Mr. Fish

Very smart, any cautions you have to look for using this method?
I might just buy a co2 bottle to have as a spare when my 5 lb tank runs out...

erijnal

Jeff, I wasn't aware of the possibility of oil contamination, and most likely, my bottle did have oil on the connection. I've noticed no adverse effects, however, so maybe the oil is safe? That, or the concentration of oil is too small to have any noticeable effect.

Mr. Fish, the only serious caution I can think of is to not buy a tank that is manufactured with an on/off valve. As I mentioned in the first post, those tanks reportedly have a tendency to leak after two or three refills. Instead, buy a regular paintball tank, and buy an inline on/off valve separately to install later. It's probably a good idea to have a professional install the on/off valve for you

Jeff.:P:.

Hmm, kewl and strange. Maybe it was a small concentration. Most oils (gun oil) would either have a polluting effect or aesthetic effect on your tank (i.e.shimmer, build up on the surface) I'm not trying to discourage people from using paint-ball tanks, but just to be careful. I've seen a tank where a small amount of mineral oil from a bubble counter sept in and caused surface build-up (just looks gross, no harmful affects to fauna)
I know when I purchased my C02 which was aquarium specific there was a notice that no oil has been used on the tank to lubricate regulators or any other reasons. So just a heads up.

Robert Hudson

Interesting comparison to the Red Sea system, or the system I am now selling. There are paintball canisters from 3 ounces to 24 ounces, and there are disposable, one time use ones, and refillable ones. Mine works with all of them. They are so cheap you should be able to buy them locally from a paintball store or sporting goods store instead of online or at a paintball forum. 10 to 15 dollars for a 24 ounce brand new re fillable... is that really beyond peoples budget? Then 3 to 5 dollars for refills.

You can also hook up any type of diffusor or reactor with it, just as with any pressurized system. An inline home made reactor, a power reactor. You can even hook it up to a solenoid and a pH controller!

Or you can buy an aquarium paintball regulator that has a built in on/off valve

erijnal

Robert, I actually saw the regulator you're selling and it looks really cool. The price, even without the sale is nice too. I actually wanted to ask you how heavy it was, because one of the problems with getting a full-sized regulator is that it makes the set-up a little top-heavy.

That said, one thing I like about my set-up is that should I decide to switch to a full-sized system, the change will be seamless.

A final thing to mention is that my local Sports Chalet does not refill paintball tanks that are larger than 20 ounces. Just something to think about for anyone who wants to buy a tank out of refill convenience.

erijnal

One note I'd like to add, because my CO2 tubing was a little unorthodox in its inner diameter/outer diameter (forget which one it was), I had to add a small airline tubing connection.

The airline tubing was connected to an adapter that then connected to the CO2 tubing.

With a high working pressure (>25), I noticed my high-side pressure gauge would drop relatively rapidly. I wondered why I was getting losses, so I fiddled around and changed my working pressure to 10 PSI. Now my high-side pressure gauge drops very slowly, which is what I would expect.

My guess is that even that 2-3 inch piece of airline tubing was losing a LOT of CO2 with a high working pressure, and can better handle the pressure of 10 PSI. Just something to keep in mind if any of your tubing is not designed specifically for CO2.

Brilliant

I didnt know you could have CGA 320 on paintball. Thats said the Hydor regulator would be sweet on this setup...its really light weight and sleek.

Very nice writeup man you deserve another green dot.

CraigThor

Think i will be giving this a try since I don't have room right now for a larger tank but am getting a Rex Reg.

Craig

erijnal

Yup, although I'm using the same regulator body as Rex uses on his, you don't have to use a Cornelius regulator. The JBJ, Milwaukee, or anything else should work fine


Another follow-up on the high-side pressure, it's still staying pretty constant. Can't say for sure whether it's because of a perfect seal or lowering the working pressure though

erijnal

I can now definitely say that with no solenoid, 10 psi working pressure, and around 1 bps, you'll get at least 10 weeks out of a filled 20 oz paintball tank. Those figures were for a 10 gallon tank, and growth in that tank was more than satisfactory. If you have a solenoid this would probably last longer, but at $2.50 a refill, does it matter?

If you use these settings and get significantly less time on your tank, there's a good chance that there's a leak somewhere in your system, either at a connection, or through your tubing.


With that, I think I've provided all the information needed for someone considering setting up a pressurized CO2 system using a CGA320-threaded primary regulator in tandem with a paintball tank. You should have a ballpark idea of the startup costs, as well as the duration the set-up will work for you from re-fill to re-fill.

Keep in mind that if you choose to do what I did, it'll leave the option of upgrading to a standard tank without having to buy a new regulator or a possibly-difficult-to-find adapter to make your paintball regulator work for a CGA320-threaded tank.

Good luck making the switch!


PS. Those glass check valves don't do jack. Pretty... but that's about it. I wouldn't recommend them.