# CO2 Resistant Tubing



## Canoe2Can (Oct 31, 2004)

Postscript: I've seen that Foster and Smith have ozone resistant tubing for sale. Since I'm planning an order there in the near future, I'd like to know if that would work.


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## glass-gardens.com (Apr 14, 2004)

Silicone will harden over time with CO2 exposure, which will tend to causes leaks on barb fittings at the very least.

It's hard to say if the ozone resistant tubing will be OK fror CO2 use though without knowing the details of the product.


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## aquatic-store.com (May 24, 2003)

Also regular tubing will lost (don't quote me exactly ) almost 20% of co2


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

My LFS told me the CO2 resistant tubing and silicon are the samething, true or false. I figured the key word is resistant and that both would most likely break down after a period of time. I guess the place to check would be beer and soda vendors that use pressurized systems.


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## dewcew (Aug 3, 2004)

I don't use the CO2 resistant tubing per se. I actually use polyethylene tubing. You can order it from Mcmastercar. I like this tubing for a couple of reasons.

1) Is safe to use with CO2
2) Semi-rigid so don't have to worry about it crimping
3) Is colored black so it blends into the back of the tank
4) Works with compression fittings so it easy to connect to CO2 regulator, CO2 reactor, etc.
5) Fairly cheap

Dan


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## Canoe2Can (Oct 31, 2004)

I checked on the tubing at Foster and Smith, and it is made of neoprene. Anyone know if that would be good for use with CO2? 

What I read sometime back was that vinyl tubing loses about 20-25%, silicone only about 5%, and CO2 specific tubing only about 1% of gas. 

I'd never heard that silicone will harden with CO2 exposure until I saw it on this website. Of course, now I've got 40 feet of it sitting around too.


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## glass-gardens.com (Apr 14, 2004)

It won't harden over night, I apologize if I gave that impression.

What happens is that it slowly loses it's resiliency, like a hose barb connection will start to leak because the hose just starts to stretch doesn't exert enough pressure for a good seal.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I have found some tubing of interest but its not cheap. Tygoprene tubing, click on the link below for a spec. sheet. It's sold by www.smallparts.com for about 10 bucks for 5ft and little or no discount for 10ft. After reading some articles at the krib and other places it seems that silicon and vinyl tubing not only degrade, the may loose up to 30% of CO2 through permeability. 


www.tygon.com/media/documents/S0000000000000001013/tygoprene.pdf


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## wantplantsnotwork (Nov 28, 2004)

How about using plain ol copper tubing, and co2 tubing as a coupler? Then the only losses would be confined to very short coupling sections.


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## glass-gardens.com (Apr 14, 2004)

or any of the products offered by the forum sponsors for that matter


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## Canoe2Can (Oct 31, 2004)

I'm curious if anyone knows about or has used neoprene tubing? I've found it at a decent price and they say it's good for ozone, which would seem to me to be as rough on tubing as CO2 would be.


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## ksand (Oct 19, 2004)

Permeability Table 

I like the black tubing sold by AquaBotanic.com.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I noticed that the stats for Tygoprene were not included (new product). It looked to me that some on permeability table performed better.


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## wantplantsnotwork (Nov 28, 2004)

The stuff GG sells should do it.  

According to the permibility table it is close to 0, where as the silicone tubing is in the 20K range. I remember one other post on a similiar thread commenting the silicone might make a good diffuser in the tank!


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I couldn't find any solid data on the other tubings, so I bought 10' of the Tygoprene with it being less than 1% permeable and strongly resistant to acids and bases and designed for long term use. I think the only other competition in the size tubing I'm looking for would be flexible PVC. I guess I,ll find out, I'm not going to touch my needle valve, I'll turn the tank off and install the new tubing then check to see if there are more Bubbles per minute after the tanks turned back on.


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

150EH said:


> I couldn't find any solid data on the other tubings...


*EDIT* Bah, didn't see the link ksand put up. This post can be deleted.


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## Hypancistrus (Oct 28, 2004)

I'd recommend Norprene tubing, it resists just about anything you'd find in the aquarium (ozone, co2, etc.), and lasts forever. Foster & Smith sells this as "ozone resistant tubing."


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## glass-gardens.com (Apr 14, 2004)

Our CO2 tubing is a highly flexible PVC, the only other tubing sold by our supplier that seems to be better for CO2 use would be the Tygon which is ridiculously expensive.


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