Natural Plant System

[busdriver]

I have a Natural Plant System, but don't have the instructions as I lost them in the flood.
Will someone tell me what the ingredients are and how much I should use to make c02?
Finally read the side of the plastic jar, now, the question is how long does it take before the bubbles start?
Is there a time when the ingredients aren't any good?

[Iceman]

Are you talking about the Hagen device with the grey plastic canister and ladder diffuser? If so, I would do a search on this site and find that several DIY solutions to CO2 injection are much cheaper and more efficient.

You can certainly keep the ladder but I don't think anybody should buy the little packets when you can buy the same ingredients at your local grocery store.

Bubbles can take anywhere from eight to forty eight hours to appear. I've always had the bubs start about twelve hours after the mix has been shaken. Not stirred.

There should be a stale date on the packets. Usually on the crimp.

[RedFish]

I went back and looked at my notes I had made when I used a hagen co2 system and found this:
Stabilizer: 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Activator: 1/8 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
Sugar: 1/2 cup sugar

I also found this site
http://www.aquariumguys.com/nutrafinco2.html

which gives a great description of what to do.

[BigDaddy]

PS

Its only good for tanks up to 20 gallons... any bigger and you won't be getting good CO2 levels...

[busdriver]

I just found out why it wasn't working, the expiry date on the packages is 01/2005

[Toss]

Mine stirred  and start to bubble in 30 min maxed.

[busdriver]

When I changed the ingredients to something a little closer in 'best before date' the bubbles started almost right away, but it took someone (PFG) to let me know that I put the diffuser in upside down, which caused it to bubble a little differently.

[babblefish1960]

It looks good in there now that the bubbles aren't confused, but you still need the poop from fish to keep the bacteria going, as it has been seeded already, better pitter patter and get at her, I think a nice little group of Apistogramma's with some 3-line pencil fish as dithers. Yup, that sounds about right, don't forget some nice corydoras too.

[busdriver]

Going to BigAl's and PetSmart today, will probably get fish from PetSmart as I have a gift card.

[babblefish1960]

good man, choose wisely and find something that poops for the benefit of those poor starving millions of bacteria.

[busdriver]

Big Al's was really busy yesterday, so went to PetSmart and picked up a pleco (a real pooper) and 3 cories, will be going to pick up about 10 3-line pencil fish later, possibly Friday as I am off that day.

Sorry for thread jacking my own post.