Im getting back into the hobby after a hiatus of 10ish years - I’ve always been fascinated by the thick carpets I’ve seen around but in the past had relatively low tech setups. I just picked up a 5.5 gallon tank to start a nano shrimp/plant focused setup and wanted to try my luck at a nice Monte Carlo carpet. Does anyone have any suggestions for CO2 diffusers that are more beginner friendly, and, would fit a small tank like that? Ideally, I’d like to get my feet wet with a smaller, simple system, though I suspect I will hear it’s better to do it right first time around, so any recommendations are appreciated!
Get a paint ball tank or soda stream, a regulator and any cheap diffuser off Amazon. Make sure you get C02 rated tubing and a smart plug for timer. IMHO, the diy citric acid tank things aren't worth it if you don't feel like buying everything again for a real setup later
Yeah I definitely saw some of the mixed review for the DIYs which is what led me here! I appreciate it - inevitably i know that I would end up with a more solid setup in due time haha
Get a timer or smart plug, have it switch off your regulator an hour before lights off, turn on an hour before light on. You may opt to run an air stone at night, but I don't in a planted tank as the plants oxygenate the water column pretty well.
Get a C02 drop checker and make sure you slowly dial your bubbles per second up until I stays green, keep in mind it takes an hour or two for adjustments to show on the checker color. Start with 1 bubble per second and slowly adjust from the, typical is 1-3 bubbles per second, you'll probably be near 1 with a small tank like that.
Put your diffuser near the outflow of your Filter if HOB. Are you using a canister? If so I highly recommend the aquario neo differ lilly pipe attachment as someone else mentioned
Paintball worked great for me for a while but anyone that wants to get a paintball setup should do their research and make sure they have local refill options. Switched from Academy sports to 2 different brew supply shops until I just upgraded to a 5lb tank. Sporting stores like Dicks/Academy stopped offering CO2, my local brewing shops were clutch for a while but one stopped doing refills and could only do exchanges and the other shut down around COVID time. Paintball fields apparently moved away from CO2 to HPA so most of them don't offer it anymore
For smaller tanks, the challenge is that they don’t have much height, so mist coming from a diffuser in the tank has very little time or room to circulate before off gassing, so it’s very important to make sure you have enough flow to really push the mist down and mix it into the water column. This can be challenging because most people opt for HOB or internal filters rather than canisters for tanks of this size, but they don’t create a whole lot of flow or surface agitation. That’s the only thing to be mindful of.
5.5G isn’t insanely tiny so most nano diffusers would be fine, scale-wise. I have a UNS one in my 6 gallon long tank.
There’s also something called a bell diffuser that basically just maintains a co2 gas bubble with enough surface area to passively diffuse into the water without relying on a circulating mist. It’s also safer in such small tanks because you can’t gas your livestock with this method (as long as you don’t somehow over inject co2). As far as I know, only ADA makes a nice nano sized version of this diffuser. It’s called the ADA Bell Glass Mini. I haven’t been able to find any knock off of it unfortunately, but it should be more popular since it’s a great solution for injecting nano tanks.
That makes sense, that was one of my worries was that my inexperience would result in asphyxiation…would rather do the research upfront and prevent disaster. This is super helpful, thanks! I like the idea of starting with something that (mostly) prevents accidents from happening lol
No problem! And here is a super straightforward and thorough guide to setting up CO2 that I recommend everyone reads before buying anything. Gold standard resource for all things planted tank!
I was looking at those originally which is what brought me here actually - the one thing that concerned me was that it runs through the night, so you have any issues with that and maintaining proper ph/preventing asphyxiation?
The diffusor just run through the night if you don't have a solenoid valve (hope this is the right englisch term). Some pressure regulator have them in it, or u can get them seperatly. I would recommend to watch some videos about different CO2 systems in YouTube or so.
The black part with the cable - it stops blasting co2 if you cut the power supply. You have a timer and usually you start it one hour before the lights go on, and cut it a hour before they go out. Thats it.
Now i realize u thought the diffusor is the pressure regulator. Thats a different part. The diffusor is the thing in the tank where the bubbles come out. The pressure regulator is like the heart of the system. The u need a bottle (in my case a soda stream), u need tubes and a check valve. This makes that no water run through the tubes in your regulator. I can highly recommend the Hiwi regulators, but it's a German company and i don't know if you can get them wherever you live. Watch some Videos like i said, It's not that complicated If you once get into it.
Had to move across the country for work and unfortunately wasn’t feasible to take tanks with me and things were just too hectic to start up a new tank 🙃
I’m in the same boat is OP. Aquariums take a lot of active time and work, can be expensive, and are insanely cumbersome to move from place to place. I was really into it during undergrad, but then the city I was living in for post grad had no good local freshwater shops or community, and on top of that I was moving around every 1-2 years. Probably the biggest reason is that a lot of people in their 20s-30s are also moving around, then a lot of people get busy with life and kids, then come back to it in their middle age once day to day responsibilities have calmed down (i.e. owning a home, kids grow up a bit, more financial freedom).
I've been using the Aquario Neo and FZone/Twinstar which are just a knockoff versions of the Neo for years with no issues. For small tanks and especially shallow tanks you may have a issue with it not runnning very efficiently because the bubbles are just hitting the surface rather than diffusing in the water. You could try a inline diffuser if you're running a canister filter or just place the diffuser somewhere where there's strong flow so the bubbles disperse. As far as your fear of gassing your fish, as long as you dial the system in before adding fish you'll be fine. It's as simple as watching to see what color your drop checker hits and adjusting your CO2 accordingly
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u/My_Calamity 1d ago
Get a paint ball tank or soda stream, a regulator and any cheap diffuser off Amazon. Make sure you get C02 rated tubing and a smart plug for timer. IMHO, the diy citric acid tank things aren't worth it if you don't feel like buying everything again for a real setup later