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CO2 regulation



At 03:48 PM 9/9/00 -0400, <name withheld to protect the guilty> wrote:
>There followed a long discussion of these three ways to manage a problem
>inherent only in a defectively designed CO2 system. Any end-of-tank failure
>is a failure of the design of the CO2 system. A CO2 tank equipped with a
>simple $65 dual gauge regulator and a simple $20 needle valve will not ever
>experience this imaginary pressure pulse or dumping of any kind. Never.
>Ever. The needle valve, also known as a fine metering valve, provides a tiny
>gateway through which the gas is metered out. Once it is set to allow the
>one or two bubbles per second you want, that is all the CO2 that can get
>through at that rate, and the amount of gas in the CO2 cylinder is
>irrelevant to the valve performance. The amount of FUD being generated on
>this list regarding this issue is beginning to get shameful.

The amount of misinformation in the paragraph above is shameful.

While, as I point out, a dual stage (not gauge) regulator will avoid the 
problem, they are not $65.

A $20 needle valve is totally inadequate to the task of providing the 
ultra-low flow rates we want, the valves suitable for this function are 
quite a bit more expensive.  But the writer is correct that a valve helps.

Most economically priced regulators dump gas at end-of-tank, including ones 
made by the honorable Germans, Cornelius.

If you want to get the total skinny on what is going on, reread my diatribe.


--
Dave Gomberg, San Francisco            mailto:gomberg at wcf_com
NEW Planted Aquaria Magazine:        http://www.wcf.com/pam
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