# Cleaning Atomic Inline CO2 Diffuser



## DirtDevilDTOM (Nov 10, 2014)

I have an atomic inline CO2 diffuser from GLA which has worked pretty well for me over the last 6 months. You are supposed to clean it every 6 months and they recommend swapping it out with a clean unit so you can clean the dirty one. On their website they reccomend cleaning the diffuser with a cleaning kit which is some sort of acid wash I presume.

Unfortunately, their website has been out of the cleaning kit for several months so I will need to clean it some other way. I have emailed them and their support mentioned using a bleach solution diluted with water. They told me to use a 25% bleach to 75% water combo and soak it overnight. Then soak it in a solution with prime to take out the chlorine. This is "similar" to what I would do with say, Purigen or something.

So, I have no problem with doing that but you look at their cleaning instructions that comes with the diffuser and it says "DO NOT USE BLEACH". haha 

Has anyone had experiences with cleaning the diffuser this way or some other method that doesn't involve the cleaning kit?


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

DirtDevilDTOM said:


> I have an atomic inline CO2 diffuser from GLA which has worked pretty well for me over the last 6 months. You are supposed to clean it every 6 months and they recommend swapping it out with a clean unit so you can clean the dirty one. On their website they reccomend cleaning the diffuser with a cleaning kit which is some sort of acid wash I presume.
> 
> Unfortunately, their website has been out of the cleaning kit for several months so I will need to clean it some other way. I have emailed them and their support mentioned using a bleach solution diluted with water. They told me to use a 25% bleach to 75% water combo and soak it overnight. Then soak it in a solution with prime to take out the chlorine. This is "similar" to what I would do with say, Purigen or something.
> 
> ...


+1 interested in other's experiences with cleaning. I have one I need to clean and have been waiting for GLA's solution to come into stock. If other's have used a bleach solution with no ill effects, I would rather go that route.


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## nayr (Jan 18, 2014)

soak it in distilled vinegar and then flush it out with h2o2, preferably the concentrated 30% variety... the vinegar is acidic and will break down calcium deposits, the h2o2 will sterilize and open the pores.


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## Brian Mc (Feb 9, 2012)

Cleaned mine with water and aquarium salt as an abrasive. Worked great for me.


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## DirtDevilDTOM (Nov 10, 2014)

Is the consensus that you wouldn't use bleach?

If I go the distilled vinegar route, does it soak in pure distilled vinegar? Leave it overnight?

When you say "flush" it with H2O2, is this a soak afterwards or do you have a different process?

Is there somewhere else online where I can get "the cleaning kit"? I've searched everywhere. Honestly though, if there is a sure-fire method using household supplies I'd rather go that route anyway versus having to buy proprietary stuff.


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## nayr (Jan 18, 2014)

> Clean atomic diffuser with atomic acidity detergent or special cleaning kit for atomic inline diffusers. *Do not use bleach. Never rub ceramic.*


drop it in a container of vinegar, let it sit overnight or longer if you wish.. 

flush it by soaking it for a few hours, shaking regularly and injecting some with a syringe into the co2 port... if you use concentrate dont get it on anything as its caustic and will burn your skin, carpet, furnature, etc... as it sheds that extra oxygen molecule and turns into water its like boiling, but more violent and effective... breaking up the deposits and destroying organic matter.

If its really dirty or you have a hardwater tank you might want to repeat the process.. especially if you have a spare you switch between.


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## DirtDevilDTOM (Nov 10, 2014)

awesome, thanks - great info! If I go with the 3% USP (what I have now) how effective would it be?


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## nayr (Jan 18, 2014)

it would still work, just do it longer and use more.. iirc within 24h or so its pretty much exhausted and is just plain water.. always keep the lid on your dihydrogen dioxide container or you'll end up with an expensive bottle of dihydrogen monoxide, aka water..


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