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eBay or CO2Art?

VikingMummy2015

Seedling
Joined
4 Jul 2020
Messages
8
Location
Scotland
I wasn’t actually planning on CO2 in either of my small tanks but hey ho.
I’m going for the aerosol in the 29L kitchen tank but i’m Thinking SodaStream for the 15gallon Fluval flex. I already have the annual cylinder exchange programme on the go and it’s easy to sort the refills (very important as I have limited time to go hunting for other refill options for medical reasons). I have easy plants and only want a small amount just to keep everything flourishing (I also have low to no kH so will be lower dose anyway, I think?).
Looking on eBay, I can get everything for about £70...is there any reason why I should pay almost £100 extra for the “official” versions? Why is their regulator at £119 better than a £35 eBay one (complete with solenoid).
 
Why is their regulator at £119 better than a £35 eBay one (complete with solenoid).
Needle valves, regulators and pressure gauges are precision instruments. You fish lives are at stake if it goes wrong. They’ll also last forever. Can that be said of the cheaper ones?
 
Needle valves, regulators and pressure gauges are precision instruments. You fish lives are at stake if it goes wrong. They’ll also last forever. Can that be said of the cheaper ones?
That’s the kind of thing I’m asking! I see posts on here whilst searching Google, dating that eBay ones work well (one guy was switching his JBL branded one for the one that’s advertised on eBay etc). There’s a recent post too talking about them for small tank set-up. I’m just trying to figure out if I’m going to do ok with an eBay version, as a tie-dipping exercise, given I hadn’t planned on doing co2 at all! It’s literally because I just ordered more SodaStream canisters today, I wondered about using them rather than a passive diffuser. I hadn’t budgeted on almost £200 to give my plants a wee nudge.
 
My first first regulators were inexpensive ones from Amazon, after two CO2 near disasters all of my current regulators are CO2 Art. I just ordered another one today in fact.
 
My first first regulators were inexpensive ones from Amazon, after two CO2 near disasters all of my current regulators are CO2 Art. I just ordered another one today in fact.

Out of interest, what were your two near Co2 disasters ? Could help others avert them ...
 
Out of interest, what were your two near Co2 disasters ? Could help others avert them ...

Both times it was more CO2 being released into the tank than what we had set it to. One of the times it was on planted discus tank and we thought we were going to lose all of the fish, we lost one discus. That incident was what caused me to look into better quality, dual stage regulators and I decided on CO2art and I am happy that I did.
 
Co2 Art are great and offer great customer service and support. Recently, I bought an extension block of theirs from a 3rd party supplier, which was of old stock and an old design. It didn’t fit my reg consequently. I spoke to CO2 Art direct after not getting anywhere with the retailer, only looking for advice as to what the issue may be.

They worked out exactly what the issue was and sent me out a new one directly, free of charge at their own suggestion, even though it really was was not their issue that a 3rd party was selling old and obsolete stock.

Don’t think you could argue that there is better customer service available than that.

Ive also never had an issue with the quality of their regulators etc. And any issues I have had, they have bent over backwards and resolved them.

So I would go with them for those reasons over saving 50 to 100 quid maybe. As someone pointed out above, lives and your mini eco system are at stake :)
 
I’ve ordered CO2 Art regulator this morning, using a discount code for just a little over £100. After researching/asking around, I decided it was the one item I did not want to skimp on. Everything I’ve seen/read say their regulators are top quality.
 
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