Help! Water goes into my CO2 tank!

**Soll** · 29th Nov 2010, 18:45

The CO2 tank belongs to my mum, the uncle just sold it to her "assuming" she knows how it works. Long story short, the tank has a single gauge regulator so she need to manually regulate the CO2 bubble count the whole day but after a while laziness sets in and the water some how got into it.

So what can i do to salvage it?

If i change it to a dual gauge regulator does it mean i just set and the bubble count will be stable till the tank needs to be refilled?

**aquarius** · 29th Nov 2010, 20:37

I'm not sure whether the cyclinder can still be used a not but i presume you didn't use a check valve that's why the water got into the CO2 cyclinder?? Get a regulator that has a solenoid and also a timer, so you just have to adjust the amount of CO2 to be pumped into the tank once and the timer will turn on and off at the set time.

**Soll** · 29th Nov 2010, 21:33

I think there is a check valve. Just that the uncle assembled every thing on the spot and just told my mum to place the outlet in the tank. End up the check valve is actually submerge in the tank.

**Shadow** · 30th Nov 2010, 02:08

how many check valve do you have, it does not matter even if check valve is submerse. My guess is the check valve is not working properly. CO2 and water is become very acid, it might corrode your CO2 tank.

**pangcv** · 30th Nov 2010, 12:52

In KL, some lfs can help to open the co2 tank and release the water. (empty tank condition)

**Soll** · 30th Nov 2010, 14:34

I guess i need to bring it to the LFS for some check up. Thanks!

**himyick** · 30th Nov 2010, 14:58

From the original post, it doesn't sounds like the tank ran out of CO2. If your tank still has CO2, it is unlikely that water will goes into the tank, because of the positive pressure in the tank. Water can and normally 'backflow' up the tubing because CO2 is easily dissolved in water, but the water will reach the regulator in the worst case. The regulator you mentioned is known for its erratic bubble count.

A dual gauge regulator only allows you to visualise both the internal tank pressure and the step-down pressure (output). A needle valve is used fine tune the output to suit our aquarium use and its normally installed with higher-quality regulator.

**Shadow** · 30th Nov 2010, 16:06

good point, it might not go into the tank due to the pressure

**Soll** · 1st Dec 2010, 02:09

Well I have also no idea why that would happen, I only know that after a while I tried to turn the CO2 on there is a burst of water from the regulator. I not entirely sure the water is spew from inside the tank or its just nice at the regulator.
I assume the worst.