[bruinhd]

My paintball regulator graveyard.

DON'T BE CHEAP LIKE I WAS! I wasted plenty of money trying to mess with DIY paintball regulator setups only to learn in the end how important manufacturing quality and threading is in order to make it work. I don't want to hurt anyone's home-built equipment sales or whatnot, but I figured I would give a fair warning to beginners about to setup paintball CO2. I spent well over $100 messing around with cheap junk setups, spent frustrated hours trying to fix gas leaks through cheap threading, rubber gaskets, teflon tape, etc. In the end I just gave in and bought an Aquatek $90 Mini regulator and it has been perfect. It has steady gas flow, it doesn't leak, attaches very solid. I wish to God I had listened to the vocal minority on the boards and just spent the honest money up front.

This can be applied to almost everything else about this hobby. I mean, I cringed at the thought of spending $50 on a bag of quality substrate, and for several months used cheap substrate and experimented with dosing. It's all crap. You end up ripping yourself off in the end. Fork out the cash for ADA Amazonia or equivalent, you will have rapid, robust growth. The only reason you should be dosing is to maintain plants that need additional supplement such as iron for red plants, etc.

I wonder if my advice will be controversial. That's fine. Have at it, planted tank.

 

[minicrazy592]

 

[Yamaz]

Rajah Dat!

 

[freph]

Paintball setups aren't even that bad if you do them with quality regulators. The only extra bit you're paying for is the adapter ($16.99). I spend most of my money on nice SS fittings, solenoids and high precision metering valves. :hihi: I bought one ASA on/off setup and never bought another one. I chunked it because I'm not willing to sell it back to the community because of how unsafe they are. The only setups I have going right now are fully regulated and controlled by solenoids and high precision metering valves. I do wish folks would read around first before they splurge on little cheapo purchases that end up biting them in the butt later on down the line.

 

[oldpunk78]

^ yup.

 

[sayurasem]

May I know why there are two gauges on the aquatek regulator?

 

[oldpunk78]

May I know why there are two gauges on the aquatek regulator?

Tank pressure and output pressure.

 

[FlyingHellFish]

Title is a bit misleading, you mean "BUY a new regulator", instead of those ASA On/Off valve?

And instead of advice, you mean, LEARN from my mistake?
I'm just kidding around bro. Welcome to the club of having a real regulator.

The only thing I don't like about that AquaTek is the fact that you can't use it on a normal CGA320 tank. I mean, you HAVE the adapter already (the 17 bucks silver), so why didn't you just buy a normal regulator and use the adapter? *I'm predicting another thread opening up soon.

Here is mine, sort of like yours except it has a dash of blue and goes on normal tanks.

 

[Zefrik]

Title is a bit misleading, you mean "BUY a new regulator", instead of those ASA On/Off valve?

And instead of advice, you mean, LEARN from my mistake?
I'm just kidding around bro. Welcome to the club of having a real regulator.

The only thing I don't like about that AquaTek is the fact that you can't use it on a normal CGA320 tank. I mean, you HAVE the adapter already (the 17 bucks silver), so why didn't you just buy a normal regulator and use the adapter? *I'm predicting another thread opening up soon.

Here is mine, sort of like yours except it has a dash of blue and goes on normal tanks.

I have the same regulator. I have it on a 5lbs tank. I also added a hexagonal needle valve manifold. So I could send co2 to multiple tanks.