I have long since gotten rid of my crap Milwaukee regulators and kept the bubble counters as they were made of brass and were could work for me. Well I got them all modded and after about a month they would turn green on the inside and I couldn't see what the count was and they didn't hold enough water causing it to evaporate with the bubble quickly. So I didn't want to spend 35 bucks on bubble counters that I would have to mod anyway so off to home depot and picked up 4 water line threaded 1/4" fittings and robbed the spice cabinet for an almost empty jar of red pepper. Drilled them, sealed it with silicone and this is what I came up with for about 5 bucks.
Looks like a good idea, I really want to get by sometime and check out the cal. reactor. I figure the more stony corals I add the sooner I'll have to be going to that.
Just an update on the functionality of the bubble counter. The water line connectors that are the input and output of the bubble counter are water tight but not air tight. There is a big difference between the two and the pressure that is exerted on the inside of the spice container, though minimal, causes the CO2 to leak out around the hose connection. This in turn causes the bubble count to rise as there is no constant back pressure to keep the count stable. A run away bubble count can cause the calcium reactor cylinder to blow which is a rather expensive mistake. As a result I have ordered two bubble counters rather risk such a catastrophic failure. I do not have the patience to continue to try and make my diy bubble counter air tight.
