# Crystal Red Shrimp and diy co2



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

has anyone had any problems with diy co2 and crs, I just made a diy co2 and it's working great but this morning I noticed that one of my crs colours is paler, could it be it's about to molt soon or poisoning from the co2 running all night. this is a 2.5 gallon planted tank btw.


----------



## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

How high are your CO2 levels (best checked with a drop checker and a 4 dkH reference solution).

It is possible that the CRS are experiencing some stress due to the CO2. How slowly did you acclimate them to CO2?


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

I'm a newbie to co2 so I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I did make a diy bubble checker if thats the same as a drop checker and it's doing 1 per second.


----------



## mointhehouse128 (Feb 7, 2009)

Well, supposedly plants make CO2 in the night just like we do and produce oxygen in the day. So if you're adding the extra CO2, you might be putting too much. It's just a guess  Or maybe the shrimp is motling


----------



## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

While it's impossible to determine your CO2 levels from just your BPS reading, if you have good diffusion of CO2, in a 2.5 gallon tank your levels could conceivable become toxic, expecially at night. I'd recommend running an airstone in your tank when the lights are off, to help offgas CO2 when the plants aren't using it.

Best of luck,
Wes


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

ya maybe I should do the air stone thing at night, I'm using a cigarette filter to diffuse the bubbles, it comes out as tiny bubbles borderline mist.


----------



## SparrowHawk (Oct 8, 2009)

coldmantis said:


> ya maybe I should do the air stone thing at night, I'm using a cigarette filter to diffuse the bubbles, it comes out as tiny bubbles borderline mist.


Do you have any pics of how you hooked up the cigarette filter? That is an interesting option for diffusing the CO2 bubbles


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

you just basically take the end of a cig filter rip off the paper and shove it in the end of your tube.










The bubbles are way more finer then an airstone or a chopstick


----------



## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

If you use a standard mixture (2L of water, 2 cups of sugar an 1/2 table spoon of yeast) and you put everything into a 2.5 you've got high CO2 level.
I was playing with DIY CO2 in my 8g tank and decided that standard mixture was more than I needed. I use a half of that doze now (half of everything).

For your nano tank even "my half" will be a lot. But, air store at night should help.


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> If you use a standard mixture (2L of water, 2 cups of sugar an 1/2 table spoon of yeast) and you put everything into a 2.5 you've got high CO2 level.
> I was playing with DIY CO2 in my 8g tank and decided that standard mixture was more than I needed. I use a half of that doze now (half of everything).
> 
> For your nano tank even "my half" will be a lot. But, air store at night should help.


how is your co2 setup, mines is standard but with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of walmart yeast, in a 2L coke bottle, and the outlet is attach to a air valve and then to another bottle of water so I can count the bubbles and it builds up the gases in the water bottle so the co2 is constant, then it goes out of the bottle and into the tank and is diffused with the cig filter under my in tank filter, so the tiny bubbles gets sucked up into my filter, goes through the sponge then goes through the impeller and finally out into the water which by then is mist.


----------



## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

coldmantis said:


> how is your co2 setup, mines is standard but with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of walmart yeast, in a 2L coke bottle, and the outlet is attach to a air valve and then to another bottle of water so I can count the bubbles and it builds up the gases in the water bottle so the co2 is constant, then it goes out of the bottle and into the tank and is diffused with the cig filter under my in tank filter, so the tiny bubbles gets sucked up into my filter, goes through the sponge then goes through the impeller and finally out into the water which by then is mist.


Are you sure that you don't have sugar there? 

I use a recipe and set up from DIY Yeast CO2 page. I used to place a co2 output tube into a filter intake, used air stones under filter intake. Now I use glass diffusers, but placing co2 output into filter intake looks as a better way to dissolve co2 for me.

I wound't spend time with baking soda and another bottle. This just makes your set up more complicated and less robust. Try to keep is simple 

Do you have a pH test kit? Do you know that co2 descrese pH and jumping pH is not good for fished and shrimps?


----------



## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

igor.kanshyn said:


> Do you have a pH test kit? Do you know that co2 descrese pH and jumping pH is not good for fished and shrimps?


The pH decrease that is caused by CO2 will not be harmful for fish and/or shrimp. This is because there is no change in TDS (unlike if you were to use pH altering chemicals).


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

it's the standard recipe so 2 cups sugar, I just use the baking soda so the ph won't go down that much


----------



## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> The pH decrease that is caused by CO2 will not be harmful for fish and/or shrimp. This is because there is no change in TDS (unlike if you were to use pH altering chemicals).


I read about this. But I'm not sure.
Are you sure that it's not a problem? You might can explain this for me.

TDS is not changed, but carbonic acid is still an acid and it makes water more acid. And this is drop pH.
I'm not knowledgeable in chemistry. But it looks logical for me.

There are lot of mentions that unstable pH is harmful, but I don't see explanations that it's just because of TDS changes.


----------



## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

igor.kanshyn said:


> I read about this. But I'm not sure.
> Are you sure that it's not a problem? You might can explain this for me.
> 
> TDS is not changed, but carbonic acid is still an acid and it makes water more acid. And this is drop pH.
> ...


My drop checker goes from blue every morning to yellow about 2-3 hours before the lights go off. This is probably a drop in pH of at least 1 full point. This occurs everyday, and yet, my shrimp are fine (other than the fact they get sucked into my filter... )

Drops in pH are not "created equal". Changes in pH caused by changes in TDS will create osmotic stress for the fish, whereas changes in pH caused by CO2 does not create the same stress.

Many people mention that an unstable pH is harmful, but they usually do not mention that sudden increases in TDS is the underlying cause.


----------



## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Thank you.

I was found some additional explanation about CO2 affect on fishes. 


> *Isn't CO2 harmful to fish?*
> 
> In high concentrations, CO2 can block the respiration of CO2 from the fishes gills and cause oxygen starvation. Since the gills depend on a concentration differential between CO2 levels in the blood and the water to transfer gases, high CO2 levels in the water will reduce the amount of CO2 that can be transferred from the blood. Also, high levels of CO2 in the blood will cause acidosis (see "Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton). Although different references have wildly varying values for toxic levels, a concentration of below 30 milligrams per liter (mg/l) is definitely safe. Based on our experience, plants do best at around 15 mg/l of dissolved CO2.
> 
> It is a common misconception that water can hold only so much dissolved gas and adding CO2 will displace oxygen. This is not true. As a matter of fact, if enough CO2, light and trace elements are available to enable vigorous photosynthesis in a heavily planted aquarium, oxygen levels can reach 120% of saturation. Even at night, when the plants stop using CO2 and start using oxygen, the oxygen levels will stay about the same as a typical non-planted aquarium.


It is quoted from here


----------



## jamesren (Aug 27, 2008)

coldmantis said:


> I'm a newbie to co2 so I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I did make a diy bubble checker if thats the same as a drop checker and it's doing 1 per second.


1 per sec is too much for a small tank. I use 3 bubble per sec for my 75Gal tank.


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

3 per sec really?, I didn't see a co2 injection when I was at your apartment, it's me the guy with the girlfriend whos lives in your building lol, I recently made a smaller 1 Letre co2, it's like doing 1 bubble per 2-3 secs.


----------



## jamesren (Aug 27, 2008)

I hide in my cabinet. 20 lb.tank. 1 per 2-3 sec. is good for a small tank.


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

jamesren said:


> I hide in my cabinet. 20 lb.tank. 1 per 2-3 sec. is good for a small tank.


do you run an air stone at night to counter the co2, or do you just leave it as is, and does running a 18" wall air stone on a 29 gallon tank make the co2 useless?


----------



## jamesren (Aug 27, 2008)

coldmantis said:


> do you run an air stone at night to counter the co2, or do you just leave it as is, and does running a 18" wall air stone on a 29 gallon tank make the co2 useless?


I don't use air stone. The co2 is turned off by timer at night.

It may great reduce CO2, in fact in a planted tank air stone not necessary.


----------

