# my bubble counter just exploded :(



## hinch (2 Sep 2012)

atomizer had blocked up created too much backpressure and my bubblecounter just exploded with a rather loud bang and sprayed water all over the place 

(edit: fixed me being retarded)


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## nry (2 Sep 2012)

*Re: my drop checker just exploded *

Drop checker?  Bubble counter maybe?


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## geoffbark (2 Sep 2012)

*Re: my drop checker just exploded *

Interesting !!!!

What type of drop checker!! Do you mean bubble counter? 

I would have thought that the tubing would have popped off the pipe to the bubble counter first!!!


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## Gary Nelson (2 Sep 2012)

*Re: my drop checker just exploded *

What sort of pressure were you running on it?


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## hinch (2 Sep 2012)

*Re: my drop checker just exploded *

i do mean bubble counter 

pressure was naff all only about 1 bps but because it wasn't actually venting out of the atomiser it had back pressured up and exploded.


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## geoffbark (3 Sep 2012)

There is something wrong there!!!

What pressure is your reg running at ( outlet pressure ) 

Surly the tube should pop off the bubble counter or nrv or atomiser before anything explodes


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## hinch (3 Sep 2012)

reg pressure is irrelevent as its backpressure from non venting doesn't matter if it was high or low  tubing unfortunately didn't pop off think its been on so long and was so tight its kinda welded its self together.

never mind anyway hopefully the tank will survive without co2 for a while until a new one arrives.


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## geoffbark (3 Sep 2012)

Reg pressure is relevent.

If you reg is set at 2 bar and the line blocks, the total max pressure that can build up is 2bar.

The kit that you put in line should therefore be rated for at least 2bar.

So what is your setting? ( don't answer it we don't actually need to know ) just buy a more robust bubble counter, or turn your reg pressure down.

This should avoid a burst again


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## hinch (3 Sep 2012)

the bubble counter was one of the cheap up aqua's and the reg is also an upaqua reg (both bought from people on here) working pressure on reg is fixed at 60 psi (4.1 bar ish)


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## ian_m (3 Sep 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> the bubble counter was one of the cheap up aqua's and the reg is also an upaqua reg (both bought from people on here) working pressure on reg is fixed at 60 psi (4.1 bar ish)


Thats why, most bubble counters I have seen quote 2.5-3bar max


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## hinch (3 Sep 2012)

there's loads of people on here though use the same reg and bubble counter and tbh it had been fine for about 6 months.  anyway all its done is made me speed up getting a new external + inline diffuser and heater.

Just need to find one I like that takes 16/22 mill pipe but won't turn a 60 litre tank into a washing machine


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (3 Sep 2012)

My 60x40x40 is ran on a 2078. Very overpowered on paper, however I run it on full and its going nicely with a full length spraybar.


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## hinch (3 Sep 2012)

is I was paying that much for a filter i'd be using a g3 or g6 tbh. not a massive fan of eheim filters either last one I had I had no end of problems with.  I'm considering a tetra tec ex1200 and relying on the flow drop of an inline heater and diffuser/reactor to slow down its flow.  though it may still be a little too much. other than that a fluval 305 perhaps


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## Antipofish (4 Sep 2012)

Hinch.  Working pressure is most definitely relevant.  Tubing is usually rated to about 5bar but if you buy cheap bubble counters they are not likely to withstand 4.1 over a period of time.  My Fluval one did, and so did my Lunapet one.  I have a lunapet reg and can run that at whatever I like up to 6 bar.  A reg that is fixed at 4 bar is a bit odd IMO.  Its a massive pressure for it to be as standard and generally completely unnecessary.  

With regard to your comment about paying a lot for a filter and would be choosing a Fluval over an Eheim, each to their own, but I have the same filter as Whitey and have owned a G6 in the past and I know for sure which one I would choose time and time again.  And it don't start with F ! LOL  Its a shame you had problems with the one you had and it has soured them for you because there can be no doubt that they are brilliant filters.  You will always get a rogue one now and again, and even a run of them when some dumbass designer gets a bee in his bonnet and changes something, but eheim are very reactive and like most german engineering companies, they strive for excellence and usually achieve it.   Tetratec had enormous problems with their EX1200's, but unlike Fluval, they bent over backwards to sort their customers out.  I believe that issue is now resolved though so if you are looking at a new EX1200 you should be ok.  Pretty good filter too.  I have had just about all of them, LOL. You couldn't go far wrong getting a RENA XP series either, but avoid the NEXX like the plague


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## hinch (4 Sep 2012)

i run ex1200's on some of my smaller tanks so I know they're fairly good filters I just worry about them being too powerful for a little 60 litre tank. I run fx5's on the big tank and they're awesome filters they just work and only need cleaning out once a year 
So I'm quite a fan of both the fluval and the tetratec filters.  I do have some ehiem filters but they're the little aqua balls which for internals are brilliant its just their canisters I don't rate + very very over priced


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## Antipofish (4 Sep 2012)

Yeah I dont think you can seriously compare an Aquaball to a Tetratec EX1200 and consider it a fair comparison, LOL. Its like saying I have a BMW 530i and a mini metro. I dont rate mini metros LOL


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