Diy Co2 With A 125l Tank

[TribeOfShroom]

I have a 125L planted tank, which to be honest I haven't done jack to maintain plant wise (apart from taking off dead leaves etc). Now I love hornwort and swords. But apart from hornwort, frogbit and Vallisneria Gigantea nothing seems to grow sucessfully. Now atm the vallisneria gigantea is sending out runners and I've now pruned it to get seperate plants to place around the tank.

But it's dawned on me that:

1) my hornwort isn't a bright bright green
2) my frogbit isn't growing as fast as I would like (say the speed of duckweed for example)
3) I want a brighter tank B)

So my plans are to use the hornwort in my betta tanks (they love it) and replace everything in the 125L tank with vallisneria gigantea with some rearranging of bogwood etc.

Now I've worked out that I have 2.18WPG so CO2 is an option, but I don't want expense. So DIY solution sounds good.
I have a 5L bottle, know where I can get yeast etc from.

So is DIY suitable for a tank that size?

Do I need a one way valve for the piping from the bottle to the filter?

How do I regulate the amount of bubbles being produced?

Do I really need to go down the CO2 route??

Many thanks

Rob

*EDIT* I'm keeping the frogbit as well, my betta's and gouramis love it

 

[lisa_perry75]

Yes CO2 is a goo idea if you want good growth but it needs to be balanced with good fertilisation and perhaps good substrate depending on the plants you ave.

DIY is possible, it is best to have two and alternate changing the mixture between the two. This gives a more stable level of CO2.

Have you worked out your watts per gallon using US gallons?

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Yes I worked out WPG on US gallons. The substrate is comprised of a mix of pea gravel and fine planting gravel (can't remember the brand). Ferts I'm not too sure which ones I should go for. Root tabs sound great as using liquid can be a bit costly.

The plants I've decided are going to be Vallisneria Gigantea, frogbit and some java fern.