CO2 gas delivery systems.

[marine]

Here is a shop in Ottawa that deals to the public. They sell swage fittings, valves and Tygon tubing. The ideal is to use 1/4" Tygon and all Swage fittings.  I was a gas delivery system expert for Nortel.

Ottawa Fluid System Technologies 226-1862
. Tell these people what you want to do. The least I would have is:
- 120V solonoid valve and timer
- needle valve
- optional 5 psi blowoff valve
- You should  have a quality 2 stage regulator
You should be operating around 1-2 psi. You DO NOT want your needle valve exposed to high pressures. I hear horror stories of regulators failing and dumping tank loads into your system which is lethal to fish. The 5 psi blowoff will prevent this.

                                                Good Luck

[marine]

I found this package deal in the dry goods section of the above Canadian mail order site. It is for a calcium reactor but would also be pretty decent for a CO2 plant application.

Dual gauge regulator SWC PURE REEF
Dual gauge co2 regulator with needle valve and solenoid(to shut off co2 in case of a powere failure)
$149.99

[Poustic]

FYI -

Ottawa Fluid System Technologies web site:
http://www.swagelok.com/distributors/distsites/OTAWA/otawa_index.asp

[Poustic]

I had a chat today with a sales rep at Ottawa Fluid System Technologies (a.k.a. Swagelok Ottawa), and although I might pay them a visit for their fittings and such, she said they don't have Tygon tubing.  They didn't have much in terms of low-end solenoid valves either.  They seem to specialize more in the high-end, custom-made equipment.  Strangely enough though, they typically sell vinyl tubing, which I believe is the regular air tubing found in fish stores and hardware stores.

I saw various kinds of tubing today at Réno-Dépôt.  Among others, they had vinyl, rubber, latex, and polyethylene tubing.  What have you guys been using?  I also saw needle valves and compression fittings.

[marine]

You know, I can't see how huge the CO2 loss would be if you  used vinyl tubing or whatever. If you only run a few psi and you consider the total surface area of the inside if your tubing any permeation losses would be pretty small.

[ekim]

I agree with marine, the loss of CO2 through the any of the tubings is very small / not noticeable!  I use tubing from homedepot that looks like standard LFS tubing.  Proper CO2 tubing would probably only save you 10 cents a year in CO2!!!