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guaging interest... Paintball CO2 systems

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magicmagni

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#61 ·
Well I guess I'm the first then to set one up. Thanks to this thread I was able to order from Austin Homebrew supply the Leland regulator for $100. I also ordered two 75G disposable C02 cartridges from them bringing the total to $118- not bad. The regulator is top notch. Very well made. Oddly they had some kind of adapter screwed into the side and then a barb screwed into that. Don't really see why the adapter was needed as the barb screwed right into the regulator without the adapter.

I was going to install it with a solenoid valve, but it turns out that the one I had was leaking so I decided not to run one for now although it's a possibility in the future. So what I did for now is replace the barb on the regulator with a needle valve ($10-15 clippard valve) I used a brass bushing adapter (had it sitting around the garage) to adapt the needle valve to the regulator. From the needle valve it goes to a DIY bubble counter I made and then to the glass diffuser in the tank. My recommendation though for anyone setting this up would be to buy a diffuser WITH a bubble counter built in to reduce clutter- especially important on smaller tanks. My tank is a 10 gallon so It's not too bad.

Another cool thing I found out was that I was able to use the packaging material (a piece of plastic that protects the knob of the regulator in shipping) as a base for the whole unit. The Co2 can fits snugly and it holds the whole thing upright.

So here are some pics of it.

Fits in the palm of my hand..


Close-up of the regulator and needle valve hooked up to it.
 
magicmagni

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#64 ·
fishfry said:
that's awesome magicmagni, let us know how long the 75g bottle lasts
Click to expand...
Well so far it lasted 24 hours and fizzed out. Whoops! I found a pretty bad leak at the bushing that adapts the needle valve to the regulator. This time I put some teflon tape it and got it nice and tight. Normally wouldn't use the stuff on a compression fitting, but checked again for leaks and non found this time so it worked. So far on the new 75G cartridge 12 hours. I'm currently running it into a Tom Bar Venturi reactor at about 10 bubbles a minute give or take so we'll see.

If I can get two months out of one cartridge that would be sweet, but if not I think I'll be getting one of those adapters so that I can run it to a paintball refillable C02 bottles (which seems to be about the size of a 2 liter pop bottle)

I am also going to run a solenoid. I found one for only $30 at Aquabuys so I think I'm gonna get it since the one I currently have is a POS and also leaks like crazy. BTW does anyone know if it would be a problem to run the solenoid valve after the needle valve? I normally run them before, but doing it after is going to be easier I think.
 
B

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#65 ·
sumoarigato said:
Lower Price! I found the Leland regulator for $100 including shipping at this site:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...10143&osCsid=6d4ff726fbf613f89da41a1fa0c96741

It fits the 74g CO2 bottles, which they also sell for under $10 each, so I'd rather go for the paint ball cylinder approach since they're refillable, and bigger.

Does anyone know where to find the 20oz adaptor that Dennis linked to at the engravingschool.com site? I can't seem to find them anywhere.

So would I just need the Leland regulator, a 20oz paintball tank, and the 20oz adaptor to make this work?

Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
Any word on this adaptor? Hope that teflon tape works out magic.
 
W

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#67 ·
my first pressurized co2 setup was similar to this. I used a paintball co2 tank with an adapter to a keg regulator with a inline needle valve that I got from a great local hardware store. The whole setup cost around $60 with co2 proof tubing. I ended up getting a few of the Milwaukee combos with a selinoid for a little more.

Cheers, Whitepine
 
magicmagni

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#69 · (Edited)
Ok here's an update. It's been about 18 days on this 75g cartridge with a bubble rate of 1 bub/second. I noticed the pressure increase last night (most likely the end of tank dump) and by this morning it was still bubbling into the reactor, but there was almost no pressure. Fortunately the pressure increase was only a few PSI and the bubble rate only slightly increased at end of tank dump. Like maybe a bubble every 3/4 of a second instead of every second.
Note that I still do not have the solenoid, which if I did the time could have been doubled. So potentially the 75G cartridge can last just over a month at 1 bubble a minute, which is reasonable.

As far as practically and running costs of the whole thing I think that my rate of C02 delivery is pretty much at the maximum end of the spectrum that you would want to use with this size cartridge and a solenoid. Although I'd like to see a bit longer between servicing, it only takes 30 seconds to replace and set again. That said though I think that this size cartridge would be perfect though for the nanos or any application where you'd want to run under 1 bubble a second, then the service life I'd imagine would be even better. Perhaps up to several months on one $8 cartridge. Not bad for such a small device.

I think though that for 1 bubble/second and up that one of these with an adapter would be ideal. $20 for a 9oz tank. About the size of a 2 liter pop bottle. This is probably what I will end up using in the long run when I get the adapter for it. Nice thing is that it is refillable at the local paintball place. I suspect that with this I could get a least 6 months and it's still small enough to fit behind the tank on the shelf. This size should be good for up to a 40g fishtank I would think.


Next up now is an 88g cartridge that I got from the local Sportsmart. Got 2 for $15. I should be able to pass the 20 day mark (running 24/7) with this one, but once these are gone I'm probably going to get one of these refillable ones.
 
magicmagni

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#71 ·
Anyone know a place that sells an adapter for that leland regulator so that I could use one of those paintball tanks? I can find adapter that adapt a disposable cartridge to a gun that takes those tanks, but not the other way around. I know the one from the engraving place linked to in there, but the price is a little steep for what it is.
 
magicmagni

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#78 ·
That's a great find lamthuyduong! And with the 9oz (255g) paintball tank one could get several months of C02. That's not bad $130 for all of that. It's pretty comparable to what I paid setting up mine with the Leland regulator and 88g disposable cartridge although this has more capacity which would be better on larger tanks or someone who doesn't want to change out a cartridge as frequently
 
A

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#79 ·
sumoarigato said:
Lower Price! I found the Leland regulator for $100 including shipping at this site:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...10143&osCsid=6d4ff726fbf613f89da41a1fa0c96741

It fits the 74g CO2 bottles, which they also sell for under $10 each, so I'd rather go for the paint ball cylinder approach since they're refillable, and bigger.

Does anyone know where to find the 20oz adaptor that Dennis linked to at the engravingschool.com site? I can't seem to find them anywhere.

So would I just need the Leland regulator, a 20oz paintball tank, and the 20oz adaptor to make this work?

Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
now $129
 
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