[WarDaddy]

I have read about it, but I finally saw it, and I am amazed on how it happened.

I have a 5lb bottle, pushing 120 bpm or so. Last time I looked at that gages the bottle had around 900 lbs of pressure in it. that was around a week ago. It was losing about 100 lbs a week. Well it went from 900 to 100 in a week, and yesterday I noticed a lot of bubbles, on a cardinal gasping, kinked in the middle and then die, it was fast.

I found a dead shrimp on the soil... oh no. Drop Checker was yellow... yikes. I am not sure is any shrimp lived, they are hard to find, and I lost one fish. Off to get the bottle topped off today. That really sucked.

 

[Airphotog]

What reg are you using?

 

[Darkblade48]

I agree with Orlando, from a full tank to 100 PSI in a week sounds more like a leak than anything.

However, noticing the EOTD was merely a coincidence, I suppose.

 

[bradac56]

+1 on a hardware issue, take a good hard look at your fittings and needle valve before hooking that back up.

- Brad

 

[redman88]

I have read about it, but I finally saw it, and I am amazed on how it happened.

I have a 5lb bottle, pushing 120 bpm or so. Last time I looked at that gages the bottle had around 900 lbs of pressure in it. that was around a week ago. It was losing about 100 lbs a week. Well it went from 900 to 100 in a week, and yesterday I noticed a lot of bubbles, on a cardinal gasping, kinked in the middle and then die, it was fast.

I found a dead shrimp on the soil... oh no. Drop Checker was yellow... yikes. I am not sure is any shrimp lived, they are hard to find, and I lost one fish. Off to get the bottle topped off today. That really sucked.

for a little bit there i was thinking 120 bubbles per second then i read through it again. and noticed you said bpm bubbles per minute

 

[Hoppy]

When the tank pressure starts dropping you have only gaseous CO2 in the tank. It doesn't take very long for that pressure to drop to zero - a few days, in my experience, with a 5 pound tank, and a 2-3 bubbles per second rate. I don't think it is unusual for that to happen in a week.

No needle valve, no matter how good, or how expensive, can prevent an end of tank dump, if the regulator you are using allows the output pressure to go up as the inlet pressure goes down. That is what my Milwaukee regulator did all the time.

 

[bradac56]

That's the difference between a single stage and a dual stage regulator, yes it costs a bit more but coupled with a good needle valve I've never had a EOTD and I've run my tank out several times.

- Brad

 

[tom855]

Certainly not the solution for everybody but after mine dumped and killed an entire tank of fish I invested in a pH monitor. pH gets too low it shuts the tank down. Never another concern. .....well, until you need to replace the probe once a year or so......:icon_roll

 

[EdTheEdge]

When the tank pressure starts dropping you have only gaseous CO2 in the tank. It doesn't take very long for that pressure to drop to zero - a few days, in my experience, with a 5 pound tank, and a 2-3 bubbles per second rate. I don't think it is unusual for that to happen in a week.

No needle valve, no matter how good, or how expensive, can prevent an end of tank dump, if the regulator you are using allows the output pressure to go up as the inlet pressure goes down. That is what my Milwaukee regulator did all the time.

+1 what Hoppy said.

I addition I'd add there is no subsitute for visibly checking pressure on a day to day schedule. Leaving everything up to man made devices usually does lead to failure. Then one tends to blame the equipment. When in actuality it is operator error in the end that is the real cause.

 

[rich815]

......I'd add there is no subsitute for visibly checking pressure on a day to day schedule. Leaving everything up to man made devices usually does lead to failure. Then one tends to blame the equipment. When in actuality it is operator error in the end that is the real cause.

Agree 100%. I feed my fish at least once a day and change water 1-2x a week. So there I am at the tanks at least 10x a week. A quick look at my CO2 tank gauges and I can see when the number on the left is beginning to drop from 800-900 down. It usually takes about a week to go from that level to 300-400 and I know obviously days in advance that my tank is low and in need of a switch out. I keep an extra full tank around for such but anyone with one tank would be forewarned that a tank switch the coming weekend is in order. Nonetheless I have dual stage regulators that I patiently watched for and found used for about what most people pay for cheaper Milwaukees and JBJs so I do not worry much anyway....

 

[Darkblade48]

Certainly not the solution for everybody but after mine dumped and killed an entire tank of fish I invested in a pH monitor. pH gets too low it shuts the tank down. Never another concern. .....well, until you need to replace the probe once a year or so......:icon_roll

Don't forget that the solenoid might also fail and thus fail to shut your CO2 properly even when your pH monitor tells it to do so