I'll have a little think but you can probably expect a pm shortly!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

read the article now..... question

1 teaspoon of yeast will give you around 30 bubbles per min. for about 7 days. This should be good for up to a 100 l. / 30 gal. tank.

is 30 bubbles per min going to be too much for a 10g tank, i don't want shed loads going in. i'm really scared as we constantly have problems adjusting the Co2 in Ian's tank, practically every day we find the fish gasping or the things stopped putting out Co2. It's a royal PITA!!

 

[Themuleous]

It should be fine, his tank is probably tall with increases the time the CO2 bubbles have to diffuse into the water. If you're finding you're adding to much CO2, just raise the diffuser in the tank a bit or use less yeast in the mix.

FYI I have the same bubble rate in both my 4g nano and 20g high, gives about the save CO2 level, but as the 20g is tall proportionally more diffuses into the water. This does mean I waste quite a bit in the nano but with a 83cm tall cylinder I've got plenty spare!

Sam

EDIT - yeh get that bubble counter, might as well have something that looks nice!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

It should be fine, his tank is probably tall with increases the time the CO2 bubbles have to diffuse into the water. If you're finding you're adding to much CO2, just raise the diffuser in the tank a bit or use less yeast in the mix.

FYI I have the same bubble rate in both my 4g nano and 20g high, gives about the save CO2 level, but as the 20g is tall proportionally more diffuses into the water. This does mean I waste quite a bit in the nano but with a 83cm tall cylinder I've got plenty spare!

Sam

EDIT - yeh get that bubble counter, might as well have something that looks nice!

hmmm that would make sense actually, the tanks 2' tall. I'll mention it to him, see if he knows about it. Good to know just moving the diffusor can adjust things, makes sense but I'd never have thought of it!

he he i just might do

 

[Squid]

Perhaps it's your choice of bottle..

Instead of a pop bottle you could use a baileys bottle. Would look a bit better than a pop bottle and you would have to drink a bottle of it to use it. Might make you look like an alcoholic with that by your bed though..

Squid

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Might make you look like an alcoholic with that by your bed though..

Squid

no worse than usual!!

that's a might fine idea though, would it have to be a pop bottle or could you use a glass one??