My Qanvee M2 is about 18 months old and I had to replace the ceramic insert.
I think the rubber seals/o-rings have degraded so that when I installed the ceramic insert and tightened the M2 with what I felt was the 'normal' amount -i.e. no water leak detected after an hour, it turns out that some CO2 could still escape.
This doesn't mean there is 0 CO2 mist appearing, just that much less mist was appearing and I had to turn the bubble count way up to get the same amount of CO2 mist. Fortunately, since I had a reference for what the correct bubble count could be, I started hunting for leaks with soap foam and found the minute leak at the Qanvee diffuser due to improper tightening. Water wasn't getting out, but gas was.
A bit of extra tightening helped but it is a signal that I need to replace the O-rings soon.
When I hear of small aquariums doing incredible amounts of bps for their Co2, I think that its good to check everywhere for gas leaks - even if there is no evidence of water leakage, and to consider replacing the O-rings regularly.
I think the rubber seals/o-rings have degraded so that when I installed the ceramic insert and tightened the M2 with what I felt was the 'normal' amount -i.e. no water leak detected after an hour, it turns out that some CO2 could still escape.
This doesn't mean there is 0 CO2 mist appearing, just that much less mist was appearing and I had to turn the bubble count way up to get the same amount of CO2 mist. Fortunately, since I had a reference for what the correct bubble count could be, I started hunting for leaks with soap foam and found the minute leak at the Qanvee diffuser due to improper tightening. Water wasn't getting out, but gas was.
A bit of extra tightening helped but it is a signal that I need to replace the O-rings soon.
When I hear of small aquariums doing incredible amounts of bps for their Co2, I think that its good to check everywhere for gas leaks - even if there is no evidence of water leakage, and to consider replacing the O-rings regularly.
