# How long will co2 last?



## Tomfish

Hello, I am in the planning stages of my first proper planted aquarium. I am wondering whether it is possible to give a rough idea of how long a 500g canister of Co2 should last. I suspect regular refills will be in order  

Here are some useful (I hope) details

Tank 260 ltr
temp 26 c
lighting 3 watts per gallon
ie dosing
Co2 jbl set with solenoid

All help will be much appreciated. 

Thanks, Tom


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## Gary Nelson

Hi Tom,

I don't think that will last very long at all on a 260l tank - you maybe better using a 2kg FE.  I was using a Dupla 1000g on my 180l and I was lucky if I was getting 3wks! I guess it depends on how your tank will be planted though.

I switched over to a 2Kg FE and I got two and a half months out of that.


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## Alastair

I agree, and with you running such high lighting plants will need more co2.


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## Westyggx

Tomfish said:
			
		

> Hello, I am in the planning stages of my first proper planted aquarium. I am wondering whether it is possible to give a rough idea of how long a 500g canister of Co2 should last. I suspect regular refills will be in order
> 
> Here are some useful (I hope) details
> 
> Tank 260 ltr
> temp 26 c
> lighting 3 watts per gallon
> ie dosing
> Co2 jbl set with solenoid
> 
> All help will be much appreciated.
> 
> Thanks, Tom



Tom,

If its the JBL kit i had then this canister is not refillable and you will have to go down the Fire Extinguisher route like i did.


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## Tomfish

Thanks for the quick replies. You confirmed my suspicions, damn. I may consider reducing the light, or going the FE route (I must admit to being little scared). 

JBL do both refillable and disposable, mine is refillable, but that would be a lot of trips to my LSF.

Finally does anybody know how you can tell your cannister is running low?

Cheers!!


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## Westyggx

You should be able to tell from the weight of it, plus your regulator should show you...


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## Tomfish

Again, thanks for everyones help


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## m_attt

as said above i wouldnt go for 500g, i have a 180 litre tank an run 20oz paintball tanks that i fill to 600g at work they last a couple of weeks.


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## Matt Warner

To give you some idea, I have a 500gram co2 canister running at 1 bubble per second and it normally lasts about 3 and a half months. So in your tank with such high lighting and tank size would probably last you about a month or less.


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## AverageWhiteBloke

> (I must admit to being little scared)



There's nothing to fear but fear itself   All jokes aside though I had a reg for use with a disposable 600grm welding bottle and just bought a d-connector from aquaessentials. It was just a case of putting the connector on to the FE with a spanner, screwing the reg onto the that and pulling the trigger. Nothing different from changing any other sort of gas bottle. The FE is fail safe, as soon as you let go the trigger the gas will stop coming out so in a very rare case that you had a leak knock it off and you have a perfectly safe FE in your hand.


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## Westyggx

AverageWhiteBloke said:
			
		

> (I must admit to being little scared)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There's nothing to fear but fear itself   All jokes aside though I had a reg for use with a disposable 600grm welding bottle and just bought a d-connector from aquaessentials. It was just a case of putting the connector on to the FE with a spanner, screwing the reg onto the that and pulling the trigger. Nothing different from changing any other sort of gas bottle. The FE is fail safe, as soon as you let go the trigger the gas will stop coming out so in a very rare case that you had a leak knock it off and you have a perfectly safe FE in your hand.
Click to expand...


Make sure you have a washer in the D-D Thread if you go down this route, i didint and couldnt make a proper seal. Have one now and works a treat.

Cheers


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## AverageWhiteBloke

I picked the washer out of the old horn on the FE and works no problem. It will probably need replaced at some point in its life.


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## Tomfish

'fear is the mind killer'... he he  

Yeah, after a second look at the FE tutorial it does seem rather straight forward and I suspect a combination of laziness and high mortgage repayments will prompt me overcome any fears I have! 

I have aready aquired a second hand but (relatively new) jbl setup. Does anyone have any experiences of fitting this regulator to a FE?

Thanks for the calming words


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