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Re: pepping up the DIY CO2 generator




>From: Paul Nicholson <paul at eisusa_com>


>...Pure sugar has no protein, amino acids, or minerals. Some minerals would
>come from the water, and initial protein would be supplied by the powdered
>yeast starter. The sugar is not pure, and there may be traces of nutrients,
>but how much? My theory is that the flour is providing the stuff yeast need
>to build strong bodies.

A way to test this idea out would be to start up a CO2 generator with
sugar, and when it begins to slow down, add some mineral nutrients instead
of flour.  You could try your PMDD, if you use that, and/or some
miracle-gro.

On several occasions, I tried a different idea for CO2 generation.  I
placed a small bowl in the aquarium with about a teaspoon of oatmeal
flakes, covered with an inch of gravel.  This setup produced a lot of
bubbles  for several weeks, but I wasn't sure they were CO2.  They could
have been (in part) nitrogen gas made by denitrifying bacteria living in
the anaerobic layer under the gravel.  In fact, such a setup could be a
useful way to lower high nitrates in an aquarium.  Sometime I am going to
have to go back and do that over again and try to find out how much CO2
that setup produced.  It didn't cloud the water or lower the oxygen content
noticably.


Paul Krombholz                  Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS  39174
In soggy, cool Jackson, Mississippi where we had the first sunny day in a
week of rain.