# what cause co2 tubing become white?



## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

It's because you're not using the right tubing. You're using silicone tubing which absorbs water (and turns cloudy). You need the vinyl tubing from home depot.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

CO2, in combination with water, creates a little bit of carbonic acid.

Carbonic acid attacks vinyl, which is what your Home Depot tubing is made out of.

You may have seen special CO2 tubing discussed here. It will not turn white or degrade in any way.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

DarkCobra said:


> CO2, in combination with water, creates a little bit of carbonic acid.
> 
> Carbonic acid attacks vinyl, which is what your Home Depot tubing is made out of.
> 
> You may have seen special CO2 tubing discussed here. It will not turn white or degrade in any way.


Not too sure that's exactly true. My vinyl tubing has never turned cloudy on me before when using co2. Regular silicone airline hosing will turn cloudy when kept damp. It readily absorbs moisture.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

I've also yet to see regular, cheapo aquarium airline tubing show any real effect from CO2. 

I replace mine once a year or so because of all the talk about it becoming brittle, but after that amount of time, I can't see any difference between the old and new tubing.

I'm not saying it doesn't degrade, but it must take years.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

The thing is, regular airline tubing is vinyl, not silicone.

Silicone tubing is more expensive than vinyl, and kind of a specialty item. I've never seen silicone tubing at Home Depot. Several LFS sell silicone, but it's semi-transparent blue rather than clear.

As it happens, I have both currently in use in my tanks. Here's Penn Plax Silicone Airline:










No whitening or cloudiness other than its original color. And common LFS vinyl tubing:










The whitening is particularly visible at the end, where it's become completely opaque.

Is it possible you've mistaken what you purchased? Apologies for the question, but I'd like to figure out why our experiences are exactly reversed.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

DarkCobra said:


> The thing is, regular airline tubing is vinyl, not silicone.
> 
> Silicone tubing is more expensive than vinyl, and kind of a specialty item. I've never seen silicone tubing at Home Depot. Several LFS sell silicone, but it's semi-transparent blue rather than clear.
> 
> ...


Okay now I'm thoroughly confused. I have a home depot set of tubing that does not turn cloudy at all in the months of usage I've had it and I have top fin air line hosing that turns cloudy if it's kept in a damp rag for a day. What are they?


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

Interesting.

Top Fin makes both semi-transparent blue silicone and clear vinyl. Which is yours?


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## AirstoND (Jun 17, 2011)

*Calcification*

I also get it on check valve that's submerged. The tubing is stressed and there is air/water diffusion reaction that allows it to grow faster in stretched regions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcification

....analogous to arterial hardening.

Obviously, the remedy is to feed your tank less hard water and walk it 2miles three times a week


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

man making me want that glass music diffuser thingy.

yeah I'm pretty sure I'm using the "right" tubing.. jaggedfurry told me the item number.

I noticed tube that turned white is only "dipped" in the water... and yes I had some back-siphoned couple of days ago. so everything that is covered by water turns to white.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

For what it's worth, I am using CO2 tubing and it has turned completely white below the water line.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

So are we looking at the calcification of the exterior portion of the submerged tubing or is this an impact of carbonic acid slowly eating away at the inside? I am really interested in finding out what is going on here because I know that Co2 tubing is substantially more expensive than "air line tubing" at the LFS. However, I was always assured that the additional cost wasn't driven by cosmetic (whitening) reasons. The additional cost was the efficiency of Co2 delivery. Plastic/vinyl absorbs the Co2 during delivery? Sorry I can't clearly remember the logic behind the lack of efficiency... maybe it is strictly marketing wizardry?


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

Common vinyl is extremely efficient at delivering CO2. Silicone leaks some 55x more CO2, but 55x an extremely small amount is still a very small amount; and probably more of an issue in theory than reality. I recall someone ran a lot of silicone tubing in their tank to see if the amount of CO2 leaked would be measurable as an increase in CO2 in the water, and it was not.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

So... in theory, go vinyl!


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Tygon comes in 20 different varieties (one is very C02 resistant) and is the best for C02 if you can find it, I used it years ago, forgot about my tank for years, and then started to rebuild and the stuff was still in such good shape I was tempted to use it. I been using silcone since April and worry a little about it degrading.

I think the white is just the tubing getting water logged, it sound stupid but my Eheim tubing is white ish under water.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

Same with some of my pieces of Rena I used for my Co2 reactor.


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