How do you know working pressure?

[AverageWhiteBloke]

Probably a stupid question. I have an up Aqua regulator, unsure of the model as I bought it second hand as part of a job lot of other aquarium bits. Never was concerned about the pressure as I've always just ran glass ceramic diffusers with it before. Toying with the idea of buying an inline atomiser which I believe need a certain minimum working pressure, how can I tell if this regulator is capable of running one before buying one?

 

[Andy Thurston]

Suppose it depends on the model. have you got a pic? Does it have 2 gauges?
The later up inline needs less pressure about 30 psi so you might get away with it.
Have you thought about a reactor?

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

Hello Andy, please see attached photo, it does have two gauges. I have tried reactors before namely the Sera 1000 one. I did like it a lot however I try and aim for minimum maintenance fuss as possible with not having a lot of spare time on my hands plus my new cabinet is considerably smaller so not a lot of room. The sera was quite bulky. I have tried using the bazooka style ones with mixed success, they seem to start alright but fail quite quickly. Also been looking at the glass inline diffusers which I assumed would need less pressure than the up aqua ones but looking at co2 art site they also need 30 psi, however, looking at the description on most of the diffusers on that site it would appear the description is generic and copy and pasted into each item rather than specific to each product. That's not to say the information isn't correct though,

 

[Andy Thurston]

I'm not sure if I should say this because I used to work for co2art. I am currently running the new up inline which needs approximately 36 psi, my regulator is set to 40 psI however I seem to remember that when I first installed it it ran quite happily below that but when the system restarts the following day it took longer for the co2 to start flowing properly. Something else to consider is the type of check valve that you are using. I found that check valves with a higher cracking pressure were better at stopping water from entering the co2 line and more reliable but needed a higher pressure before the co2 began to flow. Looking at your pic you have around 35 psi working pressure. I think that it would be possible but not guaranteed. I have not used the glass inlines but they have a much smaller ceramic than the up inline and would not be good for a larger tank. Personally they are not something I would concider

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

Thanks for the replies, probably just stick with my tropica 3 in 1. Was looking to get some equipment out of the tank but it's not that hard on the eye. I get decent micro bubbles out of the tropica and the tank is only 100 ltrs. Never had much luck with any of the high pressure diffusers before so probably not worth the gamble.