On an interesting side note, I have modified my recipe a bit for a test. I added a new bottle on the 15th. This time, I added 1/4 cup of uncooked rice. I put a small layer off rice on the bottom, added jell-o cubes, more rice, more jell-o. As of today, I am still get 1 bubble every 6 seconds. I think I might like the results of this.

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55gallon
Light - 6500K CFL, 23wattsx5 5hr/day
Substrate - Red Mexican Clay, Sphagnum Peat moss, Eco-Complete
Misc- Pressurized CO2, EI Dose KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM-B
Plants -Limnophila Aromatica, Stargrass, Dwarf Hair Grass, Christmas Moss, Baby Tears (HM), Dwarf Baby Tears(HC), Rotala Rotundifolia, Ludwigia Glandulosa, Riccia Fluitans

With the open ended tube, you're not building pressure so it will release just as mentioned. If you are using a drop checker, then you could get a feel for how much is getting dissolved. I have a similar situation with an old limewood airstone. It has developed a hole due to all the the cleanings. The bubbles come out of the hole just as you describe. There's no pressure to keep it back and force through the smaller pores.

It will be interesting to see how the rice performs going into week 3. I have this bottle on a 20high.

Great thread...here are some tips I learned on the way.

1.) With a DiY the yeast you use can be based on your tank size. Since you cannot turn off the CO2 at night, you might want one that makes yeast slower/lasts longer for smaller tanks like 10g vs other yeasts that are faster producers for larger tanks.

2.) When first starting, keep the airstone at the surface of the water so that you don't flood it. This will have less water pressure on it so that it can begin producing bubbles faster, then put the stone under and move it down little by little. At some point you may find a depth that is too deep for the airstone and bubbling stops due to the water pressure.

3.) You can also squeeze the bottle a bit to force out the water in the line/airstone once your CO2 begins to work, but wait until you feel some pressure from the bottle or you will be drawing a vacuum and sucking more water back up.

4.) I used to use a 3 way valve in line (no bubble counter) so that if my pH dropped too much or I wanted it "off" at night, I could crack the one valve open and it would leak the CO2 into the air.

5.) Yeast can go bad once a pouch has been open. If you dont get bubbles within 2 hrs, make a new batch with a new pouch. It is probably not a leak.

6.) Keep the bottle at tank height or higher. This helps it overcome the pressure of gravity...and also keeps the water from going in the line once your yeast starts to die out.

7.) Clean the actual diffuser (ceramic, wood, stone) once a week to keep your bubble rate stable.

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I had everything right I discovered a slash in my airline that was very hard to spot... It is working great now.

Good to hear. Now go grow beautiful plants!

On the cleaning part....Use H2O2. Since I only use the glass diffusers now, I pull them out of the tank and pour a capfull directly onto the disc. Let it sit while you complete the maintenance on the tank or ~ 15mins. Rinse well and place back in.

I'm getting ready to test (3) new and different glass diffusers with a DIY setup. As soon as I get them in, I'll post about them.

By far my best results have came from a 10g tank with a mini canister running on it. I have the diffuser directly under the intake. Micro bubbles are sucked up into the filter and I would fathom a guess that I get nearly 100% total dissolve.

I've heard on various forums that for CO2, plants take up micro-bubbles better than totally dissolved CO2??

I have tried several ways. I had a reactor 500 which made a cyclone and totally dissolved it, I had a pump with a needle wheel valve that made microbubbles that was then in-line with my Rena XP4, and now I have a ceramic glass pollen diffuser. I prefer the last and have a powerhead above it so that micro bubbles are forced all around the tank. With this method I have seen the largest dip in pH with bubble counts being the same. I also notice some small spots of algae dying back.

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agreed on the pollen diffusers. much prefer them to anything else at this time.

I use the powerhead itself for the diffuser, the bubbles are very very tiny and stay in the water longer then my glass diffuser bubbles did( I think this has to do with propulsion) but with the powerhead I am sending micro bubbles clear across the 4' tank. about 6" into the water column.

My experimental recipe is still going strong. As of yesterday (04/06), I am still getting 1 bubble every 7 seconds in the seperator bottle. I'll be starting up a second bottle using this exact method to confirm these results either today or tomorrow. Just want to make sure it's not a fluke. ;o)

See my post above, I use a koralia powerhead (open propeller) over my glass diffuser. Micro bubbles everywhere. It is on the back wall and aimed to the front of the tank and slightly down. So bubble hit the front and go both directions.

To clean the glass diffuser I suggest watered down bleach over peroxide. It will get rid of stubborn build up in seconds...depends on how often you clean it?

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Koralia's arent good for my tank, I lost a few fish to them, stupid fish.

I need to rig up a tube to go from the powerhead outlet to the substrate level full 4' length with two Co2 sources one at each end, closed circuit, man the tank will look like its boiling lol

Dmax...how do you clean yours with the bleach? I use bleach from time to time myself but I usually have everything unhooked and use it straight up on the disc for about 15 minutes. Rinse well and then put Prime straight up on the disk for a spell.

I've been doing the H2O2 method while leaving everything connected. That's the only reason I don't use bleach at the moment. I don't have to break down the bottle while cleaning.

Would definately be interested in easier ways.

James0816,

I follow your instructions but unfortunately "reaction" of generating CO2 stopped on the second week. It looks like CO2 was generated from the top part mix, the mix that I apply on the top of the Jell-O steps 5), 6), 7), 8) and 10)

I left that Jell-O setup untouched, and switched back to old fashion (sugar water and yeast). This will be a third week now, and I don't see any changes.
Very cloudy mix (sugary - yeast water) sits above perfectly clear Jell-O.

Do you know what is stopping mixing process ?
Also for that one week when I had CO2, water in tank was a little dirty specially it was visible on the plants like moss. I do use bubble counter bottle, and my diffuser is power head.

Thanks.

What is the room temp? This may have some effect on it as well as the age and storage of the yeast.

The good thing about the Jell-o method is that when production slows, you "recharge" the bottle by pouring off most of the water from the top and adding fresh yeast.

If you have a 1 way valve in-line you can remove the glass diffuser at any time and just clean it real fast. Keep the line in the water, so the water pressure keeps the the bubble rate down. I use a 50/50 bleach and water or the diffuser ceramic might turn yellowish instead of white. Sit for about 5-10min followed by a 5-10 min of water on top with a drop of Prime.

I tried straight H2O2 on a fairly dirty diffuser that was also removed, and it just did not get it clean enough, so I switched to bleach which really eats everything up fast.

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Yeah..i've found that if the disc is really gunked up with algae, the H2O2 doesn't do much. That's when I break out the bleach. I've been using the H2O2 weekly for the past few weeks. It seems to be maintaining the disc pretty well. They are all still white and churning out the micro bubbles.

Are you removing it during cleaning? I don't have a valve on my setups at this time.

Yea, it was a little cold around here at that time. And area where bottle was located temperature was about 60F.
Yeast was used "Red Star" from local super-market.

That's a tad on the cold side for yeast. One thing you can look at doing is placing the bottle in small bucket of warm water. You can use a small fish tank heater to keep it in the 70s.

Let me make sure I made the jello right..... Both the water AND the sugar added were more than the recipe required, yes? Making the bottle setup tommorow.. wanted to give it extra time to chill and harden up with the extra stuff added.