The bubble counter will act as a partial check value, but adding a dedicated one for a few quid sounds like a good idea. That said I never bother with them these days, as I found that they never really worked anyway and often had water flowing back past them. That reg also looks to be brass, which doesn't rust so its less of an issue to my mind. I've had to dismantle my regs before to get the water out and the waters never done them any harm. Not sure what affect it would have on the solenoid though. Not much I wouldn't think. Sam
There's a check valve built into the bottom of the bubble counter on this one where you can see the hosetail inside the bubble counter. If you've got a long length of CO2 tubing above it before the tank I've found another check valve nearer the tank can help reduce water tracking back.
I've got the same reg and removed the attached bubble counter to favour an inline b/c with check valve that is veiwable on the outside of the tank. That way I can see exactly what's going in to the tank without having to open the cabinet all the time. Also I've read that because the b/c is so close to the solinoid (and other heat producing equipment in the cabinet) that the water in the b/c evaporates a lot quicker. The "in-line" b/c & c/v looks something like this: Courtesy of Aquaticmagic As I discovered the b/c and c/v configuration is the wrong way around, reverse this and happy days! You'll find that the supplied b/c comes off very easily and you can attach CO2 tubing direct to the reg/sol.
Hi guys, i've always been a bit "slap dash" and not really bothered with a check valve I do use two of the ones above on two out of my five tanks, Chinese made and sold under many different brands. On my 30cm optiwhite i had the exact same setup as above. I removed my CO2 bottle and reg but left the rest of the equipment in place only to come home to a flooded living room and some dry plants! I've always been dubious of these check valves and i'll be going back to my good old £1 plastic ones.
I use the cheap £1 plastic ones, they aren't very robust, but they are so cheap I put two or three in a row for piece of mind. Always put one right near the tank (as per Ed's advice). Then either have another one next to that and\or another one right next to the reg itself.
Think i might have a couple of the cheap plastic ones around somewhere, so i'll give them a go. Thanks alot guys
Maybe I should get rid of my chinese bought c/v and use a simple plastic one. What's you're findings on the glass in-line bubble counter (again chinese)? Well, ok, aquaticmagic. I don't particularily like it as some water goes back into the c/v, which does it's job and stops it, but then there is a noise as the bubbles hit the water trapped in the c/v. The bubbles through the b/c don't make as much noise as one doesn't have the plastic stop bouncing up and down. I assume AE have a better b/c, and then cheap plastic c/vs may be the way forward.
Could'nt find the check valves that I thought I had, so picked up a couple of cheap plastic ones from my local MA, only £2-99 for the two. Needed a few bits from Aquaessentials anyway, so i also ordered a glass Boyu check valve, which I will connect just before the pipe goes into the tank, purely for aesthetic reasons really
