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Eheim diffusors



At 03:48 PM 9/22/1999 -0400,  Erik Olson wrote:
>One note on the diffuser: using it renders the expensive needle valve
>useless; it provides a similar role directly, by regulating flow.  Many
>just hook them up directly to the output of their regulator and drive it
>at 13-15 PSI.  I personally had a very bad experience with one, where it
>somehow dumped the entire contents of a 15 pound cylinder into the
>aquarium over a few hours, and killed off my fish.  Dave told me this is a
>normal thing when they're first broken in, but there's no way you'll catch
>me with one on my good aquariums.

Erik is right, when you first break the seal on the check valve, the seal
has been pushed into its seat for the months since it was made and has
molded itself to the shape of the seat.   Over the next few hours it
"unmolds" itself back into a more normal shape.   This will change the flow
characteristics of the diffusor.   Sadly, in Eric's case, he was not around
to observe this and ended up dumping a whole tank of CO2 (which is always a
bad idea).  I would recommend keeping a close eye on any new system the
first few days you have it hooked up.  I don't know of any that don't
require some fiddling until they are just right.   
--
Dave Gomberg, San Francisco            mailto:gomberg at wcf_com
For low cost CO2 systems that work:  http://www.wcf.com/co2iron 
Tropica MasterGrow in the USA:      http://www.wcf.com/tropica 
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