Day 6 - DIY CO2

Fertilisers
I've invested in some decent plant fertiliser. 500ml of Easy Life ProFito for about £10. I've begun daily dosing at half the recommended amount, which means I'm using 0.8ml per day. I'll probably increase to 1.5ml once I have more powerful lights. Money well spent I think, this bottle should last well over a year.

The Return of the Slime
The slime that had appeared around the CO2 diffuser has returned.


So the previous remedies have failed. Time to rebuild the DIY CO2 system with an added slime catching compartment!

DIY CO2
The current DIY CO2 system was a bit of a rushed job. I'd used a hot glue gun to glue tubes into the bottle lids, it was... messy. To say the least. I'll try to do it properly this time.

The prerequisite items:

• Some airline connectors (£2 from LFS)
• Super glue
• Two 2ltr bottles
• One 1ltr bottle
• Bottle lids
  

I drilled holes in the bottle caps using a 5.5mm drill bit and super glued the airline connectors into the holes.



Then it's simply a case of cutting and connecting the airline to the lids. When connected the CO2 generator looks like this:



The two large bottles contain the yeast/sugar mixture, generating the CO2. The output from the large bottles enters the third smaller bottle which is designed to catch any gunk that may be pushed down the airline from the yeast bottles. Gunk remains in the bottom of the smaller bottle, CO2 is pushed out the top. At least that's the theory, we shall see if it works in practice.

This has been installed and I've placed the diffuser directly underneath the filter intake once again, just like it was initially, as I've ruled out the filter suction as a cause of the slime. This placement of the diffuser makes it easier to ensure all the bubbles go into the filter intake.