Re: [APD] CO2 accident

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Good advice that.

It could have been a number of things but your suspicion is
the most likely.  The tank gets quite cold when they fill
it. And if stored outside or in the basement, it can be
markedly cooler than room temp when you hook it up to your
aquarium.  

The pressure in the tank varies with temperature, and the
regulator output will vary with changes in the tank
pressure-usually inversely but ot always. And the valve
setting can initially be way too wide if the system
pressure is too low. Rember that the metering valve/needle
valve makes for some very fine flow rates and small
adjustments cna make big diffs in flow rates. The cheaper
the valve, the more this will be so. A quarter turn can be
the diff between a 2 and 10 bubbles per second or 5 times
the flow rate and a much higher CO2 level. 

Best to let a CO2 tank warm to room temp before hooking it
up; or else keep fiddling with the settings every hour or
so.

If you can't tell by feel, you gauge by pressure -- if the
room is about 75F, the tank will be about 850=900 psi. If
you're still not confident, you can check with a
thermometer -- one of the stick ons costs about buck or
two.

Scott H.
--- John Thompson <jdt70 at earthlink_net> wrote:
> Learn how not to set up a pressurized CO2 system from me.
>  Last night I upgraded my CO2 from a DIY yeast sytem to a
> pressurized CO2 cylinder.  I set the system up at
> approximately 15 bubbles/min using a low regulator
> setting and a needle valve.  I woke up this morning to a
> fish massacre.  Over night the bubble rate increased
> until there was a continuous flow of CO2.  I'm not sure
> why this happened but I suspect it was because I did not
> allow the cylinder to warm to room temperature before
> setting the flow rate.  When I picked up the cylinder
> from a welding supply store it had been stored outside at
> around 50 deg. F.  I plan to reset the flow rate later
> after the CO2 level drops.  Currently at 140 ppm and Ph
> was to low to measure.  Be careful and keep an eye on a
> new set up.


=====
S. Hieber

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