The Puffer Forum

Brewers yeast or champagne yeast. I completely forgot when I was writing my post that that you were dealing with bacteria and not algae

14 hours does seem a bit drastic, I would reduce to between 6 and 8 hours and only when the algae (I know that BGA isn't algae but that's what I'm going to call it in this post) reduces would I think about turning them back up.

You are reading 0 nitrate in your water? My initial thoughts are that your plants are still hungry, lots of light + CO2 = nutrient demand. An imbalance of light, CO2 and nutrients = algae.

I'm not the best at routines and if I start to miss days and/or mix up doses then I get punished by algae growth, but if I get it right and dose regularly and often then I get lush healthy plants and no algae. The problem is that when I dose irregularly it takes ages for the tank to get back to normal and I've got to spend hours manually removing all of the algae. You can get by on no CO2 and low ferts if you only want slow growing low demand plants but if you want more demanding plants then you need to put in a bit more work or be punished.

There are many contributing factors to algae and they are: to much light, fluctuating CO2, low flow, insufficient dosing regimes.

Do you add CO2 before or after the lights come on? It would be best to do it before the lights come on so that it has already distributed throughout the tank before the demand comes.

+1 Correct me if Im wrong but isnt the reason behind using CO2 when the lights are off bc the lights on the water err, something along those lines creates its own CO2 so the reactor isnt needed when the lights are on..??

Plants require CO2 to produce sugars - it is their carbon source. Terrestrial plants get enough from the air. Water holds too little to be useful with bright light. Anything, repeat anything, in short supply stops or limits photosynthesis and/or plant growth -the whole concept of limiting factor(s) comes in here and is all-important. Plants may not be able to use the light and no matter what is lacking, some alga (or photosynthetic bacterium) will be able to get by with less or none of what the vascular plants need, so some algae takes over.

Plants absorb light for photosynthesis, and require CO2 for carbon. But they release CO2 in the dark cycle, and use little or none from the water. They actually produce CO2 24/7, but in the light it is not enough for photosynthesis, so none is released into the water.

HTH

As far as I know, most people who run CO2, do it 27 / 7 in low volume (depending on the tank). They feel that it is not worth the hassle to turn it off at night and see very little savings.

Keeping in mind that in a high circulation tank CO2 gases out with HOB filters, trickle over flows etc.. you will get loss but more loss at night.

I always thought if you are timing the CO2 injection it should be slightly after the lights come on.. thus the hungry plants will soak it up more quickly. I may be wrong.. but I don't time mine.

thanks for all the help everyone. i do dose co2 around the clock, its just a simple diy style system so its just constantly running. i manually removed most of the BGA (all that i could get) and picked up some e-mycin just incase (found it at a local store, lucked out as it was the last pack left), and held off on the ferts. i think i have the wrong type of yeast still as it is over active, produces way too many bubbles, and clouds my tank (the water starts looking cloudy over night due to the bubble) so i am holding off until i can figure out what kind of yeast to get. i picked up a few packets of fast rising yeast from the local stop and shop figuring it was cheap and would work, but as you can see its causing my problems. should i not use this kind? and i know some of you recommended brewer's yeast, but we don't have any brew shops around here anymore (there used to be one a town over my dad went to when he made his own beer but it has since closed down) so should i get standard store brand yeast or just suck it up and order the nutrifin yeast packs? again thanks for all the help.

I can't say ... I do not do DIY CO2. My tank has a cylinder, and regulator. DIY CO2 is a good idea but beyond my experience. If I were to guesstimate.. it is not the yeast used but the amount of released into the water. A bubble counter is needed with a flow valve. There has to be some sort of buffer between the release and the production. DIY production is inconsistent at best thus you need something to limit the flow consistently. You will have over production at times and under production at times.

This is why I opt'ed for a CO2 cylinder

ahh ok. i thought the diffuser i had was enough but it doesn't have a flow valve. guess i have something to pick up tomorrow. jeese the LFS guys are going to love me after this week. i would love a cylinder but i just don't have the cash. i'm saving up for an apartment so i can move out on my own (and a benefit of that is having more tanks!).

I've never used a yeast based system so I went looking on the internet and found this with a few links to other articles:

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/to ... 4-diy-co2/

I haven't read through it thoroughly and I don't know if it's teaching you to suck eggs but there may be some gem of info for you about methods of diffusing the CO2 effectively.

It is not a good idea to slow DIY CO2 output with valves - the fermentor vessel can explode. The mess is massive and the area will reek like a brewery for ages.
You can use at least a two-valve gang valve, one valve leads to the tank diffuser, the other can just open to room air. During the light cycle, open the valve to the tank and shut the valve to the room. During the dark, shut off the gas to the tank and open the valve to the room. Or you can use solenoids with timers - but I have never heard of anyone doing that with DIY - the piping and solenoids are not free. They do also make noise.

In general, if you do shut off gas in the dark, you generally want it to come on about an hour before the lights. That is to build up sufficient CO2 in the water to be effective for photosynthesis.

With DIY CO2, you should have an empty "trap" bottle between the fermentor and the tank. Thi will block bubbles and the mix fro being passed to the tank, where it would mess up the diffuser and can even foul the tank badly. The input tube into the trap should long enough to come near the trap bottle's bottom, and the lowest part of it should be covered with water. The output from the trap to the tank should be at or near the cap/lid.

HTH

I checked out the cost of a renal cylinder a few months ago and you can get a BEAST of one for $90 / year, given that you refill it at their station.