Amano New Year Build!

Looking forward to see if this works well, thanks for sharing.

 

I'd taken the Jelleactor (hah) out of the fridge an hour ago; it was cold and had set, but considering that 4 packs of this jelly supposedly makes 1.9L, it's pretty weak sauce. It should be twice as stiff - like the jelly gran used to make that is like silicone rubber sticking to the serving bowl's edge. I think it's a cheap sugar-laden product and will use something else next time, if there is a next time!



Nevertheless, I left it to warm up a bit until just now, it's floppy but stiff enough to have a gas if ya know what I mean. Ideally it should be left to warm up to room temperature but icbarn and want to get to bed.

I mixed up 3g of the yeast in 250ml of warm water and down the hatch. The yeast has a lovely malty smell and I'm dying for a cup of Horlicks, of which the pantry is absolutely devoid at this juncture. I'll have to settle for an industrial-size Springbokkie instead!



I will let this lot do its thing in the safety of my shower overnight, hopefully tomorrow morning there'll be some fizzy bubble-enumerating action!

 

Well it's not even been 30 mins and we already have bubbleiciousness . I'm off to bed!

 

Well... nothing much is happening. Layer of scum floating on the surface but that's it. I suspect it was too cool during the night for it to really start doing its thing. Also, while there was some pressure (the water had been pushed down into the bubbler tube), it turns out my neat DIY gasports do leak after all . I could smell the fermentation from the reactor's cap. I've taken the caps off and sealed the tubes on top and underneath with super contact. Waiting for that to dry.

Meanwhile I will make some more yeast in warm water and add it to the reactor, and place it in the sun for a while.

Current PITA factor: At least seven point nine five. I'm baking PITA bread

 

Taking one for the team here haha!

Hopefully you come right soon

 

I had morning nap to recover from my annoyance, but before that I had added the extra yeast and water and left it in the sun for a bit. That (and fixing my unleakable Kurwa Deluxe gas ports) did the trick! I am getting a steady tock tock tock from the bubbler and no smell from either bottle. The tip of the downtube is resting against the side of the bottle and it makes an audible sound - you can also feel it with the palm of your hand. Normally I HATE ticking clocks etc but this is kinda soothing. It's like a heartbeat in a way.

I would judge it at around 2 bubbles per second, which is likely overkill but I have no idea how efficient gas dissolution is. There is a merry tumble of bubbles in the back of the filter and it gives a grape-sized burp out the front every minute or so.

It's been running for about 4 hours now; I can see no visible pearling but I do see a tiny bubble escaping upwards every now and again from the depths of the tangled warren of plants, which is novel and indicates that something is working. The bloodworms are also unusually active in the water column. No pics, sorry, my phone is dead and on tjaatsj. Possibly this dinky 12W light I have is also not pumping the watts in a respectable manner either.

The water was clear this morning but is noticably cloudier now after my nap - which could be caused by the bubbles in the filter disturbing the clay sediment in the filter itself, or it could be the carbonic acid reacting with calcium in the water to form insoluble calcium carbonate. If it is the latter, it could explain the lack of pearling; also the buffering capacity of the entire system needs to shift and whatever carbonic acid is dissolving needs to overcome it first. I have no idea of the gH and aH, or how well it buffers. I don't have the test equipment for it and I only have access to my dad's Salifert marine kits, but I'd prefer not to mess with his stuff. Dunno how accurate it would be either.

I do have a TDS pen and while I didn't take a before measurement, the last reading I took a few days ago read around 220. It's now reading 330. Ions be ioning? I'll take a reading tonight when I gate the CO2 off and again tomorrow morning.

Current PITA factor: A solid two point four eight.

ETA: I just read that one will not see any pearling unless the water is saturated with dissolved oxygen.

 

Looks good! Keen to see it in a few days time

 

Bubble production is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced this morning. It was around 65bpm last night, with an ambient temperature of 26'C. This morning the ambient temperature was 20'C and I only get around 20bpm. It's taking ages to build pressure after closing the valve and I have yet to see bubbles in the filter an hour later.

I don't know if it's due to temperature, or because there is some acidity/ethanol poisoning going on in the reactor. I have a birdy heating pad somewhere but will have to go dig for it. If it's related to temperature only, then I don't see how this is workable in the winter months unless you have a sump to stand the reactor in, or otherwise use a bucket with a heater or some other kludge.

The TDS reading was still around 330 this morning which tells me that the water is fairly strongly buffered (the TDS meter is basically an ohmmeter under the hood and a decrease in pH would increase the conductivity).

Current PITA factor: Nine point eight.

 

Hmm, that is irritating. The R&D you're doing is definitely worth it, you'll figure it out!

You can establish a good baseline for the rest of us plebs to follow

 

Well my baseline is sat in this chair staring at the measly one bubble every three seconds. I klapped it with a hair dryer and no improvement. Either the yeast is tired, or there is some acidity/ethanol issue, or there isn't enough sugar being made available. Some people add bicarb to the jelly mix to help control acidity. I did a soap test and my gas ports aren't leaking so I dunno.

PITA FACTOR 11.

 

I am watching this thread hoping you would proof me wrong and show me it can be done. I have wasted weeks if not months trying to find the right mixture. Eventually just gave up. Then bought second hand setups and till today never installed them, yet another project waiting to happen.

 

I fear this is going to be my fate as well. I dumped out the yeasty top layer and am making a fresh batch of yeast. I could smell the ethanol - if it is ethanol poisoning then I don't see the point in making fresh yeast every day, and I've not seen anyone on the internet saying they had to do so.

Perhaps I need a different kind of yeast; brewers' yeast, or perhaps just a different brand. It was working perfectly yesterday and now nada. AAAARGH!

 

Some advice i can give, I got better results using a bigger container. You need some head space for the gas to accumulate and build up. Your bottle in the pictures above has too little space above the mixture. Although your mixture is believe to give off CO2 much quicker a normal sugar / east mixture gave off CO2 more consistently and for longer periods. I managed to run a mixture like that for almost 2 weeks. I used 2 cups of sugar and less than a teaspoon of dried yeast. After increasing the container size, I thought I have sorted it. Lifting the setup to the same level as the tank also resulted in a better gas flo and i had to add an inline regulator to try and control the bubbles per minute. Used the normal plastic reducers we use to control air flow to a sponge filter. You have me wondering if i should try this again. We can compare notes and hope to learn from the experience.

 

The reactor is standing next to the tank plus I have the slight vacuum from the venturi so gas flow shouldn't be an issue. But never mind that even, I added the new yeast 15 minutes ago and there is literally NOTHING happening in the reactor. NOTHING. Not a single tiny bubble, it's deader'n the dead sea. I just checked my notes and somebody wrote F**K IT.

My PITA endurance threshold has been exceeded, even though it supposedly only hurts the first time.

 

I don't think the yeast is liking that greenguage jelly, should have gone for cherry.

Maybe try it with sugar water/yeast only, you can then retry the jelly mix again once you know the setup works.

Google gemini:

• Acids: Some jelly mixes contain acids like citric acid, which can lower the pH and create an unfavorable environment for yeast.

• Preservatives: Some brands may include preservatives like potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate, which can also be harmful to yeast.

 

I like the way you think. Anyway, it was a toss-up between the pinapple, greenguage and Jannie Verjaar. I should have gone for the Jannie Verjaar.

 

Forgot to mention, I had 0 success with the jellie based mixtures. Sorry, taking some time to remember everything, my attempt was about 3 years back. I normally keep notes of everything i try, but moved from Phalaborwa to pretoria about 2 years back, notes must still be in a box somewhere, or left behind.