# DIY co2 with vinegar and baking soda, does this work?



## customdrumfinishes (Apr 4, 2008)

Just saw a diy setup that uses vinegar and baking soda to make co2 for your tank, I have never seen this before but it may be old news lol.
Has anyone used this setup or used those ingredients to make co2? 

i found this contraption on ebay, youll have to look up diy co2 opn there and its a drawing of 2 bottles,thanks


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I haven't used that contraption, but I see only one problem with it. You shouldn't use a needle valve on the output, or the pressure can build up enough to rupture the bottles. This does look like it minimizes that problem though. I suspect that CO2 would be produced in bursts, rather than in a steady rate, with each drop of vinegar producing a burst of CO2. And, I don't see a way to shut it down at night, although that should be easy to do. It would be interesting to try.


----------



## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

The only downside I can see to something like this is that the materials are relatively expensive, with a whole box of baking soda producing less CO2 than a couple of cups of sugar. Also, acetic acid has a significant vapor pressure at room temperature, so if you used this over time, you'd wind up pumping that vapor into your tank. The critters in the tank would metabolize the acetate without any trouble, but you would be adding another source of acidification to the tank. Dunno what the cumulative effect would be, honestly.


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

If you ran the CO2 through a water filled bubble counter wouldn't the vapors from the vinegar be removed?


----------



## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

Yeah, the vapor would tend to dissolve in the water from the bubble counter, but it would fairly quickly become a weak vinegar solution itself and start sending the vapor on to the tank. If you changed the water in the bubble counter occasionally you could probably effectively stop this. The bigger problem is the cost of materials over time, in my opinion.


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

With no idea of how long the original charge of the device will produce adequate CO2 I have no idea whether the cost of the materials is too much or very economical. I think it would be an interesting thing for someone here to try, and report the results back to us. The odds on it being better than yeast/sugar are pretty low, but not zero.


----------



## customdrumfinishes (Apr 4, 2008)

i would also like to know the cost comparison on this type of co2 system to the diy yeast and sugar method. the diy sugar works and its cheap but does this last longer or produce better results? 
thanks for the replys!


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

customdrumfinishes said:


> i would also like to know the cost comparison on this type of co2 system to the diy yeast and sugar method. the diy sugar works and its cheap but does this last longer or produce better results?
> thanks for the replys!


Try it and let us know how it worked. Someone's gotta do it, why not you?


----------

