In contrast to a CO2 system with a compressed gas tank produced a BIO-CO2 system the gas yourself. You can produce BIO CO2 at home using certain methods. The mixtures always contain yeast and sugar.
Bio CO2 systems are therefore often the cheaper CO2 variant, especially for small aquariums.
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You can make the mixes yourself or buy ready-made mixes. The finished CO2 mixtures mostly contain Yeast, sugar, water and cake glaze. When you bring these ingredients together, the fermentation process creates CO2.
Yeast is the most important ingredient for the fermentation process, without the yeast the process cannot begin. Of course, the BIO CO2 mixture has to be repeated over and over again renewed become. At some point, the mass will no longer produce CO2.
The own production of carbon dioxide is the big difference between a BIO CO2 system and a compressed gas CO2 system. With the compressed gas CO2 system, the gas is bought ready in the bottle.
The compressed gas CO2 systems have the advantage that the pressure is higher than with BIO CO2. Many diffusers only work with a pressure of 1.8 bar or more. This pressure can only rarely be constantly achieved with a BIO-CO2 system.
For this reason, when buying a diffuser, you should make sure that it optimally atomizes the CO2 even at a rather low pressure. Otherwise, it may be that not enough carbon dioxide dissolves in the water.
Many bio CO2 systems for the aquarium have a diffuser or a diffusion tube included in the package, so that this does not have to be bought separately.
3 BIO Co2 systems in comparison:
JBL ProFlora Bio80
Starting capacity in enough for how many days?
Starting capacity in enough for how many days?
Recommendation:
Starting capacity in enough for how many days?
Starting capacity in enough for how many days?
Advantages and disadvantages of BIO CO2 systems:
The advantages of a BIO-CO2 system
- own production of CO2
- low acquisition costs of the system
- cheap biomass from yeast, sugar, water and cake glaze
- Biomass can be replenished itself
- no tedious exchange of gas bottles
A BIO-CO2 system has many advantages to offer. This facility is special cheap in the maintenance costs. Yeast, sugar and cake glaze are available in every supermarket for a few euros.
It is usually sufficient to produce a new biomass every four weeks. However, this is not a problem as the mass does not take long to make. The new biomass is ready for use within a few minutes.
In terms of acquisition costs, the BIO-CO2 system is usually cheaper than a compressed gas CO2 system. You can really save a lot of money when you buy it. BIO-CO2 systems have significantly less technology because they do not have to withstand high pressure.
Since you can use the BIO-CO2 system with the biomass refill it yourself you don’t have to go to a specialty shop or dealer to exchange and buy new gas cylinders. This saves a lot of time and effort, especially since the gas cylinders are surprisingly heavy.
Refilling is really easy and poses no problem for anyone.
The disadvantages of a BIO-CO2 system
- the pressure is lower than that of a gas cylinder
- Mixture of the biomass must be right
- cleaning more difficult
Since the CO2 is produced by a natural chemical reaction, not too much pressure arise. This can lead to the diffusers not working optimally. Some diffusers only work with a pressure above 2 bar.
When buying, you should therefore read the description of the diffuser carefully and make sure that it is also explicitly suitable for BIO-CO2 systems. Otherwise there is a risk that no CO2 will get into the pool and the diffuser will burst during operation because the CO2 will build up in it.
It is therefore important that the diffuser produces fine CO2 bubbles even at low pressure. At 0.5 bar the CO2 diffuser should work.
At the beginning it is also somewhat difficult to find the optimal mixing ratio of all components. If you don’t have a good formula handy, making it can be a bit of a guessing game.
In addition, one should be very careful to ensure that the container well sealed is. Otherwise biomass can swell out of the container during the fermentation process. Cleaning is then not much fun.
If you really want to add a lot of CO2 to a large tank, you quickly reach a certain limit with the biomass. No BIO-CO2 system can produce the amount of CO2 that is in the gas cylinder itself in a short time.
For this reason, BIO-CO2 systems for small tanks and nano tanks more suitable. The carbon dioxide produced is easily sufficient for small 54 liter tanks. With 120 liter aquariums, however, you have to check whether the amount is sufficient to effectively accelerate the growth of the plants.
If the diffusers aren’t really strong, less CO2 will be dissolved in the water. This means the plants can benefit less from the gas. The plants then do not grow too luxuriantly.
Another problem is that the pressure not constant is. So you can’t really adjust it. The natural fermentation process always produces a varying amount of CO2.
In addition, a biomass older than 14 days already produces less CO2 than a fresh mass. So you can only guess how much CO2 really gets into the pool every day. If you want a constant supply of CO2, you should rather buy a CO2 system with a gas bottle.
How does the BIO-CO2 system work?
The principle of the production of BIO CO2 is based on the fermentation. This is a process in which carbohydrates are fermented. This creates energy.
When yeast and sugar come together, they carry out alcoholic fermentation. The yeast then absorbs the sugar and gradually uses it for fermentation. This process produces gases such as carbon dioxide.
The carbon dioxide is then fed into the pool and pressed through a diffuser. This causes the CO2 to dissolve in the water. The aquarium plants then absorb the CO2 and use it for photosynthesis.
The perfect mix for a nano aquarium
As mentioned, it is not easy to find out the optimal recipe for the biomass.
For a nano aquarium with 20 to 30 liters, the following mixing ratio has proven itself:
– 1 pinch of yeast
– 250 grams of sugar
– 1 sachet of cake glaze
– Water to fill up
Tip: To prevent the biomass from foaming too much, you can add a little cooking oil.
To make the mass, you have to boil the sugar with the cake glaze. When the jelly-like mass hardens, you can pour it into the fermentation bottle. Then the…