Comment by Peter on July 30, 2013 at 10:43pm

Well diy co2 is yeast and sugar. Recepis go like so:2 cups sugar 1tblsp yeast, fill 2liter bottle 3/4 with warm water. Theirs tons of recipes just pick 1 u like. That diy co2 is good for tanks up to maybe 30g. 40g plus will require two 2liter bottles of mix to get enough co2 into ur tank. Paintball co2 is diy presurized co2: which is this http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=115850 paintball co2 is the poor mans version of the reg pressurized 5-20lb tank set ups. If u have te money its best to get a 5lb tank saves u lots of refills. Co2 will help make ur plants grow faster for sure. If ur runnin high light u def should run atleast diy pressurized co2 to avoid algae problems. Or dose excel. In med light tanks it will help as well but it wont help as much in low tech tanks. Can u hae hightech and no pressurized sure if u dose excel co2 isnt necessarry but once u see wat it does for ur plants ull always going to want to run co2 in ur planted tanks.

Ps.. If u do decide to run pressuized co2 get a selonoid valve so u can put it on a timer. If not careful u can gas(kill) ur fish with the co2

Comment by Tyler Dunn on July 30, 2013 at 11:55pm

I was leaning towards a pressurized system just because the yeast and sugar method seemed like too much of a hassle for my tank, thanks for you input defiantly wanted to hear some good pros and cons, ill probably end up just investing in a nice system, thanks for the help!

Comment by alex9j4m on July 31, 2013 at 5:36pm

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107312

Comment by thefisherman15 on July 31, 2013 at 9:15pm

Hi ....  here is a link to a video I made for my "YouTube" channel on hooking up a CO2 Regulator / Solenoid with a paintball cylinder - I ran a DIY CO2 for a while but the pressurized system I installed 2 months ago is much better . The paintball cylinder lasted me two months ( running it 6 hrs a day ) which is not bad - I'm thinking of getting a bigger cylinder ( 10 or 20 lbs ) soon .

http://fishtanktv.com/video/52-aquarium-co2-installation

Comment by Fry on August 1, 2013 at 2:31pm

if you are going to use a CO2 Bottle make sure you get a niddle valve for it, you are only going to be able to find compression fitting ends on the needle valves sold in hard ware stores. they sell adapters to fit the bottles to regulators, just make sure the regulator has a needle vavle or install one urself, otherwise u will never get it to release slow enough. used 20OZ C02 lasted about 2 weeks but was running like 8BPS (Bubbles per Sec) Get a bubble counter to- was on a 90gallon with wet/dry.

Comment by Benny on October 7, 2013 at 8:49pm

I started with an ista kit from petco. The little valve is a real pain but otherwise it's a pretty sweet kit. When my little cartridge was empty I took a 20oz paintball tank, and I robbed parts off of a paintball gun that had an internal leak.. I took the pc that the tank threads into, and the 6" or so of hose that leads from it to the gun. The thread on the hose looked to be the same pitch, but the OD was a little too big to thread into the ista valve... So I spun a 3/8-24 die onto it and then it threaded in perfect! No leaks, been goin for a month and the needle still reads 800psi. I go 3-5 bps, for about 6 hrs a day. Like I mentioned the valve is a pain. I have found that certain degree of tightness to get the right flow. I don't leave it unattended. Good luck

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