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Re CO2 regulation.



On  Mon, 11 Sep 2000 07:26:09 +1000  "Neil Travis" <travisn at gravity_net.au>
wrote:

>a good regulator costs around $80.00. Say $50.00 US. Not as expensive as his
>dump when the tank gets low type.

I didn't follow up to comment on your little tif with Dave....  What do you
consider to constitute a "good" regulator?  How about a "good" car?  You can buy
a regulator for $30 and you can buy one for $100 or $200.  Likewise you can buy
cars at all price levels - that in and of itself does not make one bad and
another good.   Many different regulators at many different price points can be
used successfully to deliver CO2 for planted aquaria purposes.

Why is it that you seem to believe that a regulator has to be rubbish if it
increases its output when the cylinder gets low?  Have you skipped over the
messages quoting information from manufacturers of decent and fairly pricey
regulators that this "phenomenon" is also present with their single-stage
products?  Please post exact brand names and model numbers for any regulators
you are thinking of when posting these comments.  For instance, James claims not
to be an expert at all, but he's one of the few people that have provided the
most invaluable information and research into regulators.

The fact is that you have failed to look at what types of systems are being
discussed and you cloud the issues further by bringing up preposterous beer
examples.

In the most basic of forms you can look at two things.  A cylinder and a
regulator.  Nothing more.  Just those two simple things.  Set the output
pressure of the regulator to your desired setting and open up the cylinder.
With the single stage regulator, when that cylinder gets near empty, the
pressure on the output will in fact increase.  There's nothing stopping it.  If
you throw a metering valve (needle valve) onto the output, then obviously you
now have an additional device to restrict the flow.  The output from the
regulator still does increase, but you don't necessarily get any additional gas
to the end of the line.  A regulator with venting capability should then vent
this excess pressure to the atmosphere.

Dave's setup doesn't use a needle valve.  There's nothing wrong with that.  I
suspect that when the output pressure from a cylinder dramatically increases,
you're liable to blow a device like the Eheim Reaktor right off the line since
it's only a pressure-fit in-line with the hose.

>Could you imagine going into a Bar for a beer and as soon as the gas gets
>low the tap explodes?

No, because the taps (and whatever other equipment connected to the output of
the regulator) prevent this from happening.  The regulator may very well be
outputting a much higher pressure, but the devices you're operating along the
line can take it and deal with it.

>I would suggest that a bit more research is done into gas systems for
>quality and keep away from the rubbish.

Perhaps if you didn't start off with such blanket statements inferring that Dave
is selling "garbage" he would not have been so hostile and this thread could
have better focused on the topic at hand.  The solutions he gave for dealing
with the increased pressure all seem viable and are exactly what is incorporated
into other people's designs and systems.

Bruno