CO2 in Brackish?

[PuffnStuff]

Hey who keeps plants in their Brackish tank, I want some feedback please on what has worked and what hasn't. Also will CO2 benefit plants in brackish or is it a waste of time? Works like a charm in my FW.

[Content2Swell]

How are you getting CO2 in your tanks? I've been trying to look for those tablets and can't find them anywhere local.

[PuffnStuff]

Red Sea makes a CO2 kit that's an easy setup, although you can DIY easily. All you need is a powerhead, some air tube, a pop bottle, some sugar and brewer's yeast. Add the yeast to the sugar in lukewarm water, attach airhose to the pop bottle, run hose to venturi plug on the powerhead and the yeast release CO2 as they turn the sugar into alcohol.

The Red Sea system works exactly like this. Don't buy their refill it's just 240g sugar and 1g yeast. You can get that at the grocery store.

IMO this system is much better than the fizz tablets and much cheaper than CO2 canisters.

Right now the only plants thriving in my 55g are Java ferns and some vals. I think I'm going full marine soon though so the plants will move to one of my other tanks I guess...

[Agnate]

In terms of DIY, I would suggest getting a 3-way gang valve (a good quality one that doesn't leak would be best - mine does, which is annoying). The reason is that you should set up TWO DIY bottles, but only have one of them turned on. Each week, turn off the running one, flip on the other bottle, then clean/refill the one that you turned off and let it store up pressure until the next week.