# HELP! I just gassed all my fish :frusty:



## Saturation (Mar 24, 2010)

So, I bought a Co2 setup off craigslist last week, and was very pleased with what I had gotten. New and full 5 pound tank + milwaukee regulator, solanoid valve, bubble counte, and diffuser for 160$. Set it all up and ran it for 2 days before going away for the 2 days. Came back tonight to find all my fish dead and an empty co2 tank! I had 30 celestial pearl danios all dead...so I removed the bodies and started a 50% water change...is there anything else I should do? Is it possible my regulator is faulty? I dont understand how it could have emptied the whole 5 pound co2 tank...when I left it was going at about 2 bubbles per second. Any advice? Although all my amano shrimp are dead as well, the only good thing to come out of this is, 99% of my snail population is dead :neutral:


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## Saturation (Mar 24, 2010)

One question I do have is...Is my water going to be super saturated with co2? since I have no fish in my tank anymore...should I have left the old water in there and let the plants go crazy or something?


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

nothing will happen now..sorry about your loss...did you check for leaks? someone more knowleadgeable can hopefully pitch in for what to do "next" to make sure the tank is useable. r u sure the tank was full or was that what the seller said...might have been end of tank dump...


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Dang! After a few hours all the CO2 would have gassed out, so it would not have helped the plants any more or less to have kept the old water in there. When you refill the tank, check for any leaks and check the solenoid to see if it sticks open when you unplug it. There's more than one possible problem that may have occured, but it could have been a faulty regulator or an end-of-tank dump. Are you sure it was really "full" when you got it?


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## Saturation (Mar 24, 2010)

Well, I was told it was full but, it could very well have no been, it felt heavy...I didnt really bother to weight it or anything...I took the man by his word and its very possible he lied. So now my question is...What exactly is an end of tank dump and how do I prevent another one?

I am going to get the tank refilled and checked tomorow.


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## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

Tank dumps occur depending on the reg you have. Some regs are designed in such a way that when the pressure reaches a certain "low" point, they will gas off of the remainder of the bottle.

Sounds to me like this may have happened to you.

To prevent it...either get a new reg or be observant of the level in the tank.


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

remember to check for leaks, if you didn't the first time! or the same thing could happen again.


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## joesaysso (Jun 4, 2011)

Are you sure that you gassed the fish as opposed to the system leaking out from somewhere else and something else killing the stock? If you are sure that your fish were gassed then is your solenoid valve hooked up to a PH controller? If not then it should be. If it is, then I would start there and say that your controller either failed or needs to be calibrated.

Its probably been about 6 years since I bought my "high tech" CO2 set-up. I have never once experienced this "end of tank dump" event and had never even heard of it before until this thread. As I read your post and the replies that followed, I started to wonder how I had never experienced this or even heard of it before. I wondered if I had just been lucky or if maybe I got the right type of regulator. I visualized my set-up in my head. Thats when I realized that as long as my PH controller was working properly, it would never allow this end of tank dump event to occur in my tank.

As CO2 poured into the water while the CO2 tank was emptying, the PH in the tank water would start to drop. Once the PH hits the pre-set lowest tolerable range, the PH controller closes the solenoid. Thusly, stopping the flow of CO2 into the water.

A PH controller *is* expensive. Buying one by itself will probably run you about 200 bucks. But I consider it to be a vital part of the setup. Before now, I considered it to be worth the money with the reasons being that A) being that you can control the PH operating range, the PH stays stable. No steep rises or falls. The controller opens and closes the solenoid at a certain point to control the amount of CO2 that goes into the water. Think of the value of a thermostat for your heating/air condition system. Without the thermostat, the a/c is either full on or full off. Then its either too cold or too hot in the house. The thermostat keeps the air just the right temp within a range that you set and are comfortable with. B) Since the controller has the solenoid closed a good percentage of the time, it saves me money on CO2 refills. Back to the thermostat example, the thermostat saves you money on your electric bill because it uses the a/c only when it needs it and then shuts it off. The PH controller does the same. Regardless of your bubble count, a properly set controller will stretch a CO2 bottle a couple of months because the tank is getting CO2 only when it needs it. My regulator is set to put out about 4 to 5 bubbles a second and I usually get about 3-4 months out of a 5lb. bottle of CO2.

Before this thread I didn't realize that there was a reason C but........C) it prevents end of tank dump. Again, its pricey. But a little money spent upfront saves a lot of money on the back end. Think of the CO2 and all of that livestock lost.

That absolutely stinks about your stock. Good luck in rebuilding. I hope I was helpful in some way.

Joe


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Sorry to hear that happened to you. I have had end of tank dump, but luckily I've been home to catch it.
My thoughts are that you could possibly have a faulty regulator though being that you bought it used.


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