Hi,
The first link, the manometer is not really a good idea. A complete CO2 regulator should have both a gauge showing the remaining pressure of the bottle and a separate gauge showing the output pressure of the needle valve. From the units on that gauge it appears that this might measure bottle pressure as these are high pressure units but, again, this is unclear as it might measure high output pressure depending on how the plumbing is set up. It could be that the valve under the yellow cap regulates the high pressure by the amount of turns in a similar way as a needle valve regulates low pressure. That too is unclear so I'd get that clarified.
The second link is of a needle valve which is fine if your regulator does not come with one. If you were planning to add the second item to the first then you still have the issue of not having a low pressure output gauge, so you'd be well advised to add that as well. Again, the low pressure gauge isn't absolutely essential (as one could just observe the bubble rate) but it does give you more information which is nice to have when troubleshooting a problem.
If you were going to order from that first Hong Kong vendor it would be a much better idea to get the item shown as Dual Gauged CO2 Regulator + Solenoid Magnetic Valve R2. In the long run it's likely to be a false economy getting just the other two. You don't have to use the solenoid, but you might someday wish to do so and then all you'd have to do would be to add a UK adapter and to plug it in as opposed to buying and assembling a new solenoid. Again, solenoids aren't just a convenience. They allow you to drive the tank to much higher CO2 levels than can be achieved via 24/7 CO2 which could be critical for the more difficult plants or for plants in large tanks for example. This may seem as irrelevant or obscure reasoning now, but as you progress you may rue the day you decided against it. A lot of these nuances and ramifications are completely glossed over when looking at advertisements or when just looking at pricing at the first go. People tend to pay a lot more attention to, and are willing to spend more money for exotic lighting than for their CO2 rig, but it turns out that the CO2 regulator is at least as important as lighting, if not more so. :idea:
Cheers,
The first link, the manometer is not really a good idea. A complete CO2 regulator should have both a gauge showing the remaining pressure of the bottle and a separate gauge showing the output pressure of the needle valve. From the units on that gauge it appears that this might measure bottle pressure as these are high pressure units but, again, this is unclear as it might measure high output pressure depending on how the plumbing is set up. It could be that the valve under the yellow cap regulates the high pressure by the amount of turns in a similar way as a needle valve regulates low pressure. That too is unclear so I'd get that clarified.
The second link is of a needle valve which is fine if your regulator does not come with one. If you were planning to add the second item to the first then you still have the issue of not having a low pressure output gauge, so you'd be well advised to add that as well. Again, the low pressure gauge isn't absolutely essential (as one could just observe the bubble rate) but it does give you more information which is nice to have when troubleshooting a problem.
If you were going to order from that first Hong Kong vendor it would be a much better idea to get the item shown as Dual Gauged CO2 Regulator + Solenoid Magnetic Valve R2. In the long run it's likely to be a false economy getting just the other two. You don't have to use the solenoid, but you might someday wish to do so and then all you'd have to do would be to add a UK adapter and to plug it in as opposed to buying and assembling a new solenoid. Again, solenoids aren't just a convenience. They allow you to drive the tank to much higher CO2 levels than can be achieved via 24/7 CO2 which could be critical for the more difficult plants or for plants in large tanks for example. This may seem as irrelevant or obscure reasoning now, but as you progress you may rue the day you decided against it. A lot of these nuances and ramifications are completely glossed over when looking at advertisements or when just looking at pricing at the first go. People tend to pay a lot more attention to, and are willing to spend more money for exotic lighting than for their CO2 rig, but it turns out that the CO2 regulator is at least as important as lighting, if not more so. :idea:
Cheers,
