I was rushing around putting talapia in bags in five gallon buckets and ran out of oxygen! I was already stressed and only got one out of five bags filled. Apparently I had left the valve slightly open from the last time I used -- it is the only thing I can figure. So slowly emptied the tank over the last couple of weeks.

Not an expensive mistake but will have to start over tomorrow. Fortunately getting a full tank was easy.

Cecil, not ta make light of your problem but every time ya mess up, stifled snickers abound across the forum.

Make sure you treat that fitting (ball end) on your regulator with care. You could put a nick or ding in it and no matter how hard you tighten it down, it will still leak. They only last so long anyway from constantly changing tanks, so you'll want to keep an eye on that.

Easy way to tell if the seal (or anything else) is leaking is to open the valve on the tank, then close it and watch the gauges.

Rule of thumb since I was a kid is to always close the valve on the tank when you are not using it. Tell that to employees who don't have to pay for the welding gasses. Tri mix and C25 ain't exactly cheap when it leaks out over night.

I eventually made up signs and hung them on all of the tanks that explained the procedure on how to check for leaks and to let me know so I could get the equipment repaired.

All of the leaks we ever had were due to a nick, ding or wear to the fitting that attaches the regulator to the tank. I did actually have a tank valve that leaked, but that's 1 out of hundreds of refills over the years, and they honored that.

Are you guys just using plain old CGA fittings I assume as a CGA-540 is a common size for the King Valve for commercial grade O2. Where might I locate the setup you guys are talking about that Cecil is using. I do a bit of work with all sorts of different fittings building our gas racks(for diving) and such for our company. If this was something besides a King Valve being left on issue, I may be able to help out some.

Thanks for the advice Bob. I am still a newbie ya know. I didn't know I was supposed to "stifle" the snickers....next time I will stifle for sure!

I love reading of Cecil's pondmeister adventures gone a little wrong sometimes. His luck is the same as mine.

I was tryin ta be polite. Guess I need some fine tuning. For the few mishaps he has had he has a hundred fold super accomplishments. One was taking me under his wing. Now if he would stop beating the Bongo drum.
Dang it Bill, ya always get me all wound up. Ya suppose yer wife could stir us up something wonderful from that bowl of Wax worms? We could get Pat ta taste test em for us.

Nothing worse than that sinking feeling you get when you finally get everything jigged up just right, ready to tack it together, and give the C25 valve a twist only to discover it's already open.

Hmmm, did some welding today. Now that I've posted this, guess I'll slip out to the shop and double check even though I'm SURE I closed it down.

LOL When I was dating her in Thailand, a bunch of her friends took me to a roadside stand selling fried bugs. Trying to go along with the flow, I ate fried crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions and the biggest dang beetles you have ever seen. My wife watched me do it then laughed. She said she would never eat any of that stuff!

I hate it when I do stupid stuff! but .....Things you will do when yer in love!

+1 I just checked the propane tank on the old barbecue I used earlier!

Excellent points but I took the regulator valve completely off when I was done last time. Must have left the tank valve itself slightly open.

Then you screwed up!

Yup!

The good thing is I won't do it again!

Don't feel alone Cecil.

We had a gang of O2 tanks at work. It was hooked up to a mechanical torch that was used to cut really, really thick steel circles 8"-10" or so in thickness. IIRC 12 of the large O2 tanks all hooked together, one valve turns them all on. The employee turned off the valve at the torch tip and not the gang. It emptied itself over night.

My BBQ. I couldn't figure out why the flame was low and wouldn't get bigger even tho the tank was full. I screwed around with it for about 1/2 hr with the BBQ on and burning before I realized the rubber line had a small crack in it. THAT would have been interesting if the propane would have built up around the tank!!!

Yikes!

Bob-O,

No worries about showing my mistakes. I'm secure enough to eventually laugh at myself and learn from it.

Someone once told me the best lessons are painful. They're the ones you rarely repeat.

Neighbor kid down the road tossed some black powder in their wood stove in the garage. Didn't need a propane leak for the tank sitting in the garage to explode

I went over there to see what's up after a while, and will never forget the volunteer guys just laughing their butt off at how stupid this was.

One of my college roommates from Harper Wods Michigan said his little brother cranked down on a loaded shell casing in a vise. I know he got in deep doo doo with his dad, but it's been so long ago I can't remember if the bullet fired.

Was able to pump up the bags this morning and get the tilapia to one of the schools. I got my dad away from a wiring job he's doing for my master spa addition long enough to be my third hand. He came overvwhen I started cussing. They make it look so easy at the fish hatcheries!

Three more schools to go! Have to wait for them to get back from an FFA convention in Indy. I think it's Indy?

Cecil has an apprentice!! Early this morning a student at Ledo HS in Tampa Fl left a nozzle on a propane tank open. The entire school had to be evacuated.
Next thing ya know they're gonna want to import some damned Muskies.

Bob, that could have been the same student from C-Ville when I was in high school. He knocked over a torch rig and the valve on the O2 tank broke off sending the tank thru 2 cement block walls ending up in the Ag room.

I heard he never graduated, because he also cut his finger off in wood shop class, then burned down the school Ag barn with his buddy building a camp under the hay bales while taking a pile of hay with match to shed some light on the subject.

I think they shipped him off to Florida

Was Lynard Skinnard the shop teacher?
There seems ta be quite a collection of "unusual" characters down here. I consider it ta be a relaxed atmosphere.

I've been to FL, and "there are" "unusual" characters. No intent on my part to ever buzz that way.

Was at the airport in Miami, walked into a shop not knowing and all the guy's in there looked like they wanted to give me a free Prostate Exam

One of the schools I set up, the ag teacher was approached by the school attorney that is a musky angler, to rear muskies in the system I put together on my dime. She asked me what I though of it. I told her not much as part of the deal was I get something back on my investment. I never heard about it again. LOL

You might imagine my shock/dismay and fear when the first night after picking up a certain Turkish gentleman in Atlanta, GA we stopped at a hotel near Tampa, FL for the night, when he reached into his black pouch to pull out over $4,000 in cash to set on the counter to count out his half of the hotel room

After that we had a little chat

Even though my doctor and I have become well acquainted over the years I still feel the need to immediately go home and take a long hot shower after receiving my annual digital examination.

How did he plan on feeding them, and where was he going to get them from?

Poland!

I think he was tied in with the local musky associaton, and my guess is the game plan would be to get them really small from a supplier to save money, and grow them out to stocking size. Doesn't make a lot of sense though as the state has taken over the musky program.

No clue if they were feed trained, but of course depending on his knowledge in that area he may not have thought that out. I have seen tiger musky fingerlings that were feed trained at the Cikana State Fish Hatchery years ago when I was a biologist aid. They also ate each other!

Not so sure non-hybrid musky can be easily feed trained for tanks which is what the state is planting.

I'm on my third 20 cubic foot tank of oxygen. Very convenient for moving small amounts of warmwater fish in cold weather, but not very cost effective at $16.00 per exchange.

It appears 20 cubic feet of oxygen isn't very much oxygen when you're fulling bags that are much larger than a five gallon bucket. My guess is at least one cubic foot of oxygen per bag as 7.45 gallons = 1cubic foot. I seem to get about 10 bags full and the tank is empty.

Gonna need to purchase a larger tank to make it economical.

Dad has a 120 or 125 on his torch rig and it's about $20.00 to fill. I had a 300 CF on mine and online price thru local AirGas is under $40.00 to fill. Probably much cheaper than the online price tho. I see a 20 CF tank is about $22.00.

Damn heavy tanks tho.

Yeah need to upgrade the size to get a savings in quanity.

IIRC I paid around $200 for the last tank I bought. I'll let you know what the refill costs, as I have to bring it in on Monday.

Yeah I'd be curious.

Will do.

I am curious. With the amount of O2 fish farms use, do they buy it of have their own oxygen generators/concentrators?

Buying a bottle for o2 is expensive but to fill mine up isnt. Fyi. I don't know those big guys do and I'm sure they are all different

And I would love to have an oxygen generator!! Why aren't we using them instead of aeriators?? I know there are several good reasons, but they excape me at the moment. Still want one though

Stopped in to get my C25 exchanged (385 cf) - $36.00 (list is $120.00)

Anyway, Praxair will not sell tanks over 125 cf, have to lease them for about $75.00/year.

The 125cf O2 tanks cost $225.00 to buy, and on my account, $6.00 to fill. My dad pays about $20.00 to fill.

Guy at Lake said to scope around craigs list, and you can usually pick one up fairly cheap. He said Praxair bought about everyone and they will take pretty much any tank in for exchange.

Nice thing is, if you have a questionable tank, they will give you a good one in exchange.

Guy said, all they do is move gas.

Hmmm...my wife says the same about me!

I think that might be production without control to take advantage of this resource

Not to get weird here, but a few years ago heard about this group that wanted to stop cows from farting.

Doubt I could find it now, but there was a local guy on the news that asphyxiated himself after a binge episode with booze and ate a lot of cabbage. IIRC, they figure he was dead before the place burned down due to the flatulence.

Methane!

This may be way off here, but did you, as a kid, ever light a match to your butt when you had a good one to discharge?

In my early marriage when my wife was star struck wirh me and more tolerant, I pinned her down under the sheets when I felt a big one ready to rip.

Found out this is not an isolated thing as when I related this to a friend in the NG he said, "you too?"

Oh the things I used to get away with! Took the wife fishing the first three days of our honeymoon. When she broke down crying, and said, "Aren't we going to do something else?" I realized what a selfish heal I was being.

Just a decade later I was being led around with a ring in my nose. Oh how the tables turn.

JKB,

Does the match thing really work?

An old married couple no sooner hit the pillows when the old man passes gas and says, 'Seven Points.'

His wife rolls over and says, 'What in the world was that?' The old man replied, 'its fart football.'

A few minutes later his wife lets one go and says, 'Touchdown, tie score...'

After about five minutes the old man lets another one go and says, 'Aha. I'm ahead 14 to 7.'

Not to be outdone the wife rips out another one and says, 'Touchdown, tie score.'

Five seconds go by and she lets out a little squeaker and says, 'Field goal, I lead 17 to 14.' Now the pressure is on for the old man.

He refuses to get beaten by a woman, so he strains real hard.

Since defeat is totally unacceptable, he gives it everything he's got, and accidentally poops in the bed.

The wife says, 'What the hell was that?'

The old man says, 'Half time, switch sides

Good one!

Lovnlivin, thanks for the morning laugh

Tracy

Yeah that was great!

There were some kids in school that claimed the flame, but in those tender, but mischievous years, I was well acquainted with Oxy-Acetylene torches, and feared an END disaster should an uncontrolled ignition take place.

I remember one kid brought a fart to school in a canning jar, and he proved it

I think using the word fart back in those days was the prelude to the use of more colorful four letter words as we were being methodically desensitized the older we got.