its emergency about DIY

[LeafGoblinFish]

i got a problem with my DIY when i read the manual for making my own DIY i made one but in the manual it said about 2-4 bubbles a minute ive got a 10 gallon aquarium and its pumping out about 20 bubbles per second my fish are all aggitated by something new moving in their aquarium and im worried about too much co2 can someone help me out here?

[turtlehead]

what was your mixture?

[LeafGoblinFish]

1 tsp highly active yeast
3 cups water
1.5 cups all purpose flour

[Julie]

Take it out, if you have not already, but let the container still breathe, don't clog it up or it can explode.

Do you have a PH test kit? CO2 can kill fish, if it is too high in concentrations, it also messes with the PH which, if changed quickly, can seriously hurt fish and it can kill them.

[LeafGoblinFish]

my ph is very low.....i know i have a serious problem now but what can i do about it? ok i have a 10 gallon aquarium and my ph test came up 6.0 if not lower i added a ph leveler powder that says it can be added directly to the tank if needed. i added the exact amount about 20-30 mins ago now ph is only reading somewhere between 6.4 and 6.6 now i only had this DIY thing in there for about 2.5 hrs and probably for half an hr it wasnt even producing any bubbles is there a chance my fish will live if i do a 25% water change?

[Julie]

Just keep the PH steady. Being unstable is a problem, not so much as being low usually. How do your fish look? I am pretty sure a water change will not hurt them, if the PH in your tap is similar to the PH in your tank. I hope your fish are okay...I would go ahead and do a 20% water change. Probabaly stop using the PH powder stuff, we just want to keep it as stable as we can. What was your PH before the CO2?It would be good, I think, to get the PH back to where it was before CO2(SLOWLY), but I am not familar with the product you are using. If your fish seem stressed turn off the lights and maybe even cover the tank, keep it as dark as you can for them, may help them relax a bit more. I am sorry, I do not know what else you can do...I hope someone else comes by who knows more than I.

[LeafGoblinFish]

well ladies and gentlemen it is now about 4.5 to 5 hrs since i put the DIY in the tank and probably a max of 4 hrs of low ph but i got the ph right back to 7.0 with a 25% water change and the leveling powder directly in the tank before adding the new water i put the water in at 7.2 ph and the water was at 6.6 easy if not 6.8ph it balanced out and ill let yall know what happens overnight in the morning thnx julie for tha ph info and i wont be usin DIY again anytime soon at least not until i get a fish tank as big as yalls until then since this is the plant forum maybe someone could answer a quick question(since i cant do DIY) what do yall think about this? i currently have about 20 1in tall watersprites a bolbitis without much leaves a large java fern and about 6 little java ferns and a banana plant with about 6 leaves workin on 7 and 8 all in a 10 gallon aquarium with only 9 1 inch fish ...im about to get 6 more plants and i think 3 are gonna be 8in or taller my question is that with that many plants in the aquarium....should i feed my fish more to produce more ammonia and just watch the ammonia lvls and make sure there isnt a change when there is a change back off? you know like increase the number of brine shrimp i feed everyother day by 2 for 2 weeks and increasing every 2 weeks until i get a change in ammonia then drop back by about 4-6?? because plants prefer ammonia right?

[turtlehead]

never use the ph modifiers, the fish don't really mind if it's off what they are used to. The mixture is supposed to be 2 cups sugar, 1/4 tsp yeast, and water filled to 3 inches to the top of the 2 litter bottle.

[MyraVan]

Diana Walstad (author of Ecology of the Planted Aquarium) suggets doing exactly this. She feeds her fish all they will eat, and then adds a bit more "for the tank". By this she means, to provide nutrients for the fish.

The only thing you have to worry about is if you have fish who will eat it all, even if it is really more than they should have. Some fish are like that; my rosy barbs are for example. So I have to be careful to not feed too much, since all the excess will end up in the rosy barbs' tummies, and I don't want obese fish...

Oh, and as you suggested, you have to watch the ammonia levels to make sure you're not producing more than the plants can handle.

[Julie]

You just want a stable pH. PH swings are dramatic for fish. Usually, if you have PH swings, it is because your KH is low(CO2 to my understanding, eats up your KH, which is the buffer for your PH, if it uses all your KH, then PH goes down). As Turtle said, the fish adjust to different PH levels, as long as they are introduced to it slowly. What happened to you, was your mixture was off and it caused a dramatic change in your PH. You can still use DIY CO2, it just has to be the right mixture. I have had good results with the DIY. When the lights go out, your PH will usually be lower.

[Damon]

Don't use flour in your DIy mixture. Substitute the flour for a tsp of baking soda. Will yield better results and longer time. You only want 1 bubble for second. Not 2-4.

[LeafGoblinFish]

well the ph had to have dropped 1 or more points in less than 3 hrs my ph tester only reads as low as 6.0 so in about an hrs time i got it back up between 6.6 and 6.8 and did a %25 percent water change to help get rid of some of this massive co2 that i got my tank it is now about 9 hrs later and the fish seem alright we'll see what happens over the next few days how long would yall suggest is a good estimate that they will be ok and i dont have to watch for ded fish? and thnx for the info on the actual recipe but i still dont think ill use it i might try it when i have a larger tank but a 10 gallon just changes so rapidly its hard to catch it if something is going wrong

[Damon]

Give them 2-3 days. If they seem unaffected after that, they should be O.K.

[Julie]

Look for diseases too, from the stress. Just keep an eye out. I don't use flour in my mixture either, I use baking soda, but I was not sure about it, so I did not say anything.

I am glad your fish are ok!

[LeafGoblinFish]

its now 2 days out and they still goin strong i even notice 2 of the fish attacking the co2 bubbles that was pretty ammusing but i know its harmful too'em thnx for tha help guys i think theyll do alright

[buddah101]

This should help you understand a little more about pH
"Fish are so highly affected by thier aquatic enviornment that any changes in that enviornment
can also cause changes in things like the physiology of thier blood chemistry, which can lead to

some pretty significant problems.
Thats because the cells of a fish-- like those of humans-- are mostly made up of water. But unlike

humans, fish also live in the stuff. If you've taken Biology, you may remember that when you

have liquids of different concentrations on either side of a membrane, they have a tendancy to

want to equalize. So if there's a higher concentration of dissolved solids in the water outside of the

fishthan there is inside the fish (as is with marine species), water will flow out of the fish's body. If

there's a higher concentration inside as opposed to outside (as is the case with freshwater fish)

water flows in.
The fish regulates the rate at which this occurs via a complex chemical process that we won't get

into here. The important thing to know is that if a fish is plopped in a new enviornment with a

different concentration of dissolved solids, it has to adjust these chemical processes to keep up the

rate of osmosis steady. Sometimes, though, the differences are so great that the fish's body cant

adjust fast enough. The resulting osmotic pressure is stressful (to say the least) to a fish, and can

hinder functioning of its kidneys and gills--potentially FATALLY.
And thats not the only thing a fish has to worry about when its environment changes. At the

same time it's regulating the movement of water across it's membranes, a fish must keep the acid

and base balance in it's blood and tissue stable. It does this through another complex series of

chemical processes which it has to adjust when the pH of the water moving into it's cells changes.

If the change in pH is sudden and dramatic, the fish may not be able to adjust fast enough and it is

at risk of it's blood becoming too acidic (a condition known as acidosis) or too alkaline (alkalosis).

Either can be fatal; thus the oft- given recomendation that a fish not be subjected to a pH change

of greater than .2 or .3 per day.
And then, of course, there's temerature -- The thing even novices usually remember to take into

account when acclimating fish. Conventional wisdom has it that sudden temperature changes

cause outbreaks of disease such as Ich. But when it comes to acclimation, it's also important

because it affects a fish's metabolism, which in turn can affect it's ability to regulate things like

internal pH ans osmotic pressure and also affects it's respiration.
In short, the theory is not to shock the fish by changing it's conditions too rapidly."
TFH-April-2005 Pg.#64-68
Written by: Laura Muha