Safety of CO2 tank

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#1
Hi,

my corals consumption of 2-part is accelerating and I am thinking of switching to a Calcium reactor:

equipments:
Korallin reactor
Plan on using Aquamax GFO chamber as second chamber
carbon doser
Cole Parmer peristaltic pump
Feed off of manifold
5 lb CO2 tank
Apex el controller

Was wondering on the safety of compressed gas tanks. I’ve work with the larger tanks in chemistry labs during college and heard some horrendous stories of when the valves fail. Was wondering if anyone had any experiences with these small tanks—namely, explosion from overfill, where best to fill, etc.

thanjs
 
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#3
i have always ran a Cal Rx and never had any issues.
the co2 is always filled by Airgas so if it explodes its on them, never hear do fit happening though
Lab grade and size is a different story
ive had roughly 8 different tanks and never any issues other than getting too old to refill
 
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#4
I work for Pepsi. We deal with co2 tanks daily. I know a cylinder has to be hydro tested every 5 years. It’s illegal for a supply to fill a tank that is out of date. Also they could be putting them self in danger and open them self up to a law suite if they did fill a cylinder that is out of date.
That said I would just get your co2 from air gas they swap the tanks and deal with the hydro testing.
 
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#5
I’ll also add that it is important to strap or chain a cylinder on operating place. We are trained to never leave a co2 cylinder standing freely. Even if the tank is almost empty and the tank were to get knocked over and hit the valve in a way to break it off you could have a torpedo on your hands. If the tank is full then good luck if a valve breaks off. This is what you could have

 
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#6
Good topic tho cause I’m not sure how many people don’t have there co2 cylinders properly secured.
Here’s another vid of what a co2 tank can do


Just imagine your cleaning your tank and you accidentally hit the tank and falls over. Then with a little mix of bad luck to valve breaks off and the tank torpedos. Then with a whole lot of fuck you luck that torpedo hits a family member or your self.
 
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#8
Good topic tho cause I’m not sure how many people don’t have there co2 cylinders properly secured.
Here’s another vid of what a co2 tank can do


Just imagine your cleaning your tank and you accidentally hit the tank and falls over. Then with a little mix of bad luck to valve breaks off and the tank torpedos. Then with a whole lot of fuck you luck that torpedo hits a family member or your self.
Thank you Emac. I saw on your build that you strap the CO2 tank onto the wall of the stand. I have a small stand. I am thinking of getting a tank Bracket they have. I almost want to put it inside a metal box of some sort. Like you said I heard of the stem of gas cylinder breaking odd and the tank shooting through two walls. I appreciate your input - it’s exactly what I’m worried about…a tank falling over and the stem breaking off and the tank shoot across the room.
 
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#9
i have always ran a Cal Rx and never had any issues.
the co2 is always filled by Airgas so if it explodes its on them, never hear do fit happening though
Lab grade and size is a different story
ive had roughly 8 different tanks and never any issues other than getting too old to refill
That’s what I hope for but knowing the pressure these tanks are under these things do happen.
 

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#10
If you look at HomeDepot they have some heavy duty double sided velcro straps. The packaging shows it wrapping up lumber. Extremely strong and easy to work with. If your stand is wood, all you'll need is that velcro, 2 wood screws and 2 flat washers. Cut the velcro so it over laps when wrapped around the tank by 4-5". Screw threw washer threw the velcro to your stand wall. Do 2 straps on the container, nothing is gonna knock that over. Steel stand, just wrap it around a support. That's how I've been strapping mine for years now. Although I was doing it to protect my regulator assembly if it fell over, good to know these can actually do this much damage.

Crazy how risky this hobby can be. Insane amount of weight, water, glass, electricity meets co2 and a whole world of somewhat unknown bacteria strains and toxins that could potentially F us up....but so relaxing when it's going well :)
 
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#11
If you look at HomeDepot they have some heavy duty double sided velcro straps. The packaging shows it wrapping up lumber. Extremely strong and easy to work with. If your stand is wood, all you'll need is that velcro, 2 wood screws and 2 flat washers. Cut the velcro so it over laps when wrapped around the tank by 4-5". Screw threw washer threw the velcro to your stand wall. Do 2 straps on the container, nothing is gonna knock that over. Steel stand, just wrap it around a support. That's how I've been strapping mine for years now. Although I was doing it to protect my regulator assembly if it fell over, good to know these can actually do this much damage.

Crazy how risky this hobby can be. Insane amount of weight, water, glass, electricity meets co2 and a whole world of somewhat unknown bacteria strains and toxins that could potentially F us up....but so relaxing when it's going well :)
Thank you Mathew. That’s my greatest hesitation to doing a calcium reactor.
 

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#12
Thank you Mathew. That’s my greatest hesitation to doing a calcium reactor.
It's one of those things. Kinda like setting up a tank for the first time, I kept waking up at the slightest sound of water splashing. Then you just kinda get accustomed to it over time. If you take the proper precautions by strapping it well, only keeping tanks that are within their hydro test expiration dates and buying quality regulator parts you will be fine. I also like to have that plumbing liquid for leak testing on initial set up and I'll do it after changing out tanks.
 

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#13
Just strap the CO2 tank to something solid, a simple chain will do, and you are good. Don't need to overcomplicate things.
 
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#14
i have always ran a Cal Rx and never had any issues.
the co2 is always filled by Airgas so if it explodes its on them, never hear do fit happening though
Lab grade and size is a different story
ive had roughly 8 different tanks and never any issues other than getting too old to refill
Does Airgas let you fill your own tank and keep your tank? I heard the Keg or MrKeg fill your tank and let your keep your tank. Thanks
 
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#15
Does Airgas let you fill your own tank and keep your tank? I heard the Keg or MrKeg fill your tank and let your keep your tank. Thanks
Airgas exchanges. So you will get a different tank.
But the nice thing about the exchange program you don’t worry about the tank getting hydro tested every 5 years
 
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#16
Thanks Eric. I bought a nice tank from MD when it was on clearance:(. Maybe I’ll keep that as a spare and get one from airgas as exchange.
 
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Thanks Eric. I bought a nice tank from MD when it was on clearance:(. Maybe I’ll keep that as a spare and get one from airgas as exchange.
Thanks Eric. I bought a nice tank from MD when it was on clearance:(. Maybe I’ll keep that as a spare and get one from airgas as exchange.
You can use yours for as long as you can. But one day they won’t fill it and you will need to get it hydro tested.
So I go to the airgas down in riverside. Every time I’ve gone down I ask the guy if he can grab me the cleanest prettiest co2 tank. I explain I’m use it in a display for a salt water fish tank and I’m not going to bang it up and it will come back in pretty much the same shape. They’ve always gave me the nice tank when I’ve swapped them out and always been cool about it.
 
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#18
I’m going to go to the same place and tell that guy that Eric told me to tell you to give me the prettiest tank as I’m using on for my display tank:)
 

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