# DIY CO2 Hagen Diffuser



## ngp (Feb 24, 2013)

So this is my first post. I have a 4.5 G Betta that has just cycled. And this 3 week old ADA 5.5G short. Thanks to all here and at plantedtanks and books, and two dozen websites that have gotten me here. I bought my 2.5 years old a betta, first ""pet" i have ever bought my kids and my oldest boy is 24, we all make one mistake. Now i slightly regret that BUT it got me into this. And i appreciate that whether i like that our Betta (Christopher) ate two Armano's 2 weeks ago or not (that's the life aquatic), it's mine to live with and enjoy for the next 2-3 years. It's like adoption i guess.

Tonight i came home and my 2 litre DIY CO2 was diffusing super nice. It took around 4 to 6 hours for the champagne yeast to break the pressure (maybe surface tension also) of the cheap hagen ceramic diffuser. I wasn't sure it would work but by crikey it does. My light (AquaRay Growbeam 1000 ND) is likely too bright so i lifted it to 12" and set it at 80% (that's handy). I have had no algae so far but i just started the DIY CO2 today otherwise i am just dosing excel. I planted my initial plants into moss (hmm... it's dead "preserved" i.e. boiled moss) wrapped around Amazonia. My smaller foreground plants died back, but today i noticed they have small buds growing so they will hope will live. I have no carpet...i'll fix that as i move on. The driftwood and plants attached are recent additions.






With the CO2 working i expect to get some algae now, it's a tiny tank so it's going to be tough but that's sort of why i like it. I have nothing in the ADA short 5.5G in the form of fauna, maybe i will stay that way but maybe snails..maybe a small school of neon tetra, but no overloading and maybe i will just stick with plants.

Plants wise i haven't a clue but i know i have some Java Fern, i think the small plantlets in the foreground are Bacopa and Hemiathus and have died (around 80%) but are now showing new buds. I have some Ludwigia Repens, and maybe the grass like things are Valissneria spiralis although they are not doing so well and look very translucent but i think they are stable.

I went for DIY CO2 as i have a curios 2.5 year old and i just can't see the added danger of even a 2.5lb tank tipping near her being in any way acceptable to me, and the GLA Atomic is expensive to ship to Canada and i can't source the little cartridges locally. The ADA stuff id just ridiculous. I can though source sugar, yeast, plastic bottles and water.. So it's DIY for good or bad.

Mainly i picked equipment and plants that i could get either shipped to me in Vancouver or locally. My 5.5G is (prior to CO2 injection today)

PH 6
Ammonia 10 (guess this is the Amazonia powder "offing"
Nitrite 5
Nitrate 10
KH 0 (Vancouver BC has super soft water, i am not dosing for this yet as i read conflicting views and think that the plants don't actually care about KH)
GH 5
Filter is a 2213/250 which is too strong so i restrict the outflow.

I dose 0.5ml Excel daily, plus Aqua Vitro Premier on 50 to 75% water changes every 5 days (i leave the large plants exposed to air for 15 minutes). Lighting is 80% of max, and hung at 12" around 8 hours a day, so over all it's probably at 50% of what i have available on the 1000 ND.

Substrate is Amazonia powder (they had no regular) and ADA colorado sand. The idea being a water stream coming out from the right and washing across the front of the tank to be extracted from the rear left. 
I don't dose ferts as yet as i guess the ammonia/Nitrate is so high that the plants have enough of that, the Premier has Potassium, and i hope Phosphorus and trace are being provide through the substrate, but i guess with the inject CO2 i will need to start proper dosing this weekend. I will probably use Aqua Vitro line.

Some problems. The GLA nano influx is pushing the sand around in the front right. Because the tank is narrower than the cabinet ( and i can't drill an "antique" cabinet) i only have the option of back hanging. I need some Java Moss to blend the wood in. I'd like some Marsilea hirsuta or Japanese Cress but not seen anything locally.

Overall i want the tank to end up looking like an overgrown outlet of a small rivulet (no stones as that's not where stones to to end up in nature), and that from the top of the open tank i can see plants floating across it. Inspiration is from a recent trip to (i think Hanoi) that was full of canal boat rides.

thanks for all the help and guidance..

ngp

PS the Betta is super happy building immense bubble nests under a Anubias leaf.


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