My First Co2 Setup

[lymitliss]

So I finally decided to give Co2 a try. I've had my aquariums set up for a while now, but have never tried anything like this. Cory at the Aquarium Co-op set me up with a nice Aquatek pressure regulator to go with the 5lb tank I got, and was nice enough to spend about half an hour answering all my questions :

Being new to this I'm starting out with a very basic setup and only injecting a tiny amount. I had originally planned on having this setup supply my 125 and 55 gallon aquariums that I have near each other in my living room. Regulating both accurately has proven to be more difficult than I had hoped, so for the sake of getting everything going and learning the system I decided to only inject my 125 for the time being. I also decided to upgrade my tank light, going from an old fluorescent to a new Planted+.

Right now the tank sits on the floor next to my aquarium and the hose is run down the side of the filter intake into the sponge so the filter can help disperse the Co2.

I have included a few pictures just for kicks. Please keep in mind my tanks are work in progress

 

[Cory]

That arowana is definitely putting on size. Looks like that tank is coming along

 

[lymitliss]

He says "Thanks for noticing!". I think he was probably 1/3 this size when I got him.
As for the tank, I've been ramping the Co2 up a little at a time. I think I'm about 2-3 bubbles a second. I've just been watching the fish and plants to see how they react. No sign of pearling yet.

 

[lymitliss]

So within a week or two I found that my Co2 tank was already empty. It's unfortunate that I lost all of it before I realized it was leaking, but at least now I can work on fixing it.

I stopped by Praxair during lunch Friday and picked up a refill tank. I also brought home some liquid leak detector we use at work for the natural gas cars.

After spraying all of the areas I narrowed the leak down to one threaded fitting, right before the solenoid.

Removed the fitting, wrapped it with Teflon tape and leak checked again. No more leaks! At least, for now.