The tanks are safe, but do keep them secure the the wall. Even a 50lb tank only has at max 1000PSI (typical N2 or He, etc of the same size will be 2700-2900)
Keep the tank on a bath scale and you can see when its getting low (pressure is a bad indication for CO2 level)
Having the ppm controler is key. congrats on doing it right.
being exposed to 1500 ppm for a couple minutes to check in is fine. OSHA allows upto 1000ppm for 8 hours. (maybe its 6 hours?)