[rdmustang1]

Stay away from silicone and you'll be ok. Some people say stay away from vinyl but others say they use it with no problems. I use polyethylene from the big box stores.

 

[rdmustang1]

What size is the tubing that fits most regulators? Would you mind linking to any place you get yours rdmustang1? Haha, I'm new to CO2 so any help would be grateful!

The regulator itself doesn't attach to tubing. There is a post body that is a combination of a needle (or metering) valve and optionally a solenoid and/or check valve with an assortment of connectors, elbows, adapters, etc. On most builds the tubing connects to the check valve if one is used or the needle valve if one isn't used. Most builds use 1/4" OD tubing but there are variations.

Here is one of the tubing types that I use:
Tubing

I say to stay away from silicone because there is a lot of controversy whether it leaks CO2. Some people say vinyl yellows and hardens with age but others say it doesn't. Polyethylene is a good middle ground tubing that's cheap so I use it and haven't had any issues. Some of the "CO2 tubing" sold is polyethylene so I feel good using it.

CO2 Primer (A great read)

Do you have a regulator already?

 

[rdmustang1]

Silicone is fine. I have 100+ ft of silicone tubing running to 3 different tanks in my apartment. Setup's been running 3+ years with no issues. CO2 tubing is marketing hype and a great way for sellers to make money.

There is a good chance that you're losing about 20+% of the total CO2 in your tank due to your tubing (probably more like 40%). It works fine but is wasteful. The CO2 is cheap. Time spent refilling is valuable to most.

There are 2 threads on here that show the math.

 

[rdmustang1]

Nope.

My 20# tank lasts 6-7 months. That's supplying a 20g, 30g, and 75g, plus 4 kegs in a kegerator. The co2 loss is extremely small and it would take many many years before the cost of co2 lost would come close to the money wasted on co2 tubing and the ridiculous price premium compared to silicone.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=78126

You getting a lot of time from a large CO2 tank on 3 small aquariums doesn't really prove anything. Without more information I'd actually say you should be getting 1.5-2x that unless your kegerator is serving a public bar. Hoppy's experiment is interesting but he never commented if he tried the test in air which would greatly increase CO2 diffusion rates. I won't say I'm convinced that silicone will lose CO2 but there is still enough controversy that I wouldn't recommend silicone to anyone.

Also, the "CO2 proof" tubing I linked is $0.10 per foot. It's no more expensive than silicone tubing so for anyone buying tubing why would you choose silicone?