# CO2 System For 12Gallon Aquarium



## cichlid22 (May 9, 2010)

Hi there,

I have had plants for awhile but never too much success. Decided I would be interested in CO2 on just a little 12 Gallon Fish tank. I have seen Fluval CO2 20 for only $42.99. I was interested in this system but heard that the cartridges need to be changed ever 20-25days. I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this model, or the Fluval Co2 88 which is the next size up. The cartridges are ruffly $10-20 each i have found which is quite costly, wondering if paintball C02 Cartridges from walmart etc fit the system? Or how often the cartridges really have to be changed? I would like to invest in one but dont want high maintenance costs.

On the otherhand, if anyone has any good recommendations of a little C02 system that is relatively cheap, and has relatively cheap costs of maintaining let me know what you reccommend! 

Let me know what you think! Thanks!


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## bcorchidguy (Jan 14, 2011)

There is always the DIY system but you can't turn it off at night, Red Sea has a nice one that runs off paintball canisters but it's about 150. The canisters are available at Canadian Tire etc and are cheap to fill, on my 26 gallon tank one fill would last about 3 months... so at $3 a fill it was cheap and reliable. Look in the DIY section someone posted a great article about their version of the DIY system and it's a nice change up. I had my bottle vent into another bottle (a cranberry juice bottle) so if water syphoned back into the bottle it wouldn't contaminate the mix and get back into the tank.

Douglas


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## AcidFear (Aug 19, 2012)

bcorchidguy said:


> There is always the DIY system but you can't turn it off at night, Red Sea has a nice one that runs off paintball canisters but it's about 150. The canisters are available at Canadian Tire etc and are cheap to fill, on my 26 gallon tank one fill would last about 3 months... so at $3 a fill it was cheap and reliable. Look in the DIY section someone posted a great article about their version of the DIY system and it's a nice change up. I had my bottle vent into another bottle (a cranberry juice bottle) so if water syphoned back into the bottle it wouldn't contaminate the mix and get back into the tank.
> 
> Douglas


Where can you buy a system like that? I found a few places online but none that ship to Canada and most of them are more then 150 bucks... only kits i can find at the lfs around here are the fluval kits but id much rather get one that ran off a paintball tank


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## bcorchidguy (Jan 14, 2011)

I got mine at King Ed Pets in Burnaby, it's the Red Sea Pro kit, here is a link

Red Sea Co2 System 500 Kit - SeaQuestMarine.com

It's a nice little unit, power head diffuser OR diffuser stone both are included plus regulator, Indicator bubble, bubble counter and needle valve.

Douglas


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

This Red Sea kit if the regulator is quality in it, is worth its weight in gold! You'd spend just as much buying individual parts on ebay/paintball stores to setup a paintball co2 system with solenoid and at the end of the day if you ever accidently opened the needle valve too much you' could have a disaster on your hands especially if you did it in the tank!

If your diffuser can't handle 800psi through it one of two things will happen, your airline will bust or your diffuser will and if its in the tank... that could be bad!


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