[speakerguy]

I plan on having a 50 gallon planted tank with pressurized CO2 in my bedroom. Do they add any odor to CO2 or do they make CO2 gas detectors for the home? I would prefer not to die or anything in my sleep Thanks!

 

[Tex Gal]

You'd have to have the CO2 replace the air in your room to die. With a leak that large you'd hear it. I think you'll be fine. With a 50 gal the biggest tank I'd get it a 10lb tank.

 

[ed seeley]

There's no hazard at all in having CO2 in a room. Typical atmospheric levels are about 385ppm. You're injecting maybe up to 30ppm into the tank so that's barely going to raise the normal levels. Even if your entire tank dumped into the room in one go the safe long term exposure levels are 5,000ppm (0.5%) and the level for short term harm is above 4%. These are taken from the COSHH (Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health) website over here and the NIOSH (US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health).

The biggest danger IMHO is it falling over, smashing the regulator off and the cylinder becoming a rocket which can go through walls and all you have to do to avoid this (and it takes a LOT of force to snap off the regulator as I've knocked a tank over a couple of times before) is to secure the cylinder so it can't fall over.

 

[jeff5614]

Maybe a dropchecker by your bed?:lol:

 

[Lionsfan]

It is a CO concentration you are worried about (and what is detected) and not CO2.
Hope this helps,
Scott

 

[bigstick120]

I think a lot of folks assume or mix up carbon monoxide with carbon dioxide.

CO highly toxic

CO2 not so much, you breath out CO2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide

 

[speakerguy]

Former biochem student guys, so I know the difference between CO and CO2 One results from the complete combustion of a hydrocarbon, and the other from the incomplete combustion of one

I just ran through the math and an entire 10lb tank dump into a sealed volume of my room at STP is only about 6% of the room volume. Seems really low to me, I'll have to check my math. CO2 can kill though, and it leaves a nice pink corpse like CO (although it takes much higher concentrations as mentioned).

 

[ray-the-pilot]

I just ran through the math and an entire 10lb tank dump into a sealed volume of my room at STP is only about 6% of the room volume. Seems really low to me, I'll have to check my math.

At 6% CO2 in your room you would be dead! Take my word for it. In a former life I managed a laboratory animal facility and the standard way to humanely euthanize an animal was with CO2. At low concentrations the animals fell asleep and died.

If your room is well ventilated you will not have a problem; so, sleep with one window opened a crack if your worried about it.

 

[chagovatoloco]

Maybe a dropchecker by your bed?:lol:

Sleep with one of these just to be safe ainkille , sweet dreams

 

[Indignation]

Get a rabbit. If the rabbit starts to freak out, time to open a window and run a fan. Animals that live underground are excellent low-O2 detectors.

 

[hoppycalif]

Get a rabbit. If the rabbit starts to freak out, time to open a window and run a fan. Animals that live underground are excellent low-O2 detectors.

How do you train the rabbit to wake you up when it detects the CO2? (It is amazing how much good stuff you can learn on this forum!)

 

[epicfish]

How do you train the rabbit to wake you up when it detects the CO2? (It is amazing how much good stuff you can learn on this forum!)

It would go crazy and bounce around the cage, which would trigger a trip-wire that you setup, which would pull on a string, dumping ice cold water over your head from a bucket you rigged to hang from the ceiling. Only thing was that you'd need to put fresh ice cubes in the bucket every night.

 

[hoppycalif]

It would go crazy and bounce around the cage, which would trigger a trip-wire that you setup, which would pull on a string, dumping ice cold water over your head from a bucket you rigged to hang from the ceiling. Only thing was that you'd need to put fresh ice cubes in the bucket every night.

Thank you. I asked the wife and she said, go for it. So, what breed of rabbit do I look for? We have plenty of jack rabbits, big fellows, here by the river. If I can negotiate a contract with one, would he do?

OK, back to planted tanks.

 

[BryceM]

In practical terms, this is not one of the top 100 things you need to worry about. A burst disk can empty a CO2 tank in a matter of seconds, but that's pretty rare and usually only happens if the tank heats up or is overfilled. If the safety disk does rupture, the resulting noise is loud enough to wake up dead people three blocks away. No human on earth would sleep through it.

 

[davemonkey]

In practical terms, this is not one of the top 100 things you need to worry about. A burst disk can empty a CO2 tank in a matter of seconds, but that's pretty rare and usually only happens if the tank heats up or is overfilled. If the safety disk does rupture, the resulting noise is loud enough to wake up dead people three blocks away. No human on earth would sleep through it.

...and it still wouldn't be enough CO2 to kill you...

but just in case, I'm getting a rabbit.

 

[BryceM]

Oh, I agree, not enough to kill you by a long shot...... maybe if you slept in a small, nearly air-tight closet with a 20 pound cylinder....... but maybe not even then.

I agree that standard-issue coal-mine canary rabbits would be a nice precaution. The stench alone would probably prevent deep sleep so you'd be pretty safe.

 

[ray-the-pilot]

This is not really funny!

This is a fact! If you open a 10 pound cylinder of CO2 in your bedroom, the level of CO2 will go over 6%, which will kill you in 15 minutes. The only way to prevent this would be to have adequate ventilation.

Here is what the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says about this:
A CO2 level of 4 percent is designated by NIOSH as immediately dangerous to life or health.
http://www.inspect-ny.com/hazmat/CO2gashaz.htm

Those idiots who think that a rabbit will help don't understand that as the level of CO2 increases the victim falls asleep and doesn't jump around.

Here is something to think about! If you increase the level of CO2 in your aquarium to 60 ppm it will kill your fish. A 10 pound cylinder will increase the level of CO2 in your room to over 60,000ppm!

I never considered it until I saw this thread but after thinking about it, I don't think having a CO2 tank in your bedroom is a really good idea.

 

[Newt]

Ray-the-pilot is correct. I am an EHS Manager and work with gases all the time. I believe a 10# CO2 tank holds ~42 cu ft of gas (w/o looking it up). How many cubic feet in the room you keep the tank in? I have a 20# tank but dont use it for this reason (simple asphyxiant).

NIOSH - 40,000ppm is IDLH (immediately dangerous to live and health). Normal amount in air is 300ppm and the permissable exposure level is 5000ppm, 8 hr TWA.

When I worked in the printing industry we had total flooding CO2 systems (enough to displace all the O2) for some of the rooms that held large amounts of flammable liquids. You had 15 seconds to get out once you heard the alarm and then it would dump up to 2200 lbs. One and a half breaths of CO2 and you were blacking out.


Pleasant way to go.....................if you're ready.


Why, that's no ordinary rabbit......................

 

[Ultimbow]

Is your bedroom door air seal??? Most likely not so ther is no danger for your bed room to fill up from a slow leak unless the bottle explode. If that the case you will mostlikely die from the explotion. Wall are never air tight either light swith elcetric oultlet let air circulate. and if you are realy scare of it go to a store where they sell gas stove or gas system when you have one of those it is a law to have co2 detection system witch can be conect to a emegency central.

 

[tropism]

... and if you are realy scare of it go to a store where they sell gas stove or gas system when you have one of those it is a law to have co2 detection system witch can be conect to a emegency central.

Ultimbow, I think you're talking about CO detectors, not CO2.

They do make CO2 detectors, but as far as I can tell they're all more than $300, and most aren't designed for the average home user. It's hard to tell whether they are "complete" systems like we'd be looking for (a detector, readout of the current level of CO2, an alarm, and a power supply). I did find this system though (CellarSafe by Crowcon)... Out of curiosity I just called them. They said list price is $465 for the model without the backup battery or $560 with the backup (those prices are without the optional oxygen sensor). If you search on the net, make sure you look for "carbon dioxide" detectors -- most of the ones that come up when you search for CO2 detectors are just mislabeled CO detectors.