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Need some help choosing CO2 system

LondonDragon

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UKAPS Team
Joined
21 Feb 2008
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12,580
Location
London
Hello everyone,

Maybe some of you guys can help me, I was looking around for a CO2 system as I am fed up with the DIY solution.
I have been doing some reasearch and I am not sure where I can get the bottles refilled in London, asked my local fish store but they claim they have to send the bottle away to get refilled and might take two weeks to get them back.
I had a look on ebay and various sites online and came across this system on Aqua Essentials:

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... ts_id=1047

Claims to work with both disposable and standard bottles, I was thinking to get this and a solenoid valve and then I could have disposable bottles as back up for when my main bottle runs out until I get it refilled.

Has anyone ever used this system? Is there a better alternative that can use both types of bottles?

Many thanks
 
Hi,
Check this thread for some ideas on how to build a CO2 system. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1095

I had a look at the system on the link you posted. I personally would reject based strictly on the following text describing the system:

New Pressure regulator with needle valve for fine adjustments. No manometers to worry about this has a preset pressure built into it

The fact that they feel it's a virtue to not have any gauges on a high pressure regulator is bizarre. You need to know how much pressure is in the cylinder and it's also useful to have an indication of the output pressure. You therefore need two manometers, not zero. :wideyed:

Run, do not walk away from this piece of kit. :wideyed:

Cheers,
 
Thanks for the reply, I see the point about the gauges. Since I am new to this I thought I would ask ;)
After checking that post and having a look at various sites and pricing things up it seems like a good option just to go with one of these kits from ebay, what do you think?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CO2-Complete-Syst ... dZViewItem

Thanks for the help :)
 
Yep, now we're talking! :D The first thing I checked was the regulator and the solenoid. From the image, it looks the real deal. One could argue the virtues/pitfalls of the other plastic bits but a chrome (or chrome plated) regulator housing is a good sign. The gauges look clear and easy to read and the output spuds are clearly defined. The cylinder also looks good quality (even though it's too small for me.) The fact that they give you a 24 month warranty (I didn't see any fine print about it's limitations) is reassuring. I'd say that's a top candidate mate. Good find! 8) 8)

Cheers,
 
Thanks, I might just go for that one, I can always get a 2Kg bottle later on and keep the 500g as backup.
I have the bubble counter and check valve in glass already so it won't be a problem, also have a Rhinox 2000 diffuser which I purchased thinking it would work on my DIY setup only to find out 5 minutes after the purchase that it didn't.
 
beeky said:
What was the price difference?
Let us know what it's like when you get it. I'm going to go for one too I think.
143 euros (about £105) plus 19.95 euros postage (£15).
Seems to be a lot of people happy with them here! I will post photos when I get it.
 
LondonDragon said:
Just thought I would ask, I easy is it to put all this together? :rolleyes:
Can I blow up the house? :lol:

Nice and easy. Just make sure all your connections are tight when you fix it together. Worst case scenario is that you have a leak and you'll lose the CO2 and need to refill it. Your house is safe!

I would imagine your kit comes with some instructions as well.
 
Ed Seeley said:
I would imagine your kit comes with some instructions as well.
Yes it claims to have some, will have to wait and see, thanks :)
 
Got my CO2 kit on the post today, but unfortunatly there are some problems. One of the gauges seems to be broken, I have reported back to the seller and have to wait to see what he comes back with. :(

Some photos of the problem:

pict0545mediumiv9.jpg


pict0543mediumve5.jpg


pict0544mediumbq9.jpg


Guess there is not much point doing anything with this, guess it won't be safe to turn this thing on.

No instructions on the box, but they did email some in "German" :bored:

Not so good at the moment
 
Just got word from them this morning, they are shipping me a new gauge to replace with the broken one, is this something that is easy to do? thanks
 
Thanks Sam, thats what they said and I just tried it and it came off pretty easy so just a case of replacing it with the new one when it arrives. Packaging wasn't so great either, might have been knocked in transport. :(
 
Themuleous said:
Thats a shame, I hope lunapet don't get sloppy, they are about the best place for CO2 stuff, would be disappointing if they stopped being as good.
Sam
Its my first experience with them, and accidents do happen, they sell a lot of stuff and you can't judge them on a shippment that just didn't go as smooth, they were quick to respond to my questions and were very helpfull and said they would ship another gauge straight away, so don't have any problems with them so far ;)
 
Instructions in English would've been nice though! It may be fairly self explanatory though.

Accidents do happen and you can usually judge how good a place is by how they deal with them. Seems good so far.
 
beeky said:
Instructions in English would've been nice though! It may be fairly self explanatory though.
Accidents do happen and you can usually judge how good a place is by how they deal with them. Seems good so far.
Instructions have pictures in them, I knew roughtly what to do anyway, just wanted the instructions to make sure I was doing it right, not a problem so far ;)
 
Hmmm... no instructions :( I was thinking about getting one of those. Not too impressed to hear that yours was bust, but even worse that it doesn't come with the detailed assembly and instruction manual as promised - I was banking on that cos I haven't got a clue!
 
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