The Puffer Forum

Use 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

C'mon tell the whole thing, there's gotta be more to it than that? Sounds like you add that stuff to your tank!

Anyone with the hagen CO2 system can make their own DIY ingredients instead of using the costly brand packets. Fill the canister with the correct amount of sugar and water as stated in the instructions and then add 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Anyone with the hagen CO2 system can make their own DIY ingredients instead of using the costly brand packets. Fill the canister with the correct amount of sugar and water as stated in the instructions and then add 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Why do u do this to us? B)

What are you talking about?

Hagen wants folks to buy their absurdly expensive refill kits for use in their CO2 device. The device is handy for smallish tanks, the HOT caniter for the fermentation vessel is to me a plus, and the CO2 bubble ladder is not only a piece of kinetic art, it actually works pretty well. But their refill kits are no more than standard practice materials at an elevated cost to the user.

yeah i believe you are right RTR. i have heard of Takashi Amano using such things as yeast, baking powder and a 2 litter beverage bottle with a hose poke through it to create his first co2 injector. I'm no chemist, but these ingredients apparently create carbon dioxide.
nick

It is the yeast + sugar solution which feeds the yeast that generates CO2, the bicarb is to stabilize the pH a bit such that it does not get too acid too soon. Protein precursors/souces will enrich it even more, but you hit diminishing returns fast. The simpler formulation is easier and IMHO better. Optimizing a single culture versus tossing it and restarting is a common debate on plant tank boards.

Fermentation to beer or wine is one of man's eariest captive chemistries. I am unsure when leavened bread came in (same reaction, CO2 bubbles in the batter expand the batter and radically change the texture when it bakes while "up". That glorious smell of baking bread is from the fermentation products - beer/wine-like aromatics. When we do DIY CO2 we are going back into our earliest recond history and before.

I just use vinegar and baking soda in a home made system. The plants look great and no effect to the fish

Really? I would have thought that reaction would be quite short-lived.

The hose comming out of the 12 oz soda bottle was attatched to a old gavel vac headwhich during the reaction filled with co2 then disolved into the water over time.

I've worked with yeast in a laboratory setting, about the debate in replenishing the sugar I think it would actually be a disastrous idea. It would just produce a ton of CO2 within I'll say six hours since a colony of yeast can double within two then the yeast would go dormant and have no CO2, there would be no feasible way to keep a constant reaction rate and you would inject alot of CO2 rapidly into you tank.

The entire point is to control your reaction, and I don't think you can in an efficient fashion

Unless you had nutritional growth inhibitors and a GMO strain deficient in a divisional co-factor then supplement the co-factor to get your colony size started and not add any more; it would seem harmful to tank inhabitants to keep adding sugar.

Unless you had nutritional growth inhibitors and a GMO strain deficient in a divisional co-factor then supplement the co-factor to get your colony size started and not add any more. . .

Yeah, I agree! At least I think I do. Ah what the heck, I have no idea what jiaguy said but it sounded real smart! surrender

I've always wondered about those yeast powered C02 systems. I've been a homebrewer for some time now, and it seems like the first few days there's a TON of C02 produced, then it tapers off very quickly. I suppose when brewing you purposefully add quite a large population of yeast to promote quick fermentatin. Maybe if you add a smaller amount of yeast to start, it would ferment slower? How long/constant a supply of C02 do those systems provide?
It seems like the fermentation chamber would be easy to build. Anyone know where to get one of those bubble ladders? Other good ideas how to dissolve the C02 into the water?

There is a ton of info about DIY CO2 injection systems out there. I looked into it for a while but my heavily planted tank (3 swords, 3 anubias, 3 vals, and boatloads of anacharis) is thriving even without CO2 injection. If I would have had issues with plant growth I might have built my own out of a coke bottle like everyone else. I just never saw the need.

Most LFS and PetSmart usually have the Hagen system with the ladder in it. You can also buy it seperately (go to bigalsonline.com - they have almost everything). Most DIY systems say they will run for at least two weeks and sometimes up to four without re-charging the system. Like I said ... I looked into it.

Just do a search with your favorite search engine and you'll get a ton a matches.

MP