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Central CO2

2K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Rex Grigg 
#1 ·
Thought some of you might like to see my "Central CO2" setup that I setup this evening.

The CO2 tank that was feeding 2 aquariums had been sitting in my living room looking pretty ugly and industrial. New years day Brian and I set my 4th tank, a 35 gallon in my office loaded with the leftovers from Brian's major tank re-arrangement on new years eve. Tonight, while getting ready to get CO2 over to the new tank I decided to re-do the whole CO2 system. Fortunatly ACS (Air Component Specialties) a full Clippard supplier is just up the street from my house. After a quick trip and coming back $23.00 lighter I revamped the CO2 system.

Now the CO2 cylinder and regulators are in the basement with long distrubution hoses delivering the CO2 to the tanks. 2 of the distrubution hoses (the light blue ones) are high quality Clippard urethane hose. The white hose is drip irrigation vinyl hose. Got to get another chunck of the good urethane hose for the last run.

Each tank has a checkvalve, needle valve and bubble counter. The output of the bubble counters feed into modified Duetto filters that perform the job of CO2 reactors.

Most of the CO2 system is setup with parts from the Tektronix surplus outlet store and stuff I had from the last round of aquariums 10 years ago. Never through any thing away... ;)

The tank and regulators in the basement:


Close up of tank and first regulator. The first regulator drops the tank pressure down to ~50#


Close up of the second regulator and distrubution manifold. Only have 3 of the 8 outputs used. Got to get more tanks!


Here is the setup that is at each tank. This is a sneak preview of the new hood I designed for the 10 gallon tank. Has a 36 watt Verilux 6500K daylight CF bulb. The ballast I customized to be dimable. The high hood design preserves the open top look and viewing while providing bright even lighting.


Here is one of the modified Duetto filters and the drop checker. The CO2 was just turned on so the CO2 level is quite low. Tomorow the drop checker should be showing a bit of green.
 

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#3 ·
The hood is not formica laminate. It is a half section of 6" PVC drain pipe. The finish is gray latex interior house paint applied with a roller. As the paint was drying I rolled over it a couple of times with the roller almost dry. This creates a textured finish kind of like a hammer tone paint job. Next the outside of the half pipe got a coat of Plasti-Kote Fleck Stone spray stone finish. After the fake stone dried fully a heavy coat of the Plasti-Kote spray stone finish clear coat was applied. The finish is not durable at all untill the clear coat is applied.

I've used this finish before on speaker cabinets and it is very durable and easy to repair if need be.
 
#4 ·
It looks like some of the tubing still might be silicone. If this is the case then replace it with the Clippard tubing. I can see that you have some Clippard tubing in the system but it's hard to tell in the pictures if it is all Clippard tubing.

If you need some short amounts of tubing head to ACS, talk to Cliff (the big blond guy) and tell him that Rex sent you there.
 
#5 ·
Last time I was over at ACS Cliff asked me if I knew you Rex, I had to tell him I knew of you but had never actually talked to you. I thought it was pretty funny to have someone outside the aquarium industry actually not look at me like I'm an idiot when I wanted to add CO2 to an aquarium.:)
 
#6 ·
great!
I tried to make something like this but did not have the rite tools. my problem was to find something to split the Co2 do different tube that would be connect to the tanks. When i decided to give more Co2 to a tank, it lowered the co2 for the other tank; impossible to adjust.
What do you use to split Co2 to many tube?????
 
#7 ·
Originally Posted by Rex Grigg
It looks like some of the tubing still might be silicone. If this is the case then replace it with the Clippard tubing. I can see that you have some Clippard tubing in the system but it's hard to tell in the pictures if it is all Clippard tubing.
Yes, there are small pieces of silicone tubing in the system. The high pressure long runs (all of 10psi) are using the Clippard urathane tubing (or will be soon, still a 30' run of vinyl drip irragation tubing in the system). After the needle valve the connection to the bubble counter and from the bubble counter into the tank is silicone.

The Clippard tubing takes too much pressure to install on the 1/8" hard aquarium tubing that are used in the DIY bubble counters. I had installed the Clippard tubing on one of the bubble counters and felt that I was on the verge of breaking off the 1/8" hard line getting the Clippard tubing over the fitting.

Also, the silicone tubing is much easier to bend. This makes the 180 degree turn at the top of the tank and hose routing easier. I'm not too worried about CO2 loss from the couple of feet of silicone at a pressure just barely above atmospheric pressure.

Yep, the folks at ACS are great. On my first trip in to get supplies they ask me if it was for aquarium use! I guess that they are getting used to the aquarium loonies...

Originally Posted by Patrice
I tried to make something like this but did not have the rite tools. my problem was to find something to split the Co2 do different tube that would be connect to the tanks. When i decided to give more Co2 to a tank, it lowered the co2 for the other tank; impossible to adjust.
What do you use to split Co2 to many tube?????
You have to have a needle valve and bubble counter at each tank. Then you deliver regulated pressure CO2 to the needle valves. I'm running 10psi in the distribution system. This way you can adjust each tank seperately without affecting the other tanks.

Gary
 
#8 ·
Gary,

Email me a picture of your DIY bubble counters. I may have a better solution that doesn't use the rigid tubing.

Silicone tubing can lose 6% of the CO2 per foot. So even a few short pieces and add up.

Patrice: To split the CO2 you need some sort of manifold to start with. Then you need a needle valve and check valve for each aquarium. I have pictures of a few different types of manifolds in my Guide in the CO2 section.
 
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