Tropical Fish Forums

MattTVI · Exemplars Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Location: Woodstock, GA

For almost a year now I've been using diy co2 and using a yeast mix. I recently went w/ a 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp protein shake, 1 tbsp yeast, this has worked very well for me and the mix usually lasts for about 3 weeks (all in a 2 litre bottle). Well, yesterday when I went to make my mix, I realized that I was out of sugar, or at least, I had about a 1/4 cup of it, so I made my mix w/ that 1/4 cup and 3/4 cup of BROWN sugar (all other ingredients remained the same).

A couple of hrs later, the mix was still furiously pumping out co2 (took about 15 mins to start producing bubbles) into my bell diffuser... just an fyi, and I'll update this if the mix crashes early...

anybody else use an in-a-pinch substitute?
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MattTVI · Exemplars Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Location: Woodstock, GA

well, 24hrs later and the mix is showing no signs of stopping...
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benedictj · Advisors Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: new york, ny

I've never tried anything but white sugar. It makes sense to me on some level that using a less refined sugar, like Brown or Raw, might work better than super refined white sugar. As we know from nutrition, brown sugar is much better for our health than refined sugar, so it would pass the logic test that it would be better for yeast.

Additionally, since it is considered more of a complex sugar, it could take longer for the yeast to fully utilize it, meaning increased output time. (Of course, that could go the opposite direction too, I suppose).
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Best, Jake
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MattTVI · Exemplars Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Location: Woodstock, GA

yeah, I'll keep an eye on it... may be that it will have increased output during the first week but burn out sooner... we'll see!
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MattTVI · Exemplars Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Location: Woodstock, GA

Benedict,

It looks like you were right... the co2 mix went from a bubble every 1-2 seconds to a bubble every 30+ seconds within a day... Smile

looks like I'll be moving back to the white stuff! my yeast mix is old too though (well over 6 months, though it's been kept frozen), so I wonder if that contributed to the quick wind-down...
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