Help with needle valve and regulator

[slojmn1]

I recently set up my calcium reactor again after a solenoid went bad on me. I put a new solenoid on. This entailed taking the needle valve off the regulator, removing the old solenoid, putting the new solenoid back on and putting the needle valve back in place. I hooked up the reactor and dialed in the needle valve. I let it run for 2 days and noticed that the bubble rate dropped to almost nothing. The right guage on the regulator was at 15 psi, the left guage was at 800psi. I tried opening the needle valve a bit to let more bubbles flow and nothing happened. I crancked it all the way open, nothing. I then increased the pressure in the right guage by turning the black knob on the regulator and got the pressure up to 40psi. Lo and behold bubbles come shooting out. After a moment of this the bubbles started to fade again. It appears that the needle valve is not doing much int he way of controling bubble rate, but increasing pressure in the right valve is upping the bubble count, decreasing the pressure is decreasing the bubble count. My thought is a leak in the needle valve or solenoid connection somewhere. I closed the needle valve and decreased the pressure in the right guage to 20psi and went to bed. Upon waking the right valve showed 0 psi, nothing in the regulator. This seems to confirm the leak in the regulator theory. What do you think? I also took the feed powerhead off the reactor as I got a charge from it (brand new maxi jet 400) and the re-circulation pump appears to be drawing water out of the sump through the line without a powerhead. Will this last or is this a fluke? I guess I should do the old soapy water test on the lines. Open things up and spray soapy water around. Any help here would be appreciated. This thing is making me nervous.

 

[slojmn1]

Found the leak on both sides of the solenoid at the regulator and at the needle valve. In our attempt to tighten we had to remove part of the solenoid. When we put the solenoid back together the tiny O ring must have come unseated and the thing got mangled. We found this out when there was a leak at the solenoid connection only. Looks like we got the other parts tight enough. I have been to two hardware places and they have no O rings that skinny. They have the size in diameter, just not the skinny variety. What now? This is like an on going terrible saga. I have a friend headin to Home Depot to see what selection they have. one guy suggested an Auto parts store. So the search continues.

 

[IBJJ]

dump the solenoid and run it without it. Unless ur using a controller. If not and the power cuts off your cycling pump isn't going to run anyhow and ur not going to get much CO2 in the tank. May waste some CO2 but thats cheaper than buying new solenoids.

 

[slojmn1]

That is an interesting idea. I was running with a pinpoint controller but the controller is goign wacky. I talked to Pinpoint once, since then I have not been able to get through as their suggestions did not work. Maybe I will run it without either the controller or the solenoid. This is the second solenoid as the first one went bad and dumped a ton of co2 in my system. I lost three fish but everythign else survived. Now the controller is messed up, then I mess up the second solenoid. Maybe this is all a not so subtle hint.

 

[Coraltank]

You could check at a wielding supply company.They may have an O-ring that will work.

 

[slojmn1]

Tried undoing the connector piece from the regulator tot he solenoid. NO GO. It seems as if it is welded in place. I know it is not but the sucker would not loosen. We were afraid that if we torked on it to much we would snap the regulator off at the neck. So back to square one. I need the O ring. What a nightmare. I have $400 worth of equipment that is either busted or not able to work due to other parts being screwed up. I am so frustrated with this whole thing.
Coraltank-thanks for the heads up on welding companies. I will try that next week between the holidays. I am also going to try to contact M3 who made the solenoid to see if they have the O ring. Somehow we'll get it going.

 

[Russ1]

Call Edward at m3 and ask for his advise. He will actually answer his phone at night sometimes. I have the m3 selenoid and it works fine however it is difficult to adjust if the pressure in the reactor is too high. Also make sure you drip return into sump so that excess co2 can escape if necessary. FWIW take it from me, if the pressure is too high in the reactor you can blow the small connections off the circulating pump and drain your sump onto the floor!

 

[IBJJ]

Also...check in your yellow pages to see if you have any place that supplies materials for brewing your own beer. Any type of beverage supply company. They use the CO2 tanks and regulators also and probably have the o rings also.

 

[slojmn1]

I emailed Edward at M3, they don't have the O ring. They were not even aware of the internals of the solenoids. Leave it to me to screw this up royally. I guess there is another way to get the solenoid on the regulator than taking it apart. Not very smart. He haad a solution but it entails screwing in the needle valve directly to the regulator. Still can't get that connector piece unscrewed. Do you think if we put some thread loosening oil in there it would potentially contaminate the area and make its way into my tank?