Co2 system questions.

Hope this is in the right category. Ok what I am trying to do is set up a co2 system for my 20gallon tall tank. I've been gong to my local pet stores to just see what's out there in the market and every guy so far says just do the homemade get up. That's all fine and dandy but for the apperance of my house and tank I don't want soda bottles just sitting out so I wanna go the injection route "I think" I just need to now what to buy and any suggestions on what and how to do it. I think I just wanted to get a paintball tank and start from their. Any help will be welcomed.

The best way to do CO2, in my somewhat informed opinion, is to get a regulator with a 120v AC solenoid valve on it + bubble counter and use a PH controller to adjust the amount of CO2 added to the aquarium. This way you avoid PH fluctuations while providing a stable, constant amount of CO2 for your plants. I've done this in the past and it works pretty well, though you'll have to calibrate your meter every once and a while. This isn't a terribly cheap method of doing it, but it's the most effective across the board. I would also avoid a paintball tank as a normal tank doesn't cost all that much more and it'll save you trips to get refilled.

A step down from that is using a timer to switch the CO2 on when the lights come on and off when the lights go out. This doesn't provide as stable an amount of CO2 as with a controller or as stable a PH and it takes a bit of tinkering to get find the CO2 sweet spot, but it works.

But you have to have a bottle regardless of whether you do DIY or pressurized CO2, so that means you still have to have a way to hide the bottle / tank. Unless you think a pressure tank is sexy or something.  

I don't do CO2 at all now... it's not worth the time and maintenance to me (plants grow faster, gotta check the system regularly, gotta get the bottle filled, gotta keep the diffuser clean, etc.). That and my regulator is crap... good ones are about $200 (at least they were back when mine went out).

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This is a 5 LB cylinder, regulator with solenoid. It's feeding 2 tanks, 140g and 30g. It's controlled by a timer.


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This is a 2.5 LB cylinder(in a box) , reg with solenoid. It sits under a 9.5 gallon.

Shopped around for the regulators, found them on sale at a Plant Grow store for $100 each. The 2.5 pound tank was around $50.

I researched the refillable Paint ball canisters. It was more convenient to go this route for me. I know there are a couple members that use the paint ball canister setup hopefully they will chime in.

I looked into getting a regulator for a paintball tank and using it, but never made the jump. It seems like you can get a cheap regulator for that type of tank, but probably a better idea to get a quality one, as CO2 can be dangerous to your fish if it gets to high levels.

Why not try out the DIY style and just see how it goes? It's almost free compared to pressurized systems, and might give you at least an idea of how things go with it. I may have even talked myself into it If you get a good diffuser and a timer (although the PH controller is a good idea), DIY should work ok

skip the paintball regulator and tank
get a regular co2 regulator and an full sized co2 set up...if you want to you buy an adapter to adapt down to the paintball thread size. It will save you money when you want to upgrade to a bigger tank. also filling a 20 lb tank with co2 is about $24.