Pressure for Inline CO2 Disfusser

[jeffruth]

I bought a Milwaukee reg, MA957, and a Saga inline diffuser. The diffuser requires 36PSI to work. When I set the reg to 36psi will it remain at 36psi even after going through the bubble counter etc?? I am sure it will but figured I would ask for some others insight.

Cheers

[dcutl002]

Unless you have a leak...yes it should. I would probably set the line to 40 psi just to give it a little extra.

[jeffruth]

Holding steady at 40psi, now...

I set it up on Thursday @40psi. When I got up on Friday it had dropped to 35psi. Is this normal?? Turned it back up to 40psi and it seems to be stable now. Maybe everything was just settling in.

I have been running 2-3bubbles/sec for 24hrs and my drop checker has a very faint green color to it. At a glance I would say it is blue. 90gal with a 20gal sump = roughly 100gals as there is rocks and substrate which would displace the water so it would be less then a true 110gals of water. Do I just keep dialing it up until the checker is a true green and really just ignore the bubble/sec rate?

My other question is about the CO2 indicator solution. I bought the premixed which tells me to put 1.5ml into the checker. I built my own checker and I made it to fill up with 5ml of liquid, 1.5ml just barley covers the bottom of the checker... Does the amount of liquid in the checker affect the reading or would it simply slow down how long it takes to change color?

Cheers peeps

[dcutl002]

Originally Posted by jeffruth

Holding steady at 40psi, now...

I set it up on Thursday @40psi. When I got up on Friday it had dropped to 35psi. Is this normal?? Turned it back up to 40psi and it seems to be stable now. Maybe everything was just settling in.

Could be. Some of the less expensive regulators may fluctuate a bit.

Originally Posted by jeffruth

I have been running 2-3bubbles/sec for 24hrs and my drop checker has a very faint green color to it. At a glance I would say it is blue. 90gal with a 20gal sump = roughly 100gals as there is rocks and substrate which would displace the water so it would be less then a true 110gals of water. Do I just keep dialing it up until the checker is a true green and really just ignore the bubble/sec rate?

Yeah, ignore the bubble rate and go with the drop checker. You can also take a pH reading and get the same thing...quicker. It takes a drop checker an hour or two to change.

Originally Posted by jeffruth

My other question is about the CO2 indicator solution. I bought the premixed which tells me to put 1.5ml into the checker. I built my own checker and I made it to fill up with 5ml of liquid, 1.5ml just barley covers the bottom of the checker... Does the amount of liquid in the checker affect the reading or would it simply slow down how long it takes to change color?
Cheers peeps

Nah. Put in what it takes to fill the vessel.

[jeffruth]

Thanks for replies.

I will fill the drop checker more.

The pressure in the system is stable at 40psi now. Had one fitting that needed another turn to fully set. That did the trick.

And yes I am 'ignoring' the bubble count. Use it as a visual but I am just going by the drop checker.

[flchamp89]

Id say testing water is more accurate than drop checker