Dry ice ?

[justin case]

So I was thinking about a truly ghetto way to add co2 to my tank. I don't know if anybody's tried his yet but I think it could work if one had the room.
Say i were to take a spare 10-20 gallon tank, some dry ice, a small air pump, and like some plastic for a lid. I would of coarse do the math so as to not over do the dry ice and plop the pump smack dab in the fog. Connect with co2 proof tubing and a regular old needle valve and cover loosely.
I think it would do the trick better than sugar/yeast. Less messy for sure but would take up a bit more room. The best part would be its damn near free. Assuming everybody has an extra 10 laying around. (And who here doesn't?)
What do you all think? Any thing I'm not taking into account? Ideas to increase efficiency? Reduce cost(if possible)? Or is this just a small loose bomb?

 

[lloyd378]

I would be scared of dry ice cracking the glass if the room tempature was in the 60s + . I have seen tanks crack when you bring them in from the garage or outdoors and then fill them with warm water. A Rubber made container would give me more piece of mind.

Not sure if your idea would work or not as I've never needed co2 for anything in my tanks so I have zero knowledge on that.

 

[L190]

To me, it sounds complicated and an expensive diy project if it works out. It might be cheaper and less of a headache to go with a cheap co2 set up with a ph controller for backup. This is what I am running.

 

[justin case]

I don't see how it would cost any more than the price of dry ice. I have ERYTHING ELSE I'd need. As far as cracking tanks it seems like it could be broken with no serious effects. This wouldn't be a pressurized system. But if i was worried I'd just use a bowl to hold the little water and dry ice. A pretty small chunk will fill a 10. I can't seem to find the how much volume is gained in the sublimation process but it on the order of 100:1. Or higher.

 

[MattArmstrong]

I think controlling the amount of co2 injected would be the hard part with this approach. I did a google search for "dry ice aquarium co2" and lots of people seem to have wondered about this approach. I've not seen anyone claim success.

 

[justin case]

Really? I haven't found anything. I'm not looking for pressurized has type results. Something close to sit would be good enough considering how cheap and clean this would be. The only real problem I see is keeping the dry ice on hand with out it sublimatimg in the freezer. Or over gassing. But I dont s3 that really being a problem.

 

[justin case]

Basically what I see this doing is similar to using nitrous on a car engine. Sort of. I'm thinking by allowing the co2 to sublimate from the dry ice in a enclosed but not sealed environment I will be mani g a co2 rich air mixture. Not 100% co2 like a pressure system. Therefore allowing for the bigger bubble rate that the air pump will create. I don't know if the increased surface movement will outgas more than is added though. Some day when I stop moving every other week I'll try it out.

 

[Ali]

Honestly seems rather brilliant to me. If my memory is correct (and there's a very good chance it's not!) CO2 is slightly denser then good ol air, so it should stay settled in your tub nicely. But standard freezers don't keep it cold enough, so you would have to buy it frequently

Ive never touched CO2, but if I had the room I'd throw together a small tank with plants only to experiment with.

 

[justin case]

Its considerably denser than standard air. That was one reason this could work. Thank you by the way. Its not every day I have even a good idea. The only thing I could see not working in tier will be a lot of bubbles and it may add too much carbon all at once. If I can figure out the expansion rate I'll be in a lot better place. And yeah keeping the dry ice on hand may be a challenge. But I think most of the problems are solvable. Is that a word? Solvable? Or Would it be soluable? Or ..... Never mind you Get my point. Anyway yeah if I can get my carp in one home for any period of time it's experiment time.

 

[justin case]

Or How about this.... We make the tank we were using to sublimate the dry ice into a sump and just let the co2 absorb into the water? Know there is a way to do this. Damn i wish I could stabilise my living situation.