# So frustrated with my co2 setup



## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

I just spent $46 in the hydrogen test plus fill up with my 10 lb CO2 tank. Spent 15 bucks on a wrench so that I can connect back the parts together. But no bubbles come up even I open up the needle valve completely. So I spent some time cleaning up the ceramic diffuser but still no bubbles. In the process I think I broke the needle valve! What a pain!


----------



## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

If you take the hose right from the needle valve and you stick it in your mouth.. do you taste the co2 at all? Is there anything coming out taking the diffuser out of the equasion?


----------



## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

CO2 come out to the bubble counter. It seems the pressure is not enough to drive it out from diffuser. That is the reason I thought i diffuser is clogged. 

But now I broke the needle valve, nothing comes out. I cannot even take the needle valve out. Need some help here. May be in should just forget about this CO2 stuff!


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

how long did you wait for the bubbles to cone out of the diffuser after turning the system on. it use to take 15 minutes for me. need to give it some time. but now that you say you may have broken the needle vslve, may need to find a replcemnt

Sent from my Samsung Mobile using Tapatalk


----------



## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

I think I have waited more than 15 min. But there are so many possible leaking points. Any some leakage would reduce the pressure.

Anyway it seems I have to take out the regulator since the needle valve is tightly screwed into it. Any tips? Also, I am now in the market for a needle valve.


Paul


----------



## Mykiss (Apr 22, 2010)

Paul, you can bring the stuff over to my place and I can help fix it.


----------



## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

I will come by this Sat. I will PM you.


----------



## fuzzysocks (Dec 8, 2010)

I feel your pain. Gas cylinders are, overall, a gigantic annoyance to deal with. I just spent my day tracking down non-standard connectors for an argon cylinder only to have someone else go and redo the entire setup because they thought that brass Swage-lok fittings looked tacky on a stainless steel regulator!

There are a couple of things you can do to try to isolate leaks. If you think the leak is occurring before the needle valve (moot point right now, I suppose), close the cylinder, decrease the regulator pressure and close the needle valve all the way. Open the cylinder back up, dial in a reasonable pressure on your outlet gauge if you have one (the one with the smaller numbers), and close the cylinder. If the pressure reading on your inlet gauge (the one with the bigger numbers, usually closer to the cylinder) begins to fall, your leak is somewhere before the needle valve. Needle valves themselves rarely leak, though the threaded connectors are fair game.

There's an overpriced leak detector fluid you can use called Snoop to detect leaks. You spray it over all your connections when you're flowing CO2 through your setup, and it bubbles at any points where leaks are occurring. You can do the same for a few cents by diluting dish soap by a factor of 5 or so in water, and dripping it onto the connections with an eyedropper. You'll only need a couple of drops on each connection.

As for disassembling stubborn connectors, two wrenches. Use the wrench in your non-dominant hand to stabilize the back half of the connection, and use the wrench in your dominant hand to twist. It's important to use two wrenches if you're working on stuck connections near the regulator, as shearing off a regulator can be very bad news if you're in the immediate vicinity. If your connectors are really badly stuck, there's a chance they got cross-threaded and need to be replaced.

Finally, at two bucks a roll, teflon tape is your friend. Re-doing the tape on all the connectors can often be enough to stop any leaks. If I have an elusive leak (and I often due because I work with ancient high vacuum equipment), re-taping is my preferred solution. If you are using compression fittings, you might have to cut the ends off the lines and replace the ferrules, but I think most aquarium setups use quick fits instead.

Hope this helps!


----------



## PaulCheung (Apr 18, 2011)

Big thanks to Patrick of Canadian Aquatics in helping me out to solve the problem and gave me a good training session in how to set up the CO2 tank.

Paul


----------

