fluval co2 system any good.

[aquarium 308]

I have been looking at the fluval co2 system. Reviews on Amazon are pretty good. It is for up to 15 gallon tanks. It uses 20gram disposable cannisters. Reviews say about 3 weeks per cannister. The kit is $23 and a three pack of cannisters is $11. This would be for a low light planted 10 gallon. Thoughts?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I would avoid that system if you're planning on getting into pressurized co2. The Fluval doesn't have a solenoid valve and would therefore keep running 24/7 until those proprietary cartridges run-out. If you do a cost analysis, you'll see that running this system versus a paintball co2 or regular co2 system would cost more to operate.

With that said, I'd go with an aquatek mini regulator for paintball. It has a built in cool-touch solenoid and comes with a bubble counter with check valve. You'd just have to buy a diffuser, drop checker, and paintball cylinder.

However, in a low light planted tank, you don't generally inject co2. A liquid carbon supplement like excel or glut would suffice. Heck, you can even rig up a DIY co2 generator on the cheap.

 

[Brookster123]

I would avoid that system if you're planning on getting into pressurized co2. The Fluval doesn't have a solenoid valve and would therefore keep running 24/7 until those proprietary cartridges run-out. If you do a cost analysis, you'll see that running this system versus a paintball co2 or regular co2 system would cost more to operate.

With that said, I'd go with an aquatek mini regulator for paintball. It has a built in cool-touch solenoid and comes with a bubble counter with check valve. You'd just have to buy a diffuser, drop checker, and paintball cylinder.

However, in a low light planted tank, you don't generally inject co2. A liquid carbon supplement like excel or glut would suffice. Heck, you can even rig up a DIY co2 generator on the cheap.

Agreed, i tried the fluval mini, it's more trouble than its worth unless you have a chance to fiddle with the valve every 45 minutes throughout your day.

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[aquarium 308]

Ok thanks that is what I wanted to know.

 

[PerfectDepth]

The idea with this system is to fill up the included double-bell reactor before lights-on and then close the valve. It's really only meant to supply enough CO2 for very small low to medium light tanks. The biggest drawbacks are that the reactor takes up so much space in a small tank, & the cost of the cartridges.

 

[Brookster123]

The idea with this system is to fill up the included double-bell reactor before lights-on and then close the valve. It's really only meant to supply enough CO2 for very small low to medium light tanks. The biggest drawbacks are that the reactor takes up so much space in a small tank, & the cost of the cartridges.

Ohh.. never knew that.. either way there was no way that beast was going in my 5gal.. thing is obscenely unattractive. I did find the 16g. Cartridges for $1.50/ea. On amazon. . They sell a 90g. Or so at petco for $10..

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[PerfectDepth]

Ohh.. never knew that.. either way there was no way that beast was going in my 5gal.. thing is obscenely unattractive. I did find the 16g. Cartridges for $1.50/ea. On amazon. . They sell a 90g. Or so at petco for $10..

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Oh yeah, it's an eyesore for sure. You'd think they'd make it a bit smaller so you could maybe hide it in the filter compartment of their Spec V.

The larger kit is 88 grams. It actually comes with a ceramic disc diffuser, and a gauge on the regulator, but still no solenoid, so replacing those cartridges would get expensive as Brian mentioned.