Should I Be Concerned?

[jpedersen024]

I've been using an old nutrafin cannister and ladder with a DIY co2 recipe that I found on here somewhere long ago...

Have just realised though, that I have not been adding a 'buffer' of bicarbonate to the mix (basically yeast, water and sugar). Should I be very concerned?? I imagine the buffer is to stablise the ph a bit... but it's a total guess since I'm a planted newbie.

Should I continue with what seems to be working ok? Or do I need to rethink this? And if so, how much do I add?

Thanks!

 

[Themuleous]

If its working out I would carry on as you are. As you say the bicarb is only to stabilise the pH and also the CO2 production. In areas with very soft water low bicarb (KH) can mean the CO2 production varies great from day to day, which isn't what we want.

Do you know the KH of your tap water, if its working I suspect you've got a good level of KH in the tap water you're using. I ran mine without the bicarb no probs, but my tap water was about KH15 at the last test.

Sam

 

[MoreCoffee]

I've been using 2 Nutrafin canisters for a good few months now and always with the same DIY mix (yeast, sugar & bicarb). Last week I refilled the mix to use on my plant holding tank and found I was out of bicarb.
So I just did the mix without the bicarb (same quantities of yeast/sugar) -
During the initial fermentation burst, BOTH canisters frothed up so much, they pushed foam up the tube towards the tank. I stopped it before it reached the tank !

I then refilled the canisters with the mix, including the newly bought bicard and everything was back to normal.

I have heard in the past that the bicarb stabilises/slows the fermentation ..... it certainly seemed to be doing so in my case.

However I know lots of people dont include the bicarb and dont have any problems, if you are not using bicarb at the moment, then hopefully you'll be OK.