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bushie
Mon Dec 18, 2006, 11:34 PM
what is the difference in grades of co2?

agricultural, industrial and food grade co2.

which are we sposed to use on our tanks?

is one better than another?

because of the fine valves and regs, is one less likely to do damage, jam or block up the equipment?

Rgoganj
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 12:01 AM
The main difference is purity of the gas.

duck
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 05:23 AM
The main difference is purity of the gas.

Please explain purity?I thought CO2 was CO2,Maybe it they way the handle it.

Proteus
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 05:47 AM
For aquaria, home brewing and fizzy drink use you should only ever use Food Grade C02.

It gaurantees no contaminates, even though the others are clean, they may contain a small percentage of Nitrogen

Nathan
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 05:51 AM
agricultural, industrial and food grade co2.

theres also medical grade co2, ive heard this stuff dissolves the best however its more expehnsive.

as pro said food grade stuff is the way to go, its safe for your fish, reasonable price (depending where u get it filled), i use it an nearly all ppl with co2 setups use that to on there tanks.

ryan
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 10:13 AM
its funny this topic is mentioned on the forums

when I re-filled my tank at boc I asked the guy who was filling them up what the difference was and he told me it was all filled from the same main tank and there was no difference between food grade & industrial - he even showed me at the time the tanks he had ready to refill, both for food grade & also industrial - whether or not that is correct I can not be sure or points to a larger problem at the location i go to?

this is just my experience

ive always used the same place and never had a problem, though I may have just been lucky reading the other posts?

Proteus
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 10:20 AM
I think if you really want to know the deal with the grades of C02 go browse some home brewing discussion forums.

I assure you after a bit of reading you will understand that there is a HUGE difference in quality between industrial grade and food grade C02. (according to them anyway)

For a start, there are companies out there that do C02 blends (30/70 C02/Nitrogen) for an enhanced brewing result and if they are not 100% sure you have food grade C02 they will dump the contents of your cylinder and refill it to be certain.

BOC's website even identifies that there are differences

Proteus
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 10:28 AM
Lets see... (all different btw)

Carbon Dioxide Anaerobic Grade
(Code Major 053: Minor Code 0176)

Carbon Dioxide SFC Grade
(Code Major 052: Minor Code 0207)

Carbon Dioxide Medical Grade
(UN number 1013 Class 2.2)

Carbon Dioxide Food Grade

Carbon Dioxide Industrial Grade

ryan
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 10:28 AM
dont think Ill be going back to that place again!

Grae
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 12:53 PM
I was told at my homebrew shop that all co2 is the same
the contaminants are in the bottles.
the way i was explained it was that a old bottle will have rust and other contaminants therfore causing it not to be as pure.

Graeme

Proteus
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 08:38 PM
I was told at my homebrew shop that all co2 is the same
the contaminants are in the bottles.
the way i was explained it was that a old bottle will have rust and other contaminants therfore causing it not to be as pure.

Graeme

So now we have someone saying the aluminium/steel bottles are all different...

No disrespect, I have more faith in the info on the BOC website, which actually lists the percentages of content in each of the C02 grades, and there are clearly differences.

I am sure someone will have a definitive answer as to why, what and how...

Maybe we should be talking about happy gas, now that would be interesting

:wink:

Grae
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 08:46 PM
No offence taken Pro,

I was just repeating what i was told.
In Perth we are limited to BOC who wont refill ANY other bottles or a homebrew shop that buys BULK from BOC ( Was told they only sell one CO2 in bulk ) and then decants to the privately owned bottles.

If I'm wrong it wont be the first time :lol:

If I'm right well that would be something to talk about :wink:

Graeme

Proteus
Tue Dec 19, 2006, 09:36 PM
If I'm wrong it wont be the first time

If I'm right well that would be something to talk about

lol

I dont think any of us are right or wrong, just we have all been told differents things... be good if someone could conclusively answer what the situation is....

or maybe I am hoping for too much and need to degas a bit... :roll:

diveboy
Wed Dec 20, 2006, 10:04 AM
I'll add some more confusion.

from my scuba experience.

Steel tanks weigh more, so you need to carry less weight, they are also stronger, so can hold more volume (pressure).

aluminum tanks weigh less, hold less and are weaker of course.

both types of tanks need to be inspected at the same intervals.

Thats from my diving experience, breathing out of both tanks up to 44 meters deep.

fish_r
Wed Dec 20, 2006, 11:24 AM
i was told by a salesman as BOC that the only difference in grades of co2 was the way bottles are cleaned b4 refilling "descaling i think the term was"