Ei Dosing Began

[rsands]

i take it you replace the cylinder when the bubble counter slows? How long do you get out of a cylinder at say a bubble every second? I have a powered diffuser at present and will prob continue using it for a bit until i upgrade to a ceramis

 

[nry]

Not sure myself, I think a powered diffuser may be better than a ceramic one if it is working correctly but I am happy to be told otherwise!

The D&D set has a gauge which you set at 1bar. I check mine each morning and I am guessing one day I may come down to find it is low or at zero?

 

[rsands]

so it will come with a guage that will show the output pressure into the needle valve? And a guage that measures the bar of the cylinder or were is this bar guage located on the setup?

I was told by AE that the only way to tell is the bubble counter slowing?

I dont suppose you have a picture? lol!

 

[Rob.S]

Is this any help?? Not the best picture I've ever taken.
My pressure guage reads cylinder pressure, not output pressure

(the bright green bit is not part of the set up)

 

[rsands]

is that the D&D setup? is that one valve that does the job of watching the 1bar and the output pressure?
Cheers for the pic

 

[Rob.S]

Yes, it's the D&D.

I have to say, that the instructions I got with it are rubbish. No explanation as to what pressure to set the regulator to. Mine is set at 2 bar (after reading other posts, i will drop this, I think). The big black knob on top of the bottle does this. The black rectangle is the night shut off valve (which gets hot), and the smaller knob in the background is the needle valve.

According to the "instruction" sheet, a low pressure gauge is available (which would screw into the main body, directly opposite the high press gauge).

 

[SuperColey1]

I'll post a pic of mine later (not D&D) but this is how mine is set.

Connect the needle valve directly into the regulator, then if you use a solenoid valve connect this the hose coming out of the needle valve, then the hose from the solenoid up to your NRV/bubble counter/diffusor.

With both the regulator and needle valve closed, screw in the disposable cannister.

Open the regulator until it reaches (and stays at) 2 bar.

Now open the needle valve until you get 'some bubbles' Too many and you'll gas your fish.

Adjust it until you are happy with your CO2 level (drop checker needed here or you'll be testing all day long)

Simple as that. I use a glass/ceramic diffusor and it works great.

Andy

 

[rsands]

my set wont arrive until Monday! but its on order at least lol

My checker is a very light green, near yellow but i am keeping a close eye on it...fish seem happy and today there was no algae at all growing on the leaves! but i think the pressurised is definately the way to go by your advice. Makes life much less hassle!

How many bubbles per minute does your setup do to get it near correct?

 

[SuperColey1]

Ok this is a pic of my setup.

You can see the dual gauge regulator.
The dial on the left tells me the cylinder pressure so at the minute it is 70 bar as it is full. When it starts to drop it will be time to change.
The dial on the right is the output pressure which at the minute is at 2bar due to the solenoid valve stopping the output at 10pm. When the solenoid comes on at 12pm tomorrow it will reduce to about 1.5bar

The silver piece coming out of the front of the regulator is the needle valve which is screwed directly into the front of the regulator. This is where I increase or decrease how much of the 1.5bar I am actually letting through into the line.

You can see the clear tubing coming from the needle valve and going into the solenoid valve which is resting on top of the timer there (This is the timer that turns the CO2 off 2 hours before the lights go out and on at the same time as my dawn lights start.) then onward out the back of the tank into the bottom of the NRV.

As to bubbles, different setups, length of hose, different bubble counters will mean different bubble rates, but 1 bubble every 2 secs is a good starter and then as you watch the drop checker over the next few hours you can increase decrease as required. Mine is at 1 bubble per second.

The bottle that is going into the regulator is one of the 3 I bought from the link above.

Hope this helps

Andy

 

[Rob.S]

Very interesting, Andy. Your setup seems to differ from mine in that my cut off valve is fitted between the bottle, and the needle valve (that's how it arrived in the box).

Reading your post, I'm now not sure what pressure (cylinder or output) my gauge is reading. If I alter the regulator, the gauge reading alters - but 70 bar! I can't get that; so maybe it's reading output pressure.

 

[SuperColey1]

This one reads 70 bar due to the size of cannister and also its a welding regulator.

Normally you would be looking at 50ish

I was advised that putting the needle valve directly into the regulator is better and then connecting the solenoid in line as it causes less leaks.

andy

 

[Rob.S]

OK. As I said, mine came pretty much fully assembled; so I will resist the temptation to get the wrench set out

One problem I did have with my (first) bottle........ I lost all the bottle pressure over a two day period. When I removed the (now) empty bottle; it was loose on the regulator. I believe what happened was that the vibration from the cut off solenoid had caused the bottle to unscrew itself & cause a leak.

The new bottle was screwed on a bit tighter, and I've marked the position of it, relative to that of the regulator.

 

[SuperColey1]

I never noticed mine vibrating.

Maybe this is the reason for the advice given to me

andy

 

[rsands]

must admit it looks like a good setup you have. I am starting to understand all this now! i fitted a bubble counter on my yeast setup at min until pressurised arrives and it is bubbling away like 2 every second...drop checker seems ok tho

 

[SuperColey1]

Pre pressurised I used 2 nutrafins and a DIY on my 125Ltr and it was at about 4-5 bps.

Pressurised uses pure CO2 whereas with a yeast kit CO2 is a by product and not as pure, therefore pressurised is a much slower bps rate.

You also dont get the scum on the end of the pipe or on the ladder that you get with yeast.

RobS - If the regulator dial moves when you open/close the regulator then this is your 'flow' rate not cylinder. The cylinder pressure will only alter when the bottle starts to near emptiness. Therefore you will need to keep an eye on your deop checker as when the pressure starts to drop, if it gets too little then the needle valve sometimes doesnt have enough pressure to work and you end up with the whole remainder of the cylinder in the tank and dead fish

Andy