question about DIY pressurized CO2

[Bravofleet4]

Hi, I've find some articles about DIY pressurized CO2 but none really explain threading or barbs very well. I've just ordered a CO2 regulator off ebay.


New Taprite tank mount CO2 regulator
0 to 2000 tank pressure gauge. 0 to 160 adjustable pressure gauge

I'm thinking about purchasing the fabco needle valve from rex grigg but I'm not quite sure about what it means by in-line. I suppose that means not connected to the regulator but somewhere along the CO2 tubing? How is this done exactly?

 

[Nymsley]

I suppose that means not connected to the regulator but somewhere along the CO2 tubing?

Yup.

How is this done exactly?

The needle valve should come with barbs if you tell Rex that you want it inline.

Then you can attach your tubing to the barbs (the things sticking out on the right and bottom) and thats it.


This post shows how one person "mounted" the needle valve to his regulator with a zip tie. You don't have to do that but it looks better than just letting it hang.

 

[Bravofleet4]

Thanks so much.

Does CO2 tubing come in different sizes though? On rex grigg's site it says that the barbs that come with his CO2 checkvalve fit only most Co2 tubing and you have to specify if you want the kind that fit the Co2 tubing he sells.

 

[Nymsley]

There are different types of tubing materials, thicknesses, and diameters. Some of them are less permeable to CO2 than your average vinyl or silicone aquarium tubing. They tend to be very thick walled with a smaller inner diameter, like the kind they use for commercial/laboratory purposes.

I've never seen Rex's tubing but I'll guess that is what he has.

 

[ghengis]

Not sure what DIY pressurised CO2 is... Surely both terms are mutually exclusive? You either "Do It Yourself", yeast style...or go out and buy the bits and pieces, pressurised style...

No?

 

[Nymsley]

"DIY" doesn't equate to a yeast system. It just means that you build it yourself rather than just buying it premade. The yeast-in-a-bottle system is a DIY version of products like the Red Sea Turbo CO2 Bio System and the Hagen Nutrafin CO2 Natural Plant System.

Same with pressurized systems. You can build your own from individual parts or you can buy it preassembled from the numerous companies out there.

 

[ghengis]

DIY is taking something in it's raw/original form, and adapting it to, or creating, something else...ie; a sheet of plywood, cut, sanded, screwed, and painted into a tank stand...a lump of clay, moulded and worked into vase, then glazed and fired...a soft drink bottle modified into a CO2 generator...

Putting regulator "A" onto cylinder "X" is not DIY, any more than placing a set of mag wheels onto your new car is. Sure, you might remove the wheel nuts and the wheels and replace with the new pieces, but that is not DIY.

In this instance, the regulator IS premade, the cylinder IS premade, the solenoid (if required) IS premade...

 

[Nymsley]

Then you can't say a yeast system is DIY either. You didn't extrude the tubing and bottle. You didn't grow and process the sugar and yeast. All of that has been processed by someone else just like the plywood and the clay.

No, attaching a regulator to the cylinders wouldn't be considered DIY. When you assemble a pressurized system, of course you didn't make the individual parts. But you have to gather the parts and the fittings to assemble the regulator setup.

Take another example. You can buy a computer or you can make one. You can order the parts and build your own rig. Did you manufacture the capacitors or the PCB? Nope, but you can still say that you built the computer.

If you think about it, everything is premade in some way. But you can use those things to build whatever you want.

 

[ghengis]

Fair points, to be sure.

The thing is, in this hobby, the term "pressurised CO2" is used to describe a CO2 system incorporating a high-pressure cylinder, regulator etc (whether those items were bought seperately or not), that has been purposely manufactured in a factory someplace... "DIY CO2", on the other hand, refers commonly to the incorporation of a selection of (generally) household type items into a system that generates carbon dioxide as a by-product of fermentation.

Hence my statement that the two are mutually exclusive.

IMO, to combine the two only leads to confusion and misrepresentation of the topic at hand...yes, my CO2 bottle and reg were both purchased seperately (although from the same store) and when I got them home, I connected each of the components together myself...but does that (by context) make it a DIY system?

 

[Jstdv8]

Does it matter? The OP was getting his questions answered in an orderly fashion. He said DIY pressurized so take it for what it is. He doesnt want to buy a kit that you hang on the tank and let it go, he is piecing it together.
Weather that is DIY in your eyes or not is totally off base.
Way to hijack a guys thread!