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I have been kind of obsessed now with the DIY CO2 yeast technique, and I guess it is because when you search it in Google each story is so different and well, some are success others are scary because of the potential mess you can make, others say that is doesn't work because inconsistent CO2. but well I will put what I have done and I am getting consistent rate of bps without having any downtime but still needs some weekly work.
Well probably by this time and the amount of work i have put into it I should moved to pressurized but I kept digging into it and trying to improve my set, so here is what I have hope it helps others that want to do something similar and do not need to do the research, well it work for me not saying is the best but at least I am ok.
What you need:
4~5 2L Bottles (soda or seltzer), depends on how many you want to have hooked into the system and the work you want to do weekly, I have 4 bottles connected and 1 is the spare when I need to replace a bottle,
1 small Gatorade bottle as bubble counter
5 Brass T connectors (plastic should work but I like brass) for connecting the bottles.
6' Silicone air tubing (well they say is the one that last more ) why 6 feet well not sure just to make sure you have enough.
6 Fourmost bulkhead fittings (this is to create a better seal on the bottles than just the silicone)
1 some aquarium safe silicone just for the fittings and the bottles caps.
1 needle valve I found out this one works great from home depot WATTS A-42
1 diffuser/reactor (ceramic, DIY, reactor etc etc) will not get into the DIY but I got me a reactor the SERA Active reactor 500 which works pretty good.
5 check valves, 4 for each bottle that helps when replacing them and one for the tubbing out from the bubble counter. And the best cheack valve I have been able to find is the one that is sold in walmart, the design is probably the best for this purpose, it might not last because of CO2 but to start is a good option.
1 Tote container to put all the bottles inside and to avoid any accidents.
So the idea is to have 3 to 4 bottles of DIY yeast CO2 working at any given time in my case I have 4 bottles so technically each bottle last for 4 weeks before it gets replaced and it has been working so far without noticing any decrease in CO2, granted i am limiting the output with the needle valve but it seems with the amount of pressure it has the bps never goes down. That is why I have all the bottles in the TOTE since I am limiting the output just to avoid any problems with them an accidental spill.
Now why the soda or seltzer bottles, because I think those are the best they are designed to endure the pressure generated by the liquid, think about it those Canadian dry bottles what is the first thing that happens when you open them the liquid kinds of bursts that means they are always holding pressure, I know people say use the juice bottles they might appear stronger but those do not use CO2 so I do not want to risk it.
One other thin, I was able to run the Fluval 88G diffuse with this set, so that means the system pushes enough pressure to make it work I just decided to move to the active reactor because it is better.
Right now my yeast mixture is simple, that will be my next project to see if I can replace the bottles every two weeks or more and then maybe. Here is what I use:
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp bread yeast
RO water (really any water but well I have RO why not)
2 Cups of sugar
1 tbps of protein powder (why do not ask, I thought is food for the yeast as the sugar and will make it last but still not sure).
All of them mixed in the bottle and then wait a day to replace the oldest bottle.
Instead of going into detail for each stuff I just will display some pics and hope it helps to anyone trying to do DIY CO2, for me it works. not sure of the quality of the pic I have to always reduce them when I need to upload them here.
hope it helps.
Well probably by this time and the amount of work i have put into it I should moved to pressurized but I kept digging into it and trying to improve my set, so here is what I have hope it helps others that want to do something similar and do not need to do the research, well it work for me not saying is the best but at least I am ok.
What you need:
4~5 2L Bottles (soda or seltzer), depends on how many you want to have hooked into the system and the work you want to do weekly, I have 4 bottles connected and 1 is the spare when I need to replace a bottle,
1 small Gatorade bottle as bubble counter
5 Brass T connectors (plastic should work but I like brass) for connecting the bottles.
6' Silicone air tubing (well they say is the one that last more ) why 6 feet well not sure just to make sure you have enough.
6 Fourmost bulkhead fittings (this is to create a better seal on the bottles than just the silicone)
1 some aquarium safe silicone just for the fittings and the bottles caps.
1 needle valve I found out this one works great from home depot WATTS A-42
1 diffuser/reactor (ceramic, DIY, reactor etc etc) will not get into the DIY but I got me a reactor the SERA Active reactor 500 which works pretty good.
5 check valves, 4 for each bottle that helps when replacing them and one for the tubbing out from the bubble counter. And the best cheack valve I have been able to find is the one that is sold in walmart, the design is probably the best for this purpose, it might not last because of CO2 but to start is a good option.
1 Tote container to put all the bottles inside and to avoid any accidents.
So the idea is to have 3 to 4 bottles of DIY yeast CO2 working at any given time in my case I have 4 bottles so technically each bottle last for 4 weeks before it gets replaced and it has been working so far without noticing any decrease in CO2, granted i am limiting the output with the needle valve but it seems with the amount of pressure it has the bps never goes down. That is why I have all the bottles in the TOTE since I am limiting the output just to avoid any problems with them an accidental spill.
Now why the soda or seltzer bottles, because I think those are the best they are designed to endure the pressure generated by the liquid, think about it those Canadian dry bottles what is the first thing that happens when you open them the liquid kinds of bursts that means they are always holding pressure, I know people say use the juice bottles they might appear stronger but those do not use CO2 so I do not want to risk it.
One other thin, I was able to run the Fluval 88G diffuse with this set, so that means the system pushes enough pressure to make it work I just decided to move to the active reactor because it is better.
Right now my yeast mixture is simple, that will be my next project to see if I can replace the bottles every two weeks or more and then maybe. Here is what I use:
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp bread yeast
RO water (really any water but well I have RO why not)
2 Cups of sugar
1 tbps of protein powder (why do not ask, I thought is food for the yeast as the sugar and will make it last but still not sure).
All of them mixed in the bottle and then wait a day to replace the oldest bottle.
Instead of going into detail for each stuff I just will display some pics and hope it helps to anyone trying to do DIY CO2, for me it works. not sure of the quality of the pic I have to always reduce them when I need to upload them here.
hope it helps.
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