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diy co2 mix?


Vinnie

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I've always used just a standard mix of yeast and sugar in a 2.25L coke bottle but was wondering what mix's people are using or if any one has found anything extra to add to help make it work better

Just keen to see how different some of the ways out there are, plus keen to try something different

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I think my current mix, which has been going for ages and still going strong, is 2 cups of castor sugar, a teaspoon of yeast and the rest filled with warm water in a 1.25L homebrand soda bottle. Just drilled a hole in the cap, put the airline in the hole and glued it up tight. Running the line straight onto the outlet pipe of my internal filter.

Works well, heaps of O2 bubbles when lights are on.

HTH

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I haven't made one yet, but during my research I read that changing the ratios of your ingredients will give you different results. If you add more sugar, the bubbling should last long, if you add more yeast, then the bubbling will be faster but burn out quicker. Adding baking soda, stabilizes the mix and prevents over frothing and erratic bubbling. Also, if you mix the ingredients into warm water and let it start first for 20 minutes before closing the bottle up, apparently the yeast gets a better start on things (sooner) and more of them remain alive for longer....

Here is one recipe that sounds pretty good:

http://www.hallman.org/plant/CO2.html

Here's a review of a 'DIY' system you can buy, but the post by Danio at the bottom gives some good advice:

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/products ... ystem.html

Goodluck! And let me know what you learn, as I will soon be attempting to make my own!

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In the presence of air the yeast multiplies and without air it ferments sugar to produce ethanol and CO2. You can therefore increase the amount of active yeast by allowing it to stay warm with access to air for a while before closing the system off to air. You can also buy wine yeasts from the home brew shops which are stronger than bakers yeast and will remain active for longer as the concentration of ethanol increases. From the same place you can buy salts which provide the nutrients the yeast need to be more effective or if you are feeling cheap you can add a small amount of marmite. Keeping the system warm makes it work better as well and to this end you can add an element/thermostat or heat pad.

Even better, you can set up a good sized jar and make wine at the same time.

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I have also heard that more complex sugars will help the process last longer. Some people recommend using raw sugar instead of white sugar, or adding a bit of molasses to the sugar mix. I haven't done any controlled experiments so I don't know if it's really true.

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The first thing the yeast does is break the complex sugar (cane sugar as in table sugar) into simple sugars before breaking them to alcohol and CO2. When making alcoholic drinks people often use simple sugars but I have never seen the point as the yeast does it anyway. I would guess that using complex sugars will only delay the start of fermentation rather than prolong it. The yeast ferments until it is killed off by the alcohol that it produces and wine yeasts will withstand higher concentrations than bakers or beer yeasts so will therefore ferment for longer and produce CO2 for longer.

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The first thing the yeast does is break the complex sugar (cane sugar as in table sugar) into simple sugars before breaking them to alcohol and CO2. When making alcoholic drinks people often use simple sugars but I have never seen the point as the yeast does it anyway. I would guess that using complex sugars will only delay the start of fermentation rather than prolong it. The yeast ferments until it is killed off by the alcohol that it produces and wine yeasts will withstand higher concentrations than bakers or beer yeasts so will therefore ferment for longer and produce CO2 for longer.

And then you can drink the old mix while you're setting up a new one...

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys - I've just had my first attempt at setting up my DIY CO², I've used 1 x tsp of Yeast (Edmond's Active Yeast from Pak n' Save) and one cup of sugar. I realise this mix is far from ideal, and it should work - however I'm simply not seeing any results - there are no bubbles forming at all! (It's been two hours). Have spoken to a couple of people who have also done this, but they report voilent ( :o ) bubbling about 10-15min in. My bottle just sits there looking all cloudy and some very very small bubbles.

What am I doing wrong?

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Is the system air tight?

Try squeezing the bottle...if you hear any whistling then you will have to fix it before it can work!

Goodluck :)

Milena

No the water is a little warm (maybe around 35 deg C). The bubbles are forming, slowly, but my guess is there simply isn't enough pressure to push the CO² out. I will try with a shorter hose tomorrow.
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Is the system air tight?

Try squeezing the bottle...if you hear any whistling then you will have to fix it before it can work!

Goodluck :)

Milena

Hi,

Yes the seal gave earlier today (looks like I didn't use enough silicon) so I blobbed on a fair amount of silicone on it (this time on the inside and the outisde of the cap) and am waiting 24 hours for it to fully cure.

Also the CO² seems to be going pretty well right now (have the bottle sitting next to me without the lid on - I can actually see a significant amoutn of bubbles rising up.) I will post back when I have everything set up.

One more thing - Is there a better way of doing this? (the cap -> airline setup I mean) - the sealing seems to be prone to breaking especially if you move the bottle around a bit - either that or I'm terrible at gluing!

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i find if you mix up the yeast with a pinch of sugar in a little warm water really well using a fork until you get lots of bubbles and let it sit for 10 mins before you add it to the bottle you seem to get bubbles quicker :D:D

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