# club soda = cheap co2 method?



## J-mo (Jan 2, 2010)

this might be a dumb idea, but one i wanted an opinion on either way!

would mixing club soda into the tank in the morning provide enough co2 for the daylight cycle for plants? i am sure there would be long term changes to the tanks Ph level over time but would they be acceptable? watering or leaf spraying with club soda is a land-gardener trick and it contains trace elements that are beneficial to green plants.. I think the same theory might apply to a planted tank?


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## sapphoqueen (Feb 9, 2010)

put also some ice cream on top to have a nice cocktail!


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Using Club soda to provide CO2 to plants has been tried by Takashi Amano. However, due to the cost, and the lack of control, I believe it was abandoned.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I think the biggest problem is that CO2 leaves the water through the water-air interface pretty rapidly. Adding club soda in the morning would jack up the ppm of CO2 in the water to a high level, which would then quickly decrease back to the equilibrium level with that in the atmosphere. This is just the fluctuating CO2 level that can cause an algae bloom.

Sapphoqueen - do you recommend vanilla ice cream?


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## Bellaru (Jul 2, 2009)

Could you use it in a syringe to kill bba?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Bellaru said:


> Could you use it in a syringe to kill bba?


I don't see how this would work. People use Excel and spot treating to kill BBA, but not club soda...?


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## Bellaru (Jul 2, 2009)

Was not sure either. What is it in the excell that kills the bba? Is the high amount of carbon or something else?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I think it is 'something else'. 

Perhaps... put some club soda in a large cup and put a drip irrigation emitter in bottom/side of the cup. Or air line tubing with a knot in it, just like drip acclimating fish. This might allow the club soda to enter the tank slowly, over the course of several hours. The benefit is lost if it goes flat, though. And if you keep the container capped so it won't go flat, then it won't flow freely through drip irrigation or air tubing. 

Vanilla, for sure. Don't forget the Maraschino cherry and a little juice!


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Club soda is perfect if you make your own club soda using a tank, regulator and bottle adapter. And while you are at it run a spare line to the tank.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Bellaru said:


> Was not sure either. What is it in the excell that kills the bba? Is the high amount of carbon or something else?


As Diana mentioned, it is the "something else" in Excel that kills algae. It has been reported that Excel is comprised of polycycloglutaracetal, and that it has the "unintended" effect of killing algae.



[email protected] said:


> Club soda is perfect if you make your own club soda using a tank, regulator and bottle adapter. And while you are at it run a spare line to the tank.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

This would be a very expensive method of co2-generation.


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## thewesterngate (Jan 22, 2010)

Bringing back this thread, I have a bottle of club soda (no additives or anything), as well as sugar and yeast. After opening the club soda, I noticed that it produces CO2 bubbles far longer than regular soda..so I hooked the cap/airline tubing up to it (don't plan on adding it to the tank). I cut it after observing how much it bubbles (since it's nighttime) but I plan to hook it back up in the morning to see how it does.  Just out of pure curiosity. Otherwise I'm starting up the good ol' yeast factory for DIY CO2.

By the way, I have no fish in my tanks yet..;] So I'm not worried about killing anything.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

I would still imagine that the DIY CO2 with yeast and sugar would produce more CO2 than a bottle of club soda (even if it appears to have more CO2 than a regular soda). 

There were several (older) posts about people trying to use a variety of things instead of sugar in their DIY CO2 mixes, however (one of them was trying to put yeast into club soda, etc).


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

If you had a way to connect a needle valve to a club soda bottle, without first opening it, I suspect you could possibly get a weeks worth of CO2 from the bottle. That would take some really serious DIY effort to make work well. And, you would need to readjust the needle valve at least daily.


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## boringname (Nov 11, 2010)

Well I tried it. I put about half a cup of Schweppes club soda into my 10g in the morning and turned the aeration off. I put a small amount in to see if it had anything in it the fish didn't like. Fish look fine. Out of curiosity I checked the ph a few hours later and wow, if I had put the whole bottle in I think I would have killed the fish. Just what I put in took me from 7.5 to below neutral. Everything looks fine but no pearling which is disappointing. So far the only thing I've gotten to pearl in my tank was some algae a couple of time during the summer.


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