# Using DIY Co2 during the winter??



## F1_Cobra (Nov 8, 2009)

I didn't want to hijack anybody's Co2 question thread so I thought i'd start my own.....This is my second go round with DIY Co2 in the course of two years so i'm still new at this....During my first attempt everything seemed to work well except the frequent bottle changes were a pain.....but as winter approached and the temps started cooling down I noticed my mixtures didn't seem to be lasting near as long....in fact just a couple of days and it seemed that Co2 production had stopped....always less then a week....I think that was about the time I lost interest in the whole process and just stopped messing with it.

A year later I've watched as my plants have gone to the dogs and algae has taken over so I decided to buckle down and stick with it again....Already i've had issues with the cooler indoor temps seem to keep the production of Co2 to a minimum or non-existent.....in looking for ways to fix the problem I took a 5 gal bucket and filled it about 1/4 way with warm water and sat my Co2 bottle inside that....almost instantly the Co2 production jumped up to a bubble or two per second from one bubble every 15-20 seconds or so.....I kind of expected that and figured it was nothing more then a quick fix, and i'd have to keep the water warm somehow, so thoughts of adding an aquarium heater to the bucket went thru my mind......funny thing is its been over a week now and the water in the bucket has cooled off to room temp but the Co2 production is still going strong which has left me scratching my head wondering why? I thought the heat had something to do with it, but now I don't know.....any thoughts?


----------



## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Cooler temperatures would cause yeast to slow its metabolism rate down. Warm water would cause faster division. Perhaps you hit things right and sped up division fast enough to establish a large culture, and then slowed it down to a maintainable level well enough to get relatively steady CO2. Now it's just a matter of waiting on the ethanol levels to kill things off.

-Philosophos


----------



## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

another soulution is to put the bottle in a bucket of water and throw a heater in it. that way you can keep it at a constant temp.


----------



## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

I put the bottles on top of the lights. Yeast warms up when the tanks are lit, cools off at night.


----------



## F1_Cobra (Nov 8, 2009)

Diana K said:


> I put the bottles on top of the lights. Yeast warms up when the tanks are lit, cools off at night.


That actually sounds like a simple effective method, but my wife would never let me put that ugly bottle in plane view in her livingroom...lol...I gotta keep it all hid behind the couch or under the stand or momma won't be happy....and ya know what they say about keepin momma happy!


----------



## csf (Jan 30, 2006)

Use two bottles. Production is down in one, so increase output with a second one.


----------



## F1_Cobra (Nov 8, 2009)

When I first started this I was using 2 liter bottles, but shortly after switched to using a 3 liter soda bottle instead.....So your saying I need to add a second bottle?


----------



## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Get 2 (or more) bottles going and alternate changing them. On my larger tanks I have 3, and change 1 each week. 
Some of the smaller tanks are cross connected to 2 bottles (renewed on a 3-week cycle), so that when one bottle is at full production it is not too much (Split between the two tanks), and the other bottle is either just getting going, or is dying.


----------



## rainshadow (Oct 11, 2009)

When you use multiple DIY bottles, do you connect them somehow and then run a single line to the diffuser, or do you have separate diffusers? I'm using one Hagen canister and want to add another on a staggered schedule to keep things more consistent, but don't want to add a 2nd ladder.

Thanks!
rainshadow


----------



## wi_blue (Apr 5, 2005)

I experience to slow down in CO2 production aswell, usually a couple of days after I mix my bottles. I have had good results with simply pinching the line and turning the bottles upside-down a couple of times.


----------



## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

I do not connect the separate bottles. In the smaller tanks the line from one bottle has a Tee that leads to each tank, so in several of my set ups I have 2 tanks near each other, and each tank has a 2 liter bottle on top of it. 
EACH bottle has a line, a Tee then 2 lines, one to each tank, and a separate diffuser. (Air bubbler). Each tank therefore has 2 diffusers. I use this for 10 to 20 gallon tanks. 

In other set ups (largest tanks) there are several bottles on the one tank, and each bottle has just one line, and each line leads to its own diffuser. No cross connections.


----------



## F1_Cobra (Nov 8, 2009)

Ok, so I added a second bottle and will add a third bottle in about a week before starting a rotation schedule.....I found an old gang valve so I hooked each bottle to that and then came out of the valve into my bubble counter bottle and then onto the tank....I used to run the line into the hob filter inlet but I decided to try something different and I stuck an airstone on it and put it in the corner away from all the water movement.....I think I might even split this line and run a stone in each rear corner of the tank since those are areas of low water movement. The gang valves individual shut offs will allow me to run 3 bottles yet be able shut a valve and change a bottle without de-pressurizing the whole system.....just gotta always remember to open the valve when putting a fresh bottle back online or i'll have a heck of a mess from what they tell me...lol


----------

