Welding Co2.. Is It Safe?

[njw]

Is there any difference between c02? I mean, are dissposable co2 bottles sold for welders safe for the fish and plants in an aquarium? its just c02, right?

My local Machine Mart sells dissposable (600g) c02 for ~£7, which is cheaper than I can find refills for reusable bottles!

 

[Nim]

CO2 is CO2. The gas does not care if its manufactured for Welding, Aquarium or Fire extinguisher purposes. The £7 cylinder I think is a 390gm one that you get in corner tools shop and b&q like places.. I have used this a couple of times and its basically the same bottle thats used in water coolers to make sparkling water.

Just be sure it does not have anything other then CO2 in there.. you do get bottles that have a mix of CO2 and Argon.

Nim

 

[weathermen]

Interesting if true, could save a fortune this way,

Good find

 

[jimboliana]

Personally i would look into it as i belive you do get diffrent grades of CO2 i.e. welding and clinical etc and i do belive you will pay diffrent prices, sorry to confuse you

 

[Aqua Essentials]

Personally i would look into it as i belive you do get diffrent grades of CO2 i.e. welding and clinical etc and i do belive you will pay diffrent prices, sorry to confuse you

This is very true

C02 used in the medical industry is very different to the likes of C02 used for food purposes. There are 3 different types altogether but I forget the third.

 

[danski]

i get my 5lb cylinders exchanged at my local welding shop..on the side for some reason all the exchanges have a label that says food grade,but its from a welding shop...

 

[Themuleous]

Interesting, didnt realise there were different types. I guess they vary in purity some how.

Sam

 

[anvil63]

Yeah I used to do research with oxygen sensitive chemical compounds and the CO2 we had to use in our reactions was guaranteed to be 99.99% CO2 if I remember correctly. It was way more expensive then the standard tanks. The standard tanks had trace levels of Oxygen and nitrogen in them which is why we couldn't use them because our compounds would turn green in even trace O2.

Carl

 

[BigIan]

but the question is are all grades of co2 suteable for using in our tanks?

 

[anvil63]

I have never heard anyone say otherwise and can't think of any reason why they wouldn't be. The main "pollutants" in the lower grade CO2 are just going to be gases that are normally in the air, but in really tiny quantities. I have a 20lb cyliber on my 150 gallon that I bought from my welding supply store and have been running it for four months now.

No problems at all
Carl

 

[Themuleous]

I guess with the lab grade stuff, you'd probably just find you needed a lower bubble rate as proportionally more CO2 would dissolve into the water.

I think the welding CO2 would be fine, its not like they are going to add anything that could cause damage if inhalded and I know of several people on here who used it with no ill effects.

Sam

 

[danski]

i see no probs what so ever..my plants grow and pearl perfectly well..maybe they grow better with the more pure stuff..i guess mines is cut then

 

[jimboliana]

I would think any would be fine, i personaly would use food grade CO2