HELP!!!!!!!!!!! CO2 disaster

[crazycat]

help!

i just came home to find that my co2 setup is not working! i have a milwaukee controller/monitor and regulator with solenoid and bubble counter and a 20lb co2 tank (exactly the same as madafish's article). all valves are wide open and i'm getting about 1 bubble/2 secs. my ph is at 7.7. so far my fish seem ok, but i've been away for the weekend and have no idea how long this has been going on. the pressure gage reads 130 on the inside/9 on the outside set of numbers. i have about 75psi of co2 in the tank.

what is going on????? is something clogged??? what do i do??????

 

[malkore]

75psi reading for the INTERNAL pressure?

if so, your CO2 cylinder is basically empty...no liquid CO2 left, just a little gas slowly venting.

 

[sherry]

Cat do you think your cylinder was nearing empty before, or could it have emptied into the tank over the weekend?

how scary ... CO2 scares me, tho I know I need to get over that if I'm ever going to set mine up.

 

[Crusis]

I agree with Malkore, time for a refill. I have the same setup, and I think mine is about 550psi right now.... off the top of my head at work where I can't actually see it.

Normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7psi, so 75psi isn't that much.

 

[malkore]

a normal, fully co2 cylinder at an average 70degrees F room temperature should read about 900psi for the internal tank pressure. It will stay there until there is no liquid CO2 left in the cylinder. Then it quickly drops to 0psi over the next couple of days (depends on your bubble rate how quickly you'll use the still pressurized gas inside the cylinder).

 

[crazycat]

ok. sorry i've been mia today--busy busy busy.

so here's what happened. my tank is full--it reads 1000psi. the problem was that my regulator was blocked, specifically the chamber of the needle valve underneath the bubble counter. a friend came over last night, and we ascertained that the tubing was clear, the tank was full, the solenoid was functioining etc etc. there was a very slow trickle of co2 coming out, about 1 bubble every 3 seconds. because i have a milwaukee, the needle valve is fused to the regulator so it's impossible to unscrew it. so basically it was totally shot, or so i thought. i went ahead and ordered a new one today, but the man i ordered it from kindly gave me milwaukee's number and told me to call them first.

milwaukee said that this kind of blockage is very common and they see it a lot with regulators over 6 months old. apparently water can get into the chamber under the valve which has an "s" shape inside to prevent water from getting in to the solenoid--sort of a crude check valve. this chamber is directly below the bubble counter, and water can wash back through the bubble counter. when water gets into the "s" part of the valve, it can corrode it, preventing co2 from getting through. the long and the short of it is, the milwaukee guy told me to drill out the chamber using a very small bit (i used a 1/16 bit) going through the opening that opens into the bubble counter. as soon as i felt open space (which was almost instantly), i stopped. and voila, when i hooked it back up it was fine and dandy. it makes a check valve more necessary, and i can't let the tank get totally empty, otherwise water could gete sucked into the solenoid which would suck. but he DID save me $80, for which i am grateful. and he did agree that milwaukee should build check valves into the system (which is actually what the "s" chamber is "supposed" to do, but does a poor job).

thans to everyone for their responses, and sorry i didn't get back earlier.

problem solved (PHEW!)

 

[Crusis]

Got home and checked. My guage reads right around 900psi. Good call Malkore.

Glad you got the problem solved, crazycat!