Tropical Fish Forums

[ZacAdam]

Hi gang!

My 33 Gal tall has a yeast-powered CO2 system. The design is simple: a heavy-duty plastic cylander with sugar-water and yeast, fed into the tank via a hose that ends in a commercial bubble counter.

I've noticed, however, that it's only useful for a few weeks at a time. I was just wondering if there's something I can add to the "reactor chamber" (as I like to nerdily call it) that will perhaps keep the yeast from over-populating and allow them to sustain a colony longer.
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[Caton]

Not unless you wan't your c02 our-put to slow, even then I can't think of anything, and it doesn't die because it "over populate's" it dies because you are really just making alcohol which will kill the yeast.
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[dannyfish]

[Matthew Hoffman]

You need a larger "cylinder" so that the mixture has more water,
and you need to add a pH stabilizer of any type, because the alcohol will cause chaos with your pH which will kill your yeast before the alcohol has a chance to.
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[Darkblade48]

[Matthew Hoffman]

I do not know all the science behind it, I just know the results.
Creating co2 makes a huge change in the water chemistry and huge changes in water chemistry cause pH fluctuation.
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[Darkblade48]

While a pH change does occur in yeast mixtures, it is not due to the production of ethanol, but more likely, metabolic byproducts.

This is why anecdotal evidence is never as good as actual facts.
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Anthony

[Matthew Hoffman]

alcohol is one of the metabolic byproducts of the yeast mixture, which means that pH change is caused by the creation of alcohol.
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[jsuereth]

Just add some baking soda. This helps buffer the solution and extended my mix by a few weeks. I'm not sure how long it extended the mix as It's still going (@ 4 weeks now)

[Darkblade48]