I was hoping someone would have designed a smart generator that would adjust the flame size using a "fuzzy logic" CO2 monitor and a solenoid valve . . . less heat and more consistent CO2 levels.
My space is way too big for tanks . . .
PS- Is it better to get a bigger gen that runs less often or a smaller one that runs more often?
First of all, since I don't run CO2, I'm not the expert on this topic- beyond the cursory note that with a lot of cubic feet, a combustion-based CO2 gen definitely is the way to go. With the numbers of people on RIU & other cannabis boards, you're very likely to find someone else who knows a lot more about them than me.
As far as whether to get a big un or a small un (or a couple of them), it doesn't make much difference. You're going to be combusting the same amount of fuel (probably LPG) to generate a certain amount of CO2 in either case. As long as the gen can make enough CO2 to bring and hold the concentration to 1500ppm, that's the right one. At that point, your choice is down to purchase price, cost of replacement parts as required and features, such as automatic concentration monitoring and control.
Nice seein ya back AL...U R a true genious with this shit.
Thanks for the compliment.
I tend to disagree on the genius part, tho. I honestly am not a warehouse of information. I'm OK at troubleshooting, but even so, I still have the occasional prob in my own op that has me scratching my noggin.
Check out the HydroGen water -cooled generator - they had some issues before, but they seem to be resolved.
I'm most likely going to have to get one for the summertime - supposedly removes 86% of the heat produced via water-cooling (I'm in no way vouching for it nor have I ever used it or seen it in action, just telling you what they claim).
Another good feature is that there's an adjustable flame to produce anywhere from 3-13 cubic feet an hour, which is kinda nice.
If you're interested, do a youtube search for it - with ~100 gallon reservoir, it seems like you wouldn't need a water chiller.
See? Told you someone would come along that knows a lot more than I do about these.
And as far as a "smart generator", pretty sure they're dumb as rocks, and if you want to get CO2 dialed in, you're gonna have to pay for an atmospheric controller - and as Al says, that gets "exxy".
Yep, that's the first thing that sprang to my mind about combustion type CO2 gens. CO2 monitoring gear, no matter what you are going to have it control, ain't even remotely cheap.
P.S. - Al, my sisters are heading to New Zealand on New Year's day and will be flying into Sydney for a few days at the end of their trip.............any must-see places in Sydney they should know about?
Sorry, I may be too late for this. Bear in mind I can only pop in here for a couple of hours on every 2nd-3rd wkend or so- sorry.
If you're in SYD for just a few days, the main touristy stuff would be the Harbour Bridge climb, Opera House,
Koala Park,
Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour, Manly and Bondi beaches, etc.
Al, first off, thanks for all the great information.
no wucking furries.
I have a few questions about the nutrients you use. In this thread, you said you only use canna substra flores pars A & B in your tanks. In your past threads, you have mentioned you used other ingredients like epsom salt, canna liquid calcium, and PK 13-14. Are you still using these other ingredients or have you gone away from them?
No, I'm not using anything but Canna Vega & Flores and H2O2 these days. It's been a loooooong time since I was monkeying around with additives, but as I recall, I was chasing a problem that appeared as nute deficiencies. It certainly was nute deficiencies but not for want of nutes! The problem was caused by a faulty pH meter which was causing the actual pH to be faaaar away from 5.8, which caused nutrient lockout.
Another change I've made is to reduce my nute strength in flowering quite a lot. I used to run at about 1400, but I find that 900ppm will do just fine. I don't bother with PK these days, but if I did, I'd use it in the wk5-6 (tray 3) tank, for 1 week only, and with no other nutes added to that tank. Just PK at about 500ppm, H2O2 and phDown to set the mix to 5.8.
One last questions, how may flood cycles a day would you remommend if we are using perilite as our grow medium? Thanks again for your information.
Watering frequency is mainly dictated by the absorbency of the medium you use and the volume of your containers. Perlite isn't terribly absorbent (compared to stuff like rockwool) and has quite a lot of airspaces. In 175mm (roughly 3.5L volume) pots, you should be able to get by on 1 flood per lights-on, up to the end of wk4. If all's well, ypur plants will really be growing vigorously in wks4-6, so you might ramp it up to 2 floods/lights-on, at lights-on and again 6h later. The plants are mainly occupied with putting on bud mass in wks 6-8, so they won't have as great a water requirement- knock it back to 1x at lights-on. However, this all could vary depending on other factors in your op, like how often your exhaust fan runs, ambient temp (which should always be between 24-26C anyway), etc. These complicating factors will increase or decrease the evaporation from media, which will alter your system's watering requirements.
The finger test is still the best way to tell if the media is damp enough. You should feel damp media 1" down from the media tops, just before the system waters again. If it's dry or if the pots 'feel light' before the system waters at lights-on, you may want to add another watering cycle in the middle of lights-on.
Hey al thanks for all the help! quick question for ya, i sadly nute burned my girlies pretty bad recently. The fan leaves are what got hit the most however the buds and most the leaves around them still look green and healthy. Anyways my question is, what steps should one take when dealing with nute burn? do you pick off everything burned? leave some? flush? when and how do i introduce nutes back? alot at first or less for recovery?!thanks Al!
The first thing to do is to leach all the nutes out of the media. Pour several litres of plain water (pH adjusted to 5.
through each pot. Measure the EC of the runoff water. When you get it close to the ppm of your plain tapwater, you've run enough water through the pots.
Your plants will have enough nutes stored to get them through at least 2 weeks. In your tanks, run plain water (pH adjusted to 5.
with H2O2 50% grade at 1ml/L every 3-4 days. After 2 weeks, resume nutes at 900-1000ppm, pH 5.8 and H2O2 as previously mentioned.
Bear in mind, these are plants, not V8 engines. 'More' is almost never better (with the sole exception of light). There's a bell-curve to growing plants. There's not enough, just right and
dead. It's far better to shoot nute strength low and bump it up 10-20% if you see deficiencies than to have to try to recover badly nute fried plants. You lose more yield by nute burning than you'll lose by underfeeding.
).
ops, sry mate meant to say thanks!! bad manners
Im definitely going back to hydro.
