HAGEN FL MINI PRESSURIZED 20G CO2 KIT

I ordered three of these sets on sale here for under $13 a pop, and so far, I think that they work really well for what they are at an extraordinary price. This is not a pressurized system, it’s passive C02. A bubble counter and different diffuser won’t work well with it. Just fill the diffuser with aquarium water when you put it in, keep the provided diffuser low in your tank, fill the chambers once or twice a day when you have plenty of light and let the pressure of the water do its work dispersing it. Only attach one chamber for a five gallon, both chambers for anything up to a 15 gallon tank. No, the diffuser is not elegant, but I can already tell that my plants are responding after a couple of days of use. I’m guessing that the diffuser will soon be well-covered by plant growth, so I’m not concerned with its lack of beauty. In addition, I like the safety of this system. It’s a safe system of dispersal that won’t leave your fish gasping for oxygen. That makes it perfect for beginners who are willing to learn to use it as intended. I do recommend buying generic threaded replacement C02 cartridges for cheaper than what Fluval charges for their brand, but those are available all over Amazon. All in all, so far, so good.

I recently set up a medium planted aquarium in a 20 gallon tank. I was using Seachem Flourish as a supplement until I figured out what I was going to do for CO2, for I'm fairly new to planted tanks.I ended up settling on this because I really didn't feel like I needed an incredibly elaborate CO2 system for the size of my tank or amount of plants.After reviewing the product image, and reading some other reviews about the bulkiness of the stock diffuser, I also purchased the "Fluval Ceramic 88g-CO2 Diffuser - 3.1 Ounces" sold here on Amazon.I also purchased the "Fluval 88g-CO2 Bubble Counter - 3.1 Ounces" so I could accurately determine how many bubbles-per-minute I was injecting, which I've been doing about 50 a minute for a couple of hours with the lighting turned on.Another accessory I bought separately was "Aquarium Fish Tank Suction Cup Glass Cover Plastic Clips Black 10 Pcs." They're basically suction cups used for aquarium heaters; however, this CO2 system has a small lip to hang on the side of the tank. Unfortunately, the top of my tank was too wide for it to fit, and it didn't come with a suction cup option. The black suction cups I ordered are a perfect fit for 16g-20g CO2 canisters (displayed in photo). I'd highly recommend them if you're stuck in the same situation.Overall I'm pretty happy with the purchase. It was very easy to set up. The canisters last a decent enough amount of time, and I've been able to get my CO2 up to a good level for my plants.

I purchased the Fluval Mini Pressurized CO2 Kit several months ago. It is a manual CO2 delivery system, so you will need to turn the CO2 regulator on and off each day. The regulator is a surprisingly low quality and it takes some time to get it "just right" (i.e. ~1 bubble per second) before you can leave it alone. This is why I gave it a one star rating for ease of use. After about 9 weeks of using this system, the regulator broke and I wasted 3 or 4 CO2 cartridges as a result. I called Fluval and they were very nice and sent me a replacement. However, it was the larger 45g system. This system was even more difficult to regulate the CO2. Read reviews on it and you will see what I mean. At the end of the day, I wound up purchasing a CO generator with a solenoid. This is a much better system as 1. the regulator is much easier to control and 2. the solenoid allows you to use a timer (you need to provide the timer) to control when and for how long the CO2 is on. At the end of the day the inconvenience of having to turn on the CO2, work several minutes to get it to the desired bubble count, and perhaps most importantly, the cost of the CO2 cartridges, makes this a low value. Will it work? Yes. But you need to watch it carefully and you will spend quite a bit on CO2 cartridges over the life of this system. In fact, it's a safe bet you will spend more overall on a system like this versus a CO2 generator. Yes, the up front costs of the CO2 generator are higher, but then you will only need to buy citric acid and baking soda every so often versus a CO2 cartridge most likely at 1 per week or week and a half at best,