CO2 regulator fail causing 6.2 PH in tank
 

Well, I had my first major failure... CO2 regulator failed in some way where all of the CO2 left the 10lb bottle and vented into the sump area.

The PH of the tank was 6.2 in the tank and everything was VERY unhappy :redface:. I immediately increased surface flow and held a tunze powerhead close to the water creating a crazy amount of bubbles in the tank. I also added a couple shots of BRS ALK to help boost it a bit.

A couple of losses so far are: 1x blue streak cardinal (other fish are not showing up yet) and my trusty light skirt that suffered major damage while thrashing around trying to get fresh air into the basement (was stepped on with vengance).

I guess I'm creating this post to get some good information from people who have suffered a similar experience (what's next?) and advise me on what regulator to get for my C02 bottle (current one is a Milwaukee with solinoid).

I had a similar problem in the past,place as many power heads as possible inyour tank or sump with 1/4" tubing near each intake of power head and draw as much air bubbles as you can into your tank and within an hour the you should have a considerable rise in your Ph.I don't recomend moving any of your inhabitant as this will cause more stress(anyways all the fish should be in hiding)I would even run a 1/4" line into your main pump as well. Draw as much fresh air into the room your tank is in.

I had the same thing happen to me as well. Turn off the lights to help the stressed fish relax, perform a water change and aerate. Then go buy a system to monitor/control the pH in your tank as well as your Ca reactor to try and keep this from happening again.

Or at least thats what I did.

brand of co2 regulator?

At the bottom of his post:

After my incident in 2006 I switched to a regulator from aquariumplants.com which was suppose to be the best at the time. I've been told that their products and services have improved since then but all I can say is that I was not impressed.

Interesting, I was about to pull the trigger on a "CarbonDoser Electronic CO2 regulator" from them. Do you have any other suggestions as far as brands?

On another note, I'm running a profilux controller which was alarming me when I got home. I instantly knew what was going on and where to look, I tried to setup email alerts with no success. I suppose I'll try harder now.

Thanks got it.

On the second note, so you are saying that you are not satisfy with the "aquariumplants.com" regulator & solenoid? What are the issues? [I am almost ready to get that one instead]

I'm actually in the same boat right now. I'd like to get a new CO2 regulator too but I'm not sure what the best is anymore either...

Keep in mind that it was about 5 years ago when i bought my stuff from aquariumplants.com so my house brand unit isn't even listed on their site anymore. But at the time it was promoted as 'the best' on Reef Central.

It took over a month for me to receive my package and they did not reply to any of my emails or answering machine messages.
The regulator seizes up several times each year (somewhere inside the unit before the solenoid) forcing me to dismantle and fiddle with it before it starts working again. Twice this has happened while I've been out of town...
I've never been able to get it to maintain a steady flow.

Note: I've got a check valve on the output to keep saltwater from ever backing up inside. I also run RO/DI water in the bubble counter which has another check valve below. My Apex switches the solenoid open and closed to maintain the Calcium Reactors pH between 6.5 and 6.6.

I run a Milwaukee Regulator and it's probably 12 years old and rusty. It is controlled by an aquacontroller 3 ( controls the solenoid). So far so good. I guess you could run 2 solenoids with the controller controlling both set at slightly different values. Hope this helps.

Hi Dez, wouldn't it be time to replace this regulator - just to be safe?!