Hi guys, I'm setting up a new 60p and really needed help with choosing the right CO2 regulator. I have selected some but I don't have experience using any of these. I wanna go for something reliable, without having to worry about EOTD issues. I have heard good things about the oxyturbo major 2 but so far found no info that suggests it has a reasonably good needle valve or that it doesn't suffer from EOTD. I'll attach the pics of the other two options here as well. Really appreciate it if someone can help me out.
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Need help choosing CO2 regulator
- Thread starter Yamato
- Start date
You would only get an end of tank dump with a one stage regulator. So go for a 2 stage regulator. Simple.
As for which brand or model I could write a whole novel but you will get what you pay for. Most (if not all) low cost regulators will basically do the job until they don't. Needle valve goes bad, membrane dies, pressure is not properly held, unstable flow etc. With all 6 regulators I have had only 1 I can consider to be a proper quality regulator: a Concoa industrial regulator which has a price tag of 1200USD new without gauges, needle valve and all attachments. I bought mine second hand with a Swagelok needle valve so only paid 300USD delivered but it's just as good a new and will probably be for the rest of my life. Now, I am not saying you should pay that much as it all depends what you want to invest in the hooby. All other low-end regs I had worked mostly fine though but would end up with issues after 1-3 years max.
Small anecdote. The Concoa reg I have, has been screwed to the CO2 tank since July 2023 with the tank valve closed since I sold my fish tank. I never emptied the CO2 remaining in the chambers as I wanted to see how long pressure would be retained. Guess what, as of today pressure is still at around 85% of what it was in the secondary chamber when I closed it a year ago... Low end regs will not hold pressure in their secondary chamber for more than 2-5 days if tank valve is closed. This is one way to detect that a reg is either defective or of low quality.
I don't know about oxyturbo brand but between the 3 pics you posted that would probably the one I'd pick.
As for which brand or model I could write a whole novel but you will get what you pay for. Most (if not all) low cost regulators will basically do the job until they don't. Needle valve goes bad, membrane dies, pressure is not properly held, unstable flow etc. With all 6 regulators I have had only 1 I can consider to be a proper quality regulator: a Concoa industrial regulator which has a price tag of 1200USD new without gauges, needle valve and all attachments. I bought mine second hand with a Swagelok needle valve so only paid 300USD delivered but it's just as good a new and will probably be for the rest of my life. Now, I am not saying you should pay that much as it all depends what you want to invest in the hooby. All other low-end regs I had worked mostly fine though but would end up with issues after 1-3 years max.
Small anecdote. The Concoa reg I have, has been screwed to the CO2 tank since July 2023 with the tank valve closed since I sold my fish tank. I never emptied the CO2 remaining in the chambers as I wanted to see how long pressure would be retained. Guess what, as of today pressure is still at around 85% of what it was in the secondary chamber when I closed it a year ago... Low end regs will not hold pressure in their secondary chamber for more than 2-5 days if tank valve is closed. This is one way to detect that a reg is either defective or of low quality.
I don't know about oxyturbo brand but between the 3 pics you posted that would probably the one I'd pick.
Hey thank you responding, it really helps. Not gonna lie I'm kinda envious of your custom concoa setup. I've been looking for parts to build my own but unfortunately in India it's very hard to get the parts I want plus I don't even know where to look for them. Can't even get the GLA gro regulators as they don't ship here, from what I heard, as far as ready made regulators go, they're as good as they come, specially their needle valves. I do have a question, what made you choose the oxyturbo over the other two? since the other two are dual stage and oxyturbo is a single stage.
Scaperinc
Member
Strideways is good if you have access to it
Pure looks and reputation, I didn't look into the technical details to be honest so I might have been a bit quick there. This said, Oxyturbo is an Italian regregulator manufacturer and has a 3 years manufacturer warranty. I doubt the other 2 regs have over 1 year warranty. They might have 3 years warranty but that would probably be a shop/deallers warranty which does not mean the same thing. The other two are simpy rebranded regs from low end chinese manufacturers. The Oxyturbo reg is a dual-gauge reg which indeed does not necesarely imply it's a dual-stage regulator. I have contacted the manufacturer to make sure of this and will report back.
Also, you always need to be cautious on what websites say. The other 2 regs state they are dual-stage but I am not convinced of this. Even if they are it does not necessarly imply quality. All low-end regulators I have had were 2 stages. I disasembled a few of them. I was shocked at the poor quality and tolerances of the inner parts. Botched work, really.
There is a reason why good regs are expensive. The machining and tolerances are very precise and tight and that implies time and work, hence the higher price.
Yet another chinese rebranded regulator. In fact most probably the same manufacturer than the Fzone in the OP.
Same for virtually 99.9% of the aquarium centric regulators brands sold out there. CO2Art included. The market is flooded by them because it's a very captive and low-tech customer base. People have very little to no knowledge on how regs work which makes it much easier for these low-end brands to flourish.
I am not saying these regs are useless but one needs to be aware that they don't necessarely last long. Most people buy these regs thinking because it's a heavy piece of equipment that it will last many years/forever. That's not always the case, rarely in fact. Plus some of them (Co2Art for example) are not as cheap as others, yet it's just the same low-end products despite them claiming otherwise.
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I agree. The whole reason I didn't even mention CO2 art in my original list is because from what I gathered it's just the same as Fzone but way more costly, granted it does come with a longer warranty period. I met a guy on reddit who was an influencer associated with CO2 art, he confirmed that co2art and Fzone are manufactured in the same factory in china. I don't know how much of it is true, but going by the testimonials that some fellow hobbyists have given me and some more I found on reddit, facebook, YouTube etc. , co2art and Fzone basically are the same in terms of longevity and overall quality. So it really doesn't make sense paying more to get co2art when I'm essentially getting the same low quality regulator. I do know that co2art used to be pretty good in the past when they actually manufactured it in Germany.
Mr.Shenanagins
Member
Yes I find that this particular section of the hobby is very much skant in the knowledge department when it comes to regulators. When I frequented Barreport, having an industrial grade regulator was the norm and rarely was anyone using something mass produced from a hobbyist company. I think there is definitely more available now to the hobby in terms of finding regulators but the ones “designed” for our use really are sub par. If you take the time to learn about how they work and what they actually do, you’ll be much better off finding one off eBay from the more reputable brands like Concoa, Victor, Harris, etc.
This thread helped me a lot when I first got into it all: Dual Stage Regulators
This thread helped me a lot when I first got into it all: Dual Stage Regulators
Thank you. I really appreciate helping me out with this. I'm also leaning more towards the oxyturbo regulator. Only thing sorta bothering me still is whether the CO2 delivery will be stable and whether I'll run into EOTD issues. That said, I guess this is my best bet if in the end I can't find anything better.
Thank you. I already checked out this thread. The problem is I can't find any of the regulators here in India. The one's I can find on ebay are really expensive. If I could, I would really go for a custom regulator but so far no luck. I don't know maybe I'm not looking for them at the right places or something?
You could get a good brand name second hand reg. It will probably outlive you. Go check Alan Le on Facebook. He is a member of the "High-Tech Planted Tanks" run by Dennis Wong. Alan Le repurposes brand name regulators for aquarium use. You will pay more than a standard el cheapo reg but those are industrial grade regulators. I got mine from him.
ANS is a local brand to me, and yes it's manufactured in China. I was told by a local retailer that it's manufactured by the same factory as many other co2 regulators available to me locally like Chihiros, Aquatic Farmer and CO2 Art. Having owned ANS, Chihiros and Aquatic Farmer regulators that information seems reliable. All that being said, all 3 brands work as simple hobby grade CO2 regulators and are probably as prone to wear and tear as any other hobby grade equipment like lights and filters. When they fail (at least for me) they don't fail spectacularly, they just die. I've had ANS regulators last a couple of years with no issues, and I've also had a couple fail out of the box and only 1 so far failed after being in use for a short while. Full disclosure I have a short attention span and tend to flit between projects that do and do not require CO2 and I like shiny new equipment so I tend to sell equipment between projects and buy new ones when I need them again. I currently have 2 ANS regulators running perfectly (one for 2 years already and another for 6 months) and have another Aquatic Farmer one running for 3 months that replaced a 1 month old Chihiros. I didn't like the Chihiros as it used a hard nylon o-ring instead of a nice squishy silicone one and I found it harder to get a good seal without having to use a ton of strength.
All this long windedness aside, I just wanted to say that ANS is not a bad choice for a hobby grade CO2 regulator. It's dual stage enough to be able to control the psi and not have end of tank dump so that's good enough for me.
All this long windedness aside, I just wanted to say that ANS is not a bad choice for a hobby grade CO2 regulator. It's dual stage enough to be able to control the psi and not have end of tank dump so that's good enough for me.
You would need the Minormix2 from Oxyturbo.
It does 2 stage the hard way though..
Using 2 single stage regulators in series..PERFECTLY valid way to do it btw.
One example..
Oxyturbo - Double Stage Pressure Regulator
This high-quality pressure regulator is used to reduce the pressure of approx. 54 bar within the gas cylinder to a working pressure of approx. 1 to 3 bar (maximum working...
Oxyturbo Minormix2 CO2 aquarium 2-traps drukregelaar reduceerventiel, 2 manometers en naaldventiel met snelle koppeling, W21.8 flesaansluiting. | CO2reactor.nl
Dual-stage/ 2-traps CO2 aquarium drukregelaar reduceerventiel die het mogelijk maakt een constante en nauwkeurige controle van de CO2 dosering totdat de hervulbare fles leeg is. Het assortiment voor aquaria omvat ook drukregelaars met twee dual-stage/ 2-traps drukregelaars en reduceerventielen...
www-co2reactor-nl.translate.goog
Oddly the "new" minormix2 is different in the picture on the web site.
MINORMIX 2 - Oxyturbo spa
Max pressure out is 2 bar or 29psi though..
That's a bit low for some atomizers.
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thanks. I'll look into this one. Haven't seen this model from oxyturbo for sale in stores around here though. By the way, do you have any experience using Oxyturbo regulators? if so, then can you tell me more about it?You would need the Minormix2 from Oxyturbo.
It does 2 stage the hard way though..
Using 2 single stage regulators in series..PERFECTLY valid way to do it btw.
One example..
Oxyturbo - Double Stage Pressure Regulator
This high-quality pressure regulator is used to reduce the pressure of approx. 54 bar within the gas cylinder to a working pressure of approx. 1 to 3 bar (maximum working...www.aquasabi.com
Oxyturbo Minormix2 CO2 aquarium 2-traps drukregelaar reduceerventiel, 2 manometers en naaldventiel met snelle koppeling, W21.8 flesaansluiting. | CO2reactor.nl
Dual-stage/ 2-traps CO2 aquarium drukregelaar reduceerventiel die het mogelijk maakt een constante en nauwkeurige controle van de CO2 dosering totdat de hervulbare fles leeg is. Het assortiment voor aquaria omvat ook drukregelaars met twee dual-stage/ 2-traps drukregelaars en reduceerventielen...
Oddly the "new" minormix2 is different in the picture on the web site.
MINORMIX 2 - Oxyturbo spa
Max pressure out is 2 bar or 29psi though..
That's a bit low for some atomizers.
No experience. I build my own 2 stage regs from ebay parts.
Actually from the pricing I've seen it seems low "if" high quality. That said I instinctively trust Italy over China.
Well they also could be built in China..
Did do some Goggle translate of some of the German ratings.
Seems normal. some said the needle valve was "loose" on arrival but I assume that meant "open" not falling apart.
Loose would be good since over tightening is a good way to damage one.
You wanted "dump proof" so its a 2 stage.
My biggest worry is what are the native threads on the regulator body ect if I need/want to add remove stuff.
Metric, British, US??
Not to mention the part that attaches to your cylinder.
Oxyturbo from the Aquasabi site above.
If you try to get ones from AlanL or other US "builder from ebay parts" they are high quality but are expensive.
Most would start at US $300.
At one time I tried to find a quality 2 stage China Direct. Found out that what appeared as quality was not actually that cheap.
Besides doesn't seem like a fly by night company and a 3 year warranty.
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I tried to get in touch with Alan but I couldn't get in the group unfortunately, I don't know why but the admins haven't approved my request yet. But I have come across a local business that makes custom regulators. I'll attach few pics of the stuff he makes, I haven't got in touch with him yet so I don't know the details but he mentions that these are dual stage regulators. Have a look and lemme know what you think.No experience. I build my own 2 stage regs from ebay parts.
Actually from the pricing I've seen it seems low "if" high quality. That said I instinctively trust Italy over China.
Well they also could be built in China..
Did do some Goggle translate of some of the German ratings.
Seems normal. some said the needle valve was "loose" on arrival but I assume that meant "open" not falling apart.
Loose would be good since over tightening is a good way to damage one.
You wanted "dump proof" so its a 2 stage.
My biggest worry is what are the native threads on the regulator body ect if I need/want to add remove stuff.
Metric, British, US??
Not to mention the part that attaches to your cylinder.
Oxyturbo from the Aquasabi site above.
If you try to get ones from AlanL or other US "builder from ebay parts" they are high quality but are expensive.
Most would start at US $300.
At one time I tried to find a quality 2 stage China Direct. Found out that what appeared as quality was not actually that cheap.
Besides doesn't seem like a fly by night company and a 3 year warranty.
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