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getting consistent restart trouble

mort

Member
Joined
15 Nov 2015
Messages
2,384
Hi, I think I'm slightly going mad with my co2. I have a jbl 402 unit and the frustrating thing is everytime the solenoid turns off, it doesn't restart the next day at the right level, or hardly at all really. I'm thinking it a working pressure problem but here is a little background.
The unit comes preset to 1.4b and to begin I had a bubble ladder as supplied. I upgraded to a in tank glass spiral diffuser with ceramic disk and although I got a nice distribution of co2 the unit ne er started unless I opened the needle valve a little more every day. I thought it was the pressure so upped that to 2b but the problem continued. I then thought that a incline reactor would work better for the system so have fitted this. I'm probably wrong but thought this wouldnt need as high a pressure as it doesn't sit near the bottom of the tank or have a diffuser to push through. I'm still having the same issue though in that every day when the solenoid turns on nothing happens or the rate is slowed dramatically. It's set at 2.4b today but I'm not hopeful.

So does it sound like a simple working pressure problem and should I just up the pressure until I get a consistent restart? I ask because the first time I tried it, the pressure looked fine and the amount of gas in the cylinder was full for two days and then the next it was empty. I checked for leak in the rig and couldn't find any.
so would appreciate your thoughts.
 
If you're having inconsistent pressure levels, it sounds like the gas is escaping somewhere. Could be the type of tube you are using? check all joints, especially check valves if you have any. Cheap plastic check valves are crap for anything but air.
 
Thanks I'll check the joints but I'm unsure whether this is the issue as apart from the one bottle that emptied itself after a couple of days, I haven't seen a drop in gas. The tubing is proper co2 rated and the non return came with the regulator (so optimistically thinking it should be good enough). But to rule everything out I'll confirm there isn't a leak first as I could easily have missed one.
 
Checked the rig and couldn't find any evidence of a leak at all. I checked twice and it looks good. So either I am missing something or there is another reason. It does maintain the bubble level after I have set it through the day it just restarting that it doesn't do.
 
I had the same issue with my first Co2 regulator kit (vendor shall remain nameless) - apparently it can be caused by a cheap needle valve. I replaced the regulator & solenoid with a quality product from Co2art and never looked back. Theirs had the added bonus of being a 2-stage regulator so no end of tank dumps.
 
Hi Wombat, I came to that conclusion yesterday when I looked at the bottle and it was half full. The day before I had manually set it at 2bps and this was fine for the hour I was there. I came home hours later and saw the fish gasping at the surface and looked at the bubble counter. I couldn't even register individual bubbles, there must have been over ten a second minimum. Luckily everyone survived and quickly recovered with a water change and aeration.
But I've completely lost confidence in the unit. The first one I had had a faulty solenoid and this just never kept pressure. The shop said I can return it, so i'm looking for a replacement (can't just change the reg as its disposable bottles and not sure which other regs would fit them, so easier to just return everything and start again) and using liquid carbon in the mean time.
 
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