# Home made CO2 set up



## lukep77 (Feb 19, 2006)

I was thinking of setting up a CO2 system, and I was looking at the home made set ups with pop bottles. Which got me thinking what if a wine making bottle would work also. So this is what I came up with. 
The set up is basically what you would use to make wine or beer at home. 
Its a 11.3 litre bottle with a rubber stopper and a bubble trap minuses the air lock. I have the open end of the air line running into a power head.
So far its been putting out a nice steady stream of bubbles. 
I do want to set up a regulator, so that I can shut it off at night or turn it down a little. 
So if any one has any ideas, let me know. I am using this on a 90g.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Luke,

Do not attempt to restrict the flow of the CO2. The yeast produces a huge amount of it and your glass bottle will explode.

A ceramic diffuser attached in the end of the CO2 tubing and placed in the tank may plug up with bacteria or algae and may cause an explosion too. It's probably best to disperse the CO2 using a powerhead or Tom Barr's DIY internal CO2 reactor.

Also do not attach a Y fitting to the CO2 tubing and try to release some of the CO2 that way (which will lead to reduced CO2 bubbling in the tank). The backpressure that the CO2 exerts on the yeast culture seems to be important and if bled will reduce or stop the CO2 production.

If you let the CO2 run and gradually reduce the pH in your tank you will not see any adverse effects on the fish. You can have quite a bit of CO2 in the tank without hurting anything (think 60-100 ppm). So don't try to reduce the CO2 flow.

If you really feel that you have to reduce the CO2 flow just increase the surface agitation of the water. Raise the filter outtake a little so it ripples the water more. Huge amounts of CO2 will be lost that way.

--Nikolay


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## Blazerfrs (Feb 3, 2006)

I have seen simple regulators designed for air pumps, they sell them at petsmart. it allows you to reduce the pressure going into the tank by bleeding off an amount of the co2; i.e. w/o restrictions. This would allow you to adjust the flow to the tank w/o risking an explosion, while keeping pressure in the line. This method is wasteful however.

Will that jug fit in a 5g bucket? If I were you I'd feel safer with it sitting in a 5gallon bucket to help contain the mess should something go wrong and break the bottle. 

BTW I doubt you are at high risk for an explosion... those things are desinged to contain fermenting yeast, and i'm sure the are built to withstand more pressure then you might think. Glass makes a wonderful pressure vessel in most cases.


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## RoseHawke (Jan 4, 2005)

I should think that the stopper would blow a loooooong time before there was any danger of the actual carboy breaking. Have you ever picked up one of those things? Even empty they're quite impressive! (BIL is a homebrewer. . .) Hmmm, come to think of it, if it's sitting underneath a tank that (the stopper blowing,) probably wouldn't be a good thing either! 

I wonder how much pressure they're actually designed to take?


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

RoseHawke said:


> I should think that the stopper would blow a loooooong time before there was any danger of the actual carboy breaking.


One _would_ think that, but sometimes the bottles will go before seal. I recall a post from a long time ago, one of our members had made a small bottle to show his class. He forgot it and when he got home, the glass jar had exploded and glass/yeast muck was everywhere. His dog was okay though . Do not underestimate the power of yeast!


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## RoseHawke (Jan 4, 2005)

Dewmazz said:


> One _would_ think that, but sometimes the bottles will go before seal. I recall a post from a long time ago, one of our members had made a small bottle to show his class. He forgot it and when he got home, the glass jar had exploded and glass/yeast muck was everywhere. His dog was okay though . Do not underestimate the power of yeast!


Yes, but was it an actual carboy designed for homebrewing (I know they make 1 gallon carboys as well)?

I will say that my sister was Not Happy to venture into her basement one day to discover that several of hubby's recently bottled brews (in recycled beer bottles, natch) had become explosive testaments to the power of homebrew beer :drinkers: !


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