CO2 injection

OK, so I've done the DIY yeast/sugar CO2 injection. Plants loved it.. although I think adding the plant fertz aided in the growth as well. Unfortunately I was not clever enough to take before/after pics to 'prove' that it works... and hence I am going to be accused of 'no pics-no proof'. ( I know I accuse you all of it!)

Well, my LPS has being bringing in a specific type of CO2 injection system from China... it's the Boyu range, and apparently works very well. The manager of the store, who is a fish enthusiast himself, swears by it. I have been waiting for them to get into the country for over 3 months now... and finally today I was able to pick it up.

As you can see by the pic, it looks nothing like what you would expect a CO2 to look like... and only time will tell if it is as good as it is cracked up to be. It has a control unit (left of pic) where you can vary the amount of CO2 being produced. And a rather big part (right of pic) that get's inserted into the tank.

The part that goes into the tank has a big Carbon plate in it, covered with stainless steel, and then a plastic cover over. Apparenly the CO2 is generated on this particular part. I have no idea how!

But at the cost I paid for it... I am willing to give it a go... I'm guessing I'm not suppose to give the price on the forum... but let's just say it was between R295.00 and R 300.00 for the whole thing. Apparently what you see in the picture will last 6 months, (depending on size of tank). You then change the carbon plate (at about a third of the above price).

So we will see how it goes. Would be interesting to see if anyone else here has used this type of CO2 injection, and your result?

 

sorry to say you bought a dud.... they dont work at all, after about a month the two metal plates stop reacting and you are sitting with a mess in your tank.

 

Duly noted Henk... I will let others know of my experience when I have found out for myself.

 

ok - go search on some of the older local forum and you will see what the others say... many of my mates and my clients in teh industry used it and chucked it out after a month or 3

 

From the instruction manual:

"Please note that this diffuser is intended for aiding plants in growth, but is NOT intended to replace direct CO2 injection for heavily planted aquariums. The main purpose of this diffuser is to aid plant growth in medium planted aquarium, where the fish are the main focus of the tank.
The diffuser will need to be replaces once ever 2 to 3 months, as the carbon is depleated on the plates."

Um... if that is on the manual... then why chuch the whole thing away when it stops working after 3 months???

 

You got conned.

Because it's not worth the risk of your tank becoming a black mess. If you see even the slightest amount of black residue in your tank, remove the plates. Do not leave it in.

 

Sorry Zoom but i am merely stating what i have seen, heard and experianced... take it, dont take it, use it, dont use i.... you asked, you got feed back....

 

Hey, I have no problem with you guys thinking I got conned... or that I'm wasting my time/money/effort. You are all entitled to your own opinions. I personally believe that if you have not PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED the thig you have an opinion about, then you are not entitled to VOICE an opinion. Nonetheless, I am merely stating that I will make the decision based on my personal EXPERIENCE... not based on what I might have read on google, or what my friends/clients have said.

EVERY1 said that a DIY Yeast reactor would never work... that I couldn't control the amount released into the water, and couldn't monitor everything properly... I proved every1 wrong... but because I didn't bother with pictures to prove it... I have not commented major on this issue... because I knwo the (unwritten) rules. No pics, no proof.

So let's watch this space...

 

Who's this everyone? You'll be better off sticking with the DIY yeast method than this thing. Much cheaper too.

 

I have noticed over the past month that my filters have started getting a terrible black oily like substance over the floss, in the filters, and pretty much everywhere else where the water flows. It was starting to irritate me... but I couldn't find the cause. I thought it might have been plant matter decomposing... but after cleaning the filter floss, the oil/black stuff was back within a day. It literally coated the floss inhibitting the flow of water through the floss. I noticed the Nitrates starting to rise too.

Last night I took all the silica sand out of my tank and replaced it with the new silica sand I have acquired through work. At the corner of the tank where the above CO2 diffuser was, the sand UNDER the top layer of silica sand was the same black, slimy oily substance... and the rest of the sand was fine.

It can be deduced from my findings that the above CO2 diffuser, altho visibly increasing my plants growth over the last month, has turned my filter and substrate into a black oily mess... and has therefore met an early grave, and is sitting in the dustbin outside my flat!

Henk & Rlowe... you may post your "I told you so's" hereafter...

 

Thanks for the experiment and feedback Zoom - now the rest of us know that this product is not all it claims to be.

Product - busted !!!!

On the bright side - you had a reason to rescape your tank.

 

I was rescaping anyway... that's how I found out it was this thing putting that oily stuff in my water!

 

I told you so :bigsmile:

 

:rofl:
couldn't resist it, could you

 

Just out of curiosity whats that thing Dale was using for his Co2?

Zoom, maybe this is a sign 2 look into a pressurized system?

 

Dale as in solex69?? (He uses a cheaper version of pressurized CO2 made by Tetra, as well as DIY yeast reactor)

 

Yeah thats it, thanks..