Okay, I have decided to put in a DIY CO2 system in my 10gal tank. It's currently planted with Wisteria, Anubis, Java Moss and Anacharis. The tank is home to 2 pregnant Guppys and 1 pregnant Mickey Mouse Platy at the moment. The is my baby tank. And also houses at least 30 fry from various live bearers.

I think I have the general idea. Mix up so stuff with sugar and yeast (yes I did see a recipe in another thread that I am going to follow) and put it in one bottle and have water and a hole in another bottle and that bottle runs to the tank. Is that just about generally right??

Here are my concerns: My ph is currently at 6 so I'm not sure I want it to drop and I certainly don't want to lose any of my fish. How do I keep that from happening? Do I run the CO2 system all the time and, if not, how do I turn it off? What about my filter? Should I run that all the time? Can I just let the 2 of them run all the time? I was planning on an airstone diffuser is that a good choice? If not, would it be a good choice for a few weeks to a month until a diffuser comes from ebay?? Is there anything I can do or check to make sure that the CO2 is not damaging anything??

I was really looking forward to doing this but not it's got me really worried that if I do I'm going to end up losing my fry. Please help me!!!

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

I use DIY CO2 as well.I have a glass diffuser.The airline ran to it,is connected to another by a piece of the plastic from an airstone.The airstone was old and didnt work right so i broke that off.Now its a great extension piece.An hour before lights out i unhook it from there.As long as you have oxygen,the fish will be fine.Monitor them,if they are at the surface gulping air then add an air stone.I turn my airstone on when the CO2 is disconnected.You can run it at all times but theres no need as the plant wont use it.You can use an air stone but it may get clogged.Also i recommend you add a check valve just in case.A good diffuser is the tip of a wooden chopstick broken off and put in the airline tube.I used this before i got my glass diffuser.By the way i got it at fosters and smith and they do work with DIY,which ive read not all diffusers will.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

So, I use the CO2 during the day and use the filter at night-is that about right??

Also, what do I do with the CO2 system at night?? It's just going to keep running so where should I put it??

What is a check valve and why should I use one??

Sorry, to ask so many questions but I want to make sure I have all the ins and outs before I start.

I was thinking I can just put the air stone into a bucket of water at night and let it run there and put it back in the tank during the day. My next plan is to make my 15gal a planted tank too and that will be perfect because I can CO2 one tank during the day and the other at night!!! LOL

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

How big (or small) of a tank are we referring to here?

If your pH is sitting at 6 and it's a small tank, you may want to closely monitor it just to be safe as the CO2 will lower it a tad.

Filter....keep it running. You can place the diffuser under the intake for better CO2 diffussion. Where do you keep the water level? If not even with the HOB output, raise it up to minimize surface aggitation.

Airstone...given your situtation, I would recommend running one at night. This will increase the O2 content for the fry which will be important in their early development.

I think I explained the airstone wrong. My plan was to use an airstone as a diffuser for the CO2 so when I ask about running the airstone at night I meant keeping the CO2 in the tank at night.

It's a 10gal tank. Am I right in thinking that I should have the light on during the day at the same time that the CO2 is running as well right???

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

Sounds like you got low light plants that are easy to care for in a small tank. I would recomend taking the DIY CO2 off, its over kill in my oppinion.

Gotcha....an airstone won't do much in way of diffussing the CO2. They aren't designed for that. You'll get larger bubbles out it. And even with it under the intake, this means you will get minimal CO2 diffussion in the water column.

And yes, you will run CO2 when the lights are on. The best schedule for it would be something like this:

If you're pressurized or in your case, if you remove it, you want to start the CO2 ~ one hour before the lights come on. Then, about an hour after the lights go out, you will remove the CO2 and generally turn on a regular air pump.

those plants dont really require the use of Co2 yes they will grow faster but thats about it.

I never take my Co2 off,ever.

You want your filter on ALL the time, not just at night. Also I use a powerhead to diffuse my diy Co2 as it breaks the bubbles up really really fine.

If you use ANY stone use a limewood stone.

How do I restart he CO2?? It's a little DIY set up so I thought it just runs anyway. I was thinking I could just put it in a bucket of water overnight and let it run in there.

What am I looking for with the diffuser?? Something that creates very small bubbles so that when they break the surface of the water it creates very little agitation. I'm wondering because if I can understand why I'm doing i hopefully that will help me figure out how to do it. Maybe I could put the airstone inside the filter or maybe put something in the tubing. I can mess around with it.

I know they are low light plants but if I can give them more CO2 then they should still grow better right?I'm thinking it can only help them and won't kill them right?

Also, what about the check valve?? What is that a what does it do??

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

I don't know anything about the CO2 setup, but a check valve is just a little doohickey that you put somewhere in your air line to be sure everything only goes one way. Basically it is meant to keep water from backflowing into your pump.

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Matthew
30G AquaClear50: Lightly planted, platies, ottos, kuhli loaches.
10G Sponge filter: Heavily planted, ottos, red cherry shrimp

A good diffuser will create smaller bubbles. You will get a better dissolve rate with these smaller bubbles as opposed to larger ones prior to them hitting the surface and bursting. For example the glass nano diffussers will produce micro bubbles. If you were to watch the rising to the surface, you will see the bubble getting even smaller and some of the dissapear altogether.

The key is keep as much of the bubble in contact with the water as possible for better diffussion. The smaller the bubble the greater chance for this to happen. This is also why many people located the diffuser under the intake of the filter. The bubbles get sucked into the intake and the impeller chops them up into smaller ones.

Even though you have low light plants, they will greatly appreciate the extra CO2. It will only benefit them more.

A check valve is used to keep the aquarium water out of your bottles. It's not necessary but depending on the location of you CO2 setup (i.e. lower than the tank), you may want to use one.

Okay, let me run through this and make sure I have everything correct:

I'm going to set up my CO2 system. Since I don't have a check valve at the moment I'm going to put my reactor and my other bottle in a big bucket so that if it does back up it won't make a mess on the floor. I'm going to put an airstone on the end to act as a diffuser and I'm going to put that airstone inside my filter. I'm going to leave the filter and the CO2 system going all day and all night long in the tank. I am going to have the lights on all day (as I do now). And, just to be on the safe side I'm going to do daily (maybe twice daily) ph checks to make sure that doesn't drop on me and kill my fish. In about 3 weeks I'm going to have to make my CO2 recipe again cause it runs out and I'm going to shake the bottle every few days or so to keep the CO2 going........Have I covered everything???

Also, does the size of the bottles matter?

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

Pretty much....but....if you have an HOB filter, I would put the diffuser under the intake instead of directly in the filter.

Most recipes out there call for a 2 liter bottle or similar. I prefer the Ocean Spray bottles as they form a better and tighter fit than the soda bottles.

What is an HOB filter?? Duh!!! I bet it's hangs on back. Okay, I can do that too.

I found everything around the house today that I needed for this!!! Except for the airstone and the yeast!!! I even managed to find some extra oxygen tubing belonging to my daughter's nebulizer (that she does not use anymore) instead of having to go buy that LOL!!!!!!

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

What kind of plants and lights do you have on your tank? For a 10 gallon evena DIY co2 set up isnt really necessary.

I get that but adding the CO2 can only help them more right. Some of them have some brown leaves on them and some of the Anacharis leaves have melted off and I think they are slowly dying so Im going to give this a try. They might do okay without it but I think they will do superb with it.

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10gal fry tank planted with Wisteria, Java Moss, Anuabis and Anacharis
35gal Sponge Bob tank with live bearing tropicals (daughters tank)
15gal planted with Swords, Java Fern, Wisteria and Red Rubin housing 10 fry and 2 bladder snails
55 gal with Oscar (future planted tank with angels and flowerhorns)
55 gal Community tank (platys, mollys, guppys, glass catfish, angels, phantom tetra, red eye tetra and swordtails)

Yes...your plants will thank you for it.