Stainless Steel DIY CO2 System

ayman.roshdy

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I used this stainless steel DIY CO2 kit for a few months, it works fine but for a 130 L tank (~29 Gallon) the mixture is consumed in 2 - 3 weeks maximum, the mixture consists mainly of baking soda, citric acid and water. Someone advised to use cold water which will slow down the reaction a bit

If you used this before and have some advice to share please feel free to reply?
Thanks

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These units are good for places that getting actual pressurized CO2 is hard to get. You'll have to do some googling and on forums etc for exact measurements or take notes haha. The quantity of Baking Soda to Citric acid plays a huge role in the amount of CO2 it produces and for how long. I would think the higher the average temperature of the cylinder (including contents) plays a role also. Having a good CO2 diffuser plays a huge role here too. Some have whats called a cracking pressure. The amount of pressure to get CO2 bubbles to come out of the diffuser. For example cheap units takes about 20-30psig to get them working vs good ones its about 5-10psig. This is why everyone loves Aquario Neo Diffusers.
 
Baking Soda and Citric Acid is not cheap now compared to filling a pressurized CO2 cylinder, but I am using it for two reasons:
  • I feel unsafe with a pressurized CO2 cylinder in the house, specially around the kids, don't want to risk any accidents
  • I am a bit lazy to go to fill the pressurized CO2 cylinder every few months when it needs to be refilled
The stainless steel DIY cylinder that I have is good, the ingredients/measurements are already stated on the cylinder itself, it takes like 10 minutes to calibrate the ingredients whenever I need to refill it, the CO2 pressure is good, although I don't think it leaks the created CO2 but it gets empty very fast, for a 100 liter tank it will need to be refilled every 2 weeks, someone advised me to cool the water before adding it which will slow down the reaction and will save some CO2, still need to try out his advice
 
Only one way to find out, try it and see. I will tell you pressurized CO2 is very safe. 10's of thousands of people use it all the time. Teach the kids and animals to stay away from it. Well this should include all tank hardware, filter, tubing, lights etc. If you have to put it in a cabinet that little hands can not get into.
 
  • I feel unsafe with a pressurized CO2 cylinder in the house, specially around the kids, don't want to risk any accidents
Like @BigWave said above, there is no danger in having a CO2 cylinder in the house. The aquarium hobby is a relatively small amount of people, but the amount of people who use it for a beer tap is huge.

There is no comparison between DIY CO2 and a pressurized cylinder. The cylinder wins every time. If you are lazy about getting it refilled have an extra back up cylinder available. Then when CO2 runs out there is no panic to get it refilled.

If you plan to be in the hobby for any length of time it is well worth the effort to set it up properly.
 
You are tempting me now to buy one, actually the shop which is custom creating my new tank and light offered me to buy one just a few days ago
Probably I need to hide your suggestions from my wife, already took me almost a year to convince her to have like 4 tanks in the house 😊

Thanks for the advice I will consider buying a small one as a start, but will probably cost the same price as the tank and the light combined, this hobby is very costly 💸💸💸
 
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