CO2 Regulator and solenoid

[MikeG747]

Hi,

I purchased the following regulator from CO2Art a few months ago but I am having a few issues with it:

Aquarium CO2 Dual Stage Regulator and Solenoid Magnetic Valve | CO2Art.co.uk - CO2 Aquarium Specialists

When I set the level of CO2 that comes out it is fine, but I find that when the solenoid valve closes and reopens the following day then the flow is massively reduced. I find that if I then re-adjust the flow (either increase or decrease it by tiny amounts) then the flow returns to normal-ish rates. Because of this I am finding it fairly hard to get consistent CO2 levels around the tank which is causing me some minor BBA issues.

Does anyone else have one of these regulators and how does it behave for you if you do?

If the consensus is that this is odd behaviour then I will contact CO2Art about it, but I thought I would consult other first.

Thanks

Mike

 

[ian_m]

My opinion on having issues like this is a CO2 leak or a CO2 lead or even a CO2 leak, so basically a CO2 leak.

My regulator was very variable upon turn on, usually coming on too low, but once or twice far too high turning drop check yellow and gaspy fish Originally when set up was fine and reasonably controllable but as system aged setting a repeatable CO2 rate proved increasingly difficult.

However at various times I located leaks in drop checker, drop check plastic degrading, drop checker locking nuts leaking, drop check locking nuts disintegrating, one way valve leaking at joints etc etc. Basically a leak at every joint at one time or another. Some only leaked when you wiggled the piping, but in the end they leaked as indicated by a 2Kg fire extinguisher lasting 20 days rather than over 100 days on my tank.

So replaced drop checker with expensive JBL ProFlora one, one way valve for one with locking nuts (Ebay) and putting LS-X thread sealer on some parts of CO2 piping....and bingo, fire extinguisher lasts over 100 days, bubble rate is infinitely and easily set and once set stays the same day in day out.

So I suggest a leak....

 

[Jafooli]

Hi Mike

I had the same problem as you, only mine would increase. I only noticed it when I started to see deficiency problems, as I raised my BPS to around 2.5 to improve growth rates, I checked the bubble rate and it was at 3BPS around a week later!

Anyway I've now learnt sometimes it's better just to have healthy plants rather than fast growth rates. Anyhow I straight away set my bubble rate to 1BPS.. it started to increase every morning. It would stay at 1BPS all day, solenoid turns off, then turns on in the morning, the bubble rate has increased a few bubbles, and this would continue each day. Ian also told me this could be because of a leak, but I just couldn't find one.

So I then I purchased brand new tubing, check valve, bubble counter, cleaned diffsuer. It still seemed to increase but much less. I contacted the manufacturer of my regulator they didn't help much as they said that's a mystery. In doing all this I also bleached my diffuser and that seemed to help, It kept my bubble rate much more steady but few days later it increased again.

I did some research, and read you can try clean your solenoid/regulator, I don't recommend you do this as I don't want you to avoid warranty or do more damage but I presume its safe to do, anyway I opened the needle valve all the way up. I switched the solenoid on and off about 4-6 times, so it was like quick bursts. This was to try clean any gunk or anything that may have been in there, not sure how gunk would of get in there but oh well. It seemed to off work a treat. How ever my bubble rate still increased but by far less!, example 58 bubbles per minute to say 60 bubbles per minute. Its now also stopped rising each day so its like it reached a peak, which is good news for me, as its fixed my problem.

I now for some reason think the issue all along was my ceramic in tank diffuser, because when it was clean it worked great, steady bps, after a few days in the tank it increased, but so did the tiny bubbles from the diffuser, so maybe the pressure in the system was not as great, therefor the bubbles could escape quicker, (increasing the bps a little bit) I hope that make's sense, but a clean diffuser I think would require a bit more pressure to pass through, but when it gets clogged, the bubbles can escape quicker through larger pores. I also guess in the day its harder to become clogged, but overnight when its off, algae or dirty can start to block it. But in your case its decreasing so this information might be irrelevant regarding diffuser.

Anyway I've left my diffuser alone as-well, and its all stable now, sometimes it increase's a tiny bit, but then again another whole on the ceramic diffuser may of become clogged.

I also read taking everything apart, aka take the regulator of the Fire Extunigher and then connecting it all up again, may do the trick, I was going to do this, but I seem to off solved my problem. I still do check it every now and then just to make sure

I guess its just trial and error, I like to believe our regulators are not broke etc, but hopefully this will help you a bit or give you things to try, but don't want you to make things worse etc, so maybe someone else can give you some help or maybe it is just a leak The only reason I didn't think it was a leak is because my CO2 tubing etc is so short, and I purchased everything new, but as mentioned I've got mine fixed now, so yeah. Good luck.

 

[MikeG747]

CO2Art jumped the gun and contacted me...
Now in a testing phase to see if some changes have sorted the regulator out!

 

[allan angus]

well its nice to see the sponsors are keen to help ! ive never had a supplier contact me off their own backs to help with a problem .hope its sorted for you good luck

 

[Jafooli]

If you do get it fixed, I hope you can let us know the solution as I would be interested to know, as maybe it could help me in the future if my BPS does come unstable again. As like you, it only ever use to happen when the solenoid turned off then on again.

 

[ian_m]

Oh long length of tubing connecting everything can cause issues.

When I set my CO2 up, I had 3 metres of CO2 tubing, connected FE to valve, to bubble counter with suitably short lengths of CO2 tubing, but connected the remaining 1-2metres odd of tubing, bubble counter to UP inline diffuser. After a whileI would get bubble rate that would start fast, and slow down in period of couple of minutes, then diffuser would "burp" and bubble rate go back to fast and process would repeat. I assume it was the rather superfluous length of piping pressurising slowly then the diffuser releasing in a burp and process repeating. Cutting CO2 pipe to shorter length problem went away.