Boston Aquarium Society Message Board

recently I've been cleaning up my tanks which, I'm ashamed to say, had fallen into a state of neglect. I've been cleaning them up and planting various stem plants in them. In my tank #1, 10 gallon with red wag platys, I planted bacopa moneiri ( money wort ) with Lilaeopsis Mauritius in the foreground. As usual I'm having trouble with stem rot on the Bacopa. I tested the water yesterday and the pH was 7.6 with a dKH of 4.5 which I believe would put the CO2 at 5.3 ppm. I've decided to try adding CO2 to lower the pH and increase the CO2 in the tank. My quandary is that I've switched over to sponge filters in all my tanks and in my mind all the bubbling isn't conducive to CO2 addition. I jury rigged a submerged CO2 reservoir out of an empty water bottle. I made a small DIY yeast CO2 generator to feed the reservoir. I'm hoping that by holding the CO2 submerged instead of bubbling through the tank I will get a better CO2 addition.

Any thoughts? comments?

John B

this is what it looks like - if this works

How does the water circulate through the bottle diffuser? Looks interesting. I use one of those ladder things, Hagen I think.
Let us know how this works.

--- Dave a.k.a. front-fan

_________________
There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand binary
And those who don't

I used a 16.9 oz water bottle. I put gravel in the neck to weight the bottle. I cut slots in the side of the bottle between where I want the CO2 and the gravel to be for water flow. I cut a small hole in the side beneath the gravel to insert the CO2 tubing and run the tube up on the inside to above the slots. I used a 20 oz Coca Cola bottle for the DIY reactor. Its cheap and quick.
I don't know what good it will do with the sponge filter going. I can only hope.

I also prefer the hagen diffuser. I like watching the CO2 bubbles shrink as they move up the ladder. They tend to be expensive though. If you can find them at all.

the CO2 addition appears to be working in spite of the sponge filter bubbling. The pH has dropped from 7.6 to 7.0 in 2 days. I have even noticed some pearling on the underside of my Ludwigia Repens leaves ( in tank #4 ). I'm going to set up these little CO2 systems in each of my tanks as I clean them up.

John B.