MagTool 4L Aquarium CO2 Generator System Carbon Dioxide Reactor Kit with Regulator and Needle Valve (4L with Solenoid)

After hours of research on Co2 tank kit, I finally found a “nearly perfect” Co2 tank kit that fit my budget, since I found another even cheaper Co2 tank on Amazon…. Dont go for those brand one that charge you like an arm and a leg. Trust me, you need Co2 if you plan to start a planted aquarium.I’ve always failed to start a planted aquarium without using Co2 and just focusing on aquarium plant. Hella algae and I gave up. This is the first time and I said F it and just get myself a Co2 tank with citric acid and baking soda as a reactant to get Co2. It sounds easy to go to a store and refill your Co2 tank but I’m too lazy and I live in the Bay, and I yelped and found that they charged like $15 to fill up a 4L Co2 tank. So I just use the baking soda and cictric method for a cheaper price and dont have to go anywhere. Baking soda from Arm and Hammer get you like 13.5lb for $12 at Costco. Citric acid is like 6lb for $23 with Milliard. Every reaction, you only need to spend like $5.2 per 4L for Co2 bottle with 450 - 550 PSI.People are really bad with math on here like bruhh, use freaking chatgpt if you are bad at math and chem. To sum it up, to create Co2, for every mole of citric acid you need 3 mole of baking soda. So you need 457g of citric acid and 600g of baking soda with 934mL of water to produce approximately 641psi of Co2. This is based on perfect calculation, usually you will get around 450 - 550 psi of Co2.1:1.3129 (citric acid, baking soda)Water required to dissolve citric acid:For 457 g of citric acid:457g/148g/100 mL=3.09× 100 mL=309mL of waterWater required to dissolve sodium bicarbonate:For 600 g of sodium bicarbonate:600g/96g/100 mL=6.25× 100 mL=625 mL of waterThis is the reason why you need 934 mL of water to dissolve everything correctly. Just plug in different gram of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and citric acid to get your required water.Since citric acid is more expensive than baking soda that you can get in Costco, I set the citric acid as a limiting reagent.TLDR; remember 1gram:1.3129gram (citric acid, baking soda) then calculate the required water to dissolve everything!Now you just need to add those baking soda, citric in and shake that stainless steel and add water at an angle. Easy peacy no cap. The diffuser for this suck, so buy a different diffuser from fzone or something. My first time starting and I stare at the freking thing for like 3 hours with no Co2. Keep thinking there is a leak or something but it’s the bad diffuser and searched all on reddit….. get yourself a different diffuser. Also get yourself an alexa outlet or something outlet with a timer that you can control with your phone for your solenoid. Since I use this Co2 tank with a Siesta Method. No algae whatsoever!!! First time I got no freaking algae with this algae and maximum brightness. I got 4 tank and I used hygger and Brite light. Brite light is the best trust me. Easy to set up and can set up when it is turn on in correlation with your Co2 turning on.The Co2 tube is kinda rigid to stick it to the bubble counter. I kinda have to use a lighter and loosen up to tie the nut to the bubble counter.Co2 7-11am on 3-9:00pm onLight 8-12on. 12-4pmoff 4-10 onOne hour before light turn on to build up Co2 for the tank so plant can use right away. 1 hour turn off before light turn up so light can use all excess Co2.First time setting my planted aquarium and it grows beautifully without algae. Im obsessed with growing plants now haha.Look at my red lotus before and after photo. It exploded! Oh I also added easy green fertilizer everyday too and no algae compared to the bad thrive NA and flourish excel that kill my snail and shrimp.The CO2 PSI in the photo that I have is after a month of 2bps and still around 300PSI remain. Way better than those refilled Co2 tank.

Second refill. Works as intended. Didn't know what the black piece with white stoppers was for, but it's the generator filter-- it absorbs excessive moisture. Don't pull the stoppers out.

I wanted co2 on my planted tank for quite a while so when I saw these I jumped on it. I bought the 4l version for a 36gal tank. Looking back I could have gotten the smaller one, but I would have to recharge more often. I think the little one would be maxed out on roughly a 50gal tank. The process is simple - add baking soda, add citric acid, and add ice. The ratio shown on the bottle will work but a 1.3 ratio for acid works better. Check out my photo where I wrote how much of each ingredient I used and it yielded me almost 500psi. Also use ice in place if water for more pressure. The first time I mixed it I put the dry ingredients in and then the water and WOW the amount of air (co2) that rushed out as I tried to put the cap in was unbelievable. That mix yielded about 400psi so the ice gives me 100psi more usable CO2. I am running about 1bubble per sec and the unit is on about 12 hours a day and the first tank lasted about 3 months. With the higher pressure I hope to get an extra month out of it. Overall quality is nice. Super easy to clean and very easy to use. The ingredients for it are also relatively cheap. I bought 5lbs Millard citric acid for $25 (the bigger bag is cheaper per unit) and this should last me about 3 recharges or roughly a year. Baking soda is cheap and sold at Walmart or Lowe's in the pool section cheap. Both chemicles are safe enough to eat so no worries about dangers (citric acid is the sour taste in sour patch gummies and other candies and baking soda is in toothpaste and some baked products). Overall a cool system at a good price and a fun little experiment to do with kids.

The solenoid gets pretty warm. I haven't been able to use it since my first few attempts the solenoid leaked pretty heavily. I'm guessing there's an o-ring missing, but I didn't see any in the box.Removing the solenoid and manually turning things off works decently. The bubble counter is acceptable and there were no leaks between the bubble counter and the regulator. Tank is holding quite a bit of pressure but it's doing great.This replaced my DIY citric Acid/baking soda method with 2 litterl soda bottle. After I had a bottle explode I decided I better do something safer. I was originally going to get a 5lb co2 tank and regulator but with the pandemic still raging have been having issues finding some place to fill the tank.This so far has been a decent substitute although I would really like it if I can get the solenoid not to leak so heavily. Hopefully, it's o-ring situation and I can find a replacement someplace.*update 5/16/22* Seller reach d out to me about the leaking Solenoid bit. 2 replacement parts later I have the solenoid attached, not leaking, and things are working quite dandy.Original 3 star, but I'll give it a 4 since I do have all the bits working with out leaks and the seller was very responsive with getting replacement parts out.