Re: [APD] DIY CO2 recipe for 20 gal tank?

[Stuart Halliday <stuart at stuarthalliday_com>]

Kelleen Harris wrote:
> Thanks everyone who replied to help me with my CO2 questions! I really
> appreciate it.
> 
> I am a bit confused now as it seems that the consensus is that it would
> be really hard to kill fish with too much CO2 via the DIY method, and
> that everyone thinks that probably isn’t what happened.

Glad I was backed up. :-)

> Stuart uses 1tsp yeast for his 50 gal. 

2 tsp actually over two separate bottles.

The bubbles go into the bottom of a small plastic wall which has grooves in 
it so that the bubbles slowly travel up towards the surface.

> Stuart, what is IMHO?

IMHO - In My Honest/Humble Opinion.


> I really believe he’s a good fish keeper or I never would have encouraged
> him to try CO2. I’m positive that his tank was long ago cycled, and he
> only had a couple of (gasp) fancy guppies, two platties, and two cory
> cats in there. 

and 100s of snails?
Why if he was so keen did he have so few fish in it?
This was a 20G (75 litre) tank right?



So I know it wasn’t ammonia, nitrite, or fungus. I promise
> it wasn't!!! 

You can't really 'promise' it wasn't fungus.
Anything you handle and therefore the objects you put into the tank carry 
spores. So it's easy to infect a tank unwittingly.

Now here is an awful thought. Perhaps you brought the disease in from your 
own tank to his?

Can happen sadly.

Did you have this CO2 equipment in your tank at all first?


> Although I have only been doing CO2 for a year, I have been
> fishkeeping for 20 years, so I could tell if it was some sort of regular
> problem.

Ok, perhaps not fungus. Perhaps more a bacteria infection.

There is a theory going on that due to the close confinement of a tank, that 
bad bacteria can quickly build up when there is lack of good bacteria for 
competing with. Koi owners often put large quantities of positive-gram 
bacteria into their ponds to stop bad bacteria from getting a foot hold.


> The other thing that makes me pretty sure it had something to do with the
> CO2 is that all of his snails shells turned white and they all died.

Well, that would surely take like forever to happen!

What was the time span this incident happened over?


> He
> had about a hundred of them! They we prolific and healthy, and not at all
> white, before the CO2. Apparently it was the platties’ lips that turned
> white, but they lived and have since returned to normal coloration. One
> guppy died, but its lips weren’t white. The corys were less active, but
> they survived. The fish were not noticeably gasping for air at the
> surface.

So not a gill infection either.


> Is there some supplement that we’re supposed to be adding to the water so
> that our snails’ shells grow properly under CO2 addition?

I put a little coral sand into my tank so that the GH is 6d. Anything with 
calcium is required. Seashells, cuttlefish, etc.

I've got 4 Pomacea bridgesii, Golden Apple snails, in my 200L tank.
None are turning white. But I'll double check them tonight! :-)



-- 
Stuart Halliday


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