Wow some of these posts hit a whole new level of ignorants that I haven't seen for a while on this forum. Okay heres a story for all of you unnecessarily paranoid folk. About 10 years ago I had a roommate looking after my tank for a week while I went out of town. One day (probably the day I was returning home) while feeding the fish or topping off the water lost to evaporation he bumped one of the valves further open on the C02 regulator. What I came home to was an empty 20 lbs C02 cylinder (which had been full when I left) two very alive roommates (although I felt like killing them myself), and one ticked off tank. The pH was low and the fish were gasping but not dead. I dealt with the problem quickly, no one died or even noticed for that matter and all of the fish and coral lived too.
Most hobbyists use smaller 5 or 10 lbs C02 cylinders which do not contain enough gas to do anything harm unless you accidentally open the valves and purge the entire thing into your tank (a pH controller should stop this) or start sucking on the end yourself. FYI too much Ca or Alk solution from a 2 part dosing system can nuke a tank too.
Compressed gas cylinders don't just rupture on their own either. It takes a strong impact to damage the unit and send it flying like a missile. Sitting idle in a house you'd need a toddler with a hammer or a good old fashioned house levelling earth quake to make that happen.
|