Thoughts on a co2 system for 50ltr

[stephanie]

Hi all,

What would be the best system to use for a 50ltr planted tank?

Thanks

Steph

 

[GreenNeedle]

Basically the same as for any other tank although if you wished you could get by with smaller bottles.

However with the tank being so small you could go the EasyCarbo/Excel route or even DIY.

If you fancy the ADA teeny style setups then there are copies on ebay which look quite cool. Don't know if they fit standard paintball/sodastream/disposable bottles so it may mean you have to keep getting a supply of the teeny bottles for them:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Full-Co2-System-K ... m153.l1262

No idea on the reliability of these little kits but they look quite cool.

AC

 

[stephanie]

Thanks for your reply.

What is EasyCarbo/Excel route ?

Im using the diy yeast mix at them mo but it doesnt seem to be enough (drop checker blue)

I think i would rather use something that you can get in the UK and what other people have used. Seems good thou.

Steph

 

[Steve Smith]

Easy Life make a product called Easy Carbo and Seachem make a product called Flourish Excel. Both are bottles of liquid which have carbon in. They provide carbon to the plants instead of using CO2. Personally, if you can afford to go the CO2 route I would. That said, I use Easy Carbo on a 27 litre, but I am looking at setting up CO2 on that tank soon.

 

[GreenNeedle]

You should be able to get a decent enough level of CO2 with DIY in your tank.

Can you detail your CO2 setup and recipe?

As per above with the EasyCarbo/Excel route. EasyCarbo is reasonably cheap and 2ml daily should do for your size of tank so a 500ml bottle would last almost a year (available from TGM or AE - sponsors of this forum)

AC

 

[stephanie]

I use the hagen unit. Fill to the first line with sugar, almost a full tea spoon of yeast , then i fill to the top line with luke warm water.

Would you be able to to dose with Easy Carbo aswell?

With the Easy Carbo, can you dose with shrimp? (wondering for my other tank 30ltr)

Thanks

Steph

 

[GreenNeedle]

yes Easycarbo can be dosed with shrimp. Dosing should be applied to thelevel of planting. i.e. average level of planting then the bottle recommendations. heavy planting then you can go up to double. This isn't overdosing as the heavier plantload requires more Carbon.

Can't work out why your nutrafin isn't working properly. You use more yeast than I used to. Is it the teeny baker's yeast (like long thin grains) or the small round pellet type.

What diffusion method are you using?

I used to use 2 of them with a Rhinox 2000 on my 125Ltr pre pressurised and still managed to get to light green!! This was with just an internal filter of (Fluval 3+ = 5x lph turnover)

AC

 

[stephanie]

The yeast is long and thin, i have it going through a glsss diffuser.
I have decided to go for a differnt make for my 50ltr tank (Red sea) as the bottle is bigger. It has an electric diffuser which i find is better. I have just bought a boyu inline difuser but havent tried this yet as i don't think there will be enough pressure.

Im currently guessing the mixture for the red sea as it is a bigger container. What method (diy mix) do you use?

The drop checker im using is the red sea one, using the mixture that it comes with. Do you think it is worth getting 4dKH?

Many thanks

Steph