So how many people use CO2 on their grows, and whats the results like?

[bird mcbride]

During the dark period I run ducts in and out of my mother room to give my budders good o2 while the lights are out and the moms love the co2 given off by the budders. The moms take in co2 and exaust o2 24/0. This exchange only happens when the hps is off. The blowers(intake and exhaust) are on a thermostat and usually don't run while the lights are out. I have a small fan drawing air in all the time and for this fan the blowers are passive exhaust ports. The exaust ports are kept a little higher than the canopy. Co2 is a heavier component of the atmosphere so it will lay lower than other gases so keep this in mind when you place your vents. Anyone that can grow plants inside a sealed container should work for NASA. I can see it if you had two equal systems working back to back and the heat of the lights was being discharged by cool tubes or something similar. Otherwise it would require alot of expensive gear. Not to mention the electricity. I just believe in enhancing the atmosphere so the plants can breath easier.

 

[chuck estevez]

During the dark period I run ducts in and out of my mother room to give my budders good o2 while the lights are out and the moms love the co2 given off by the budders. The moms take in co2 and exaust o2 24/0. This exchange only happens when the hps is off. The blowers(intake and exhaust) are on a thermostat and usually don't run while the lights are out. I have a small fan drawing air in all the time and for this fan the blowers are passive exhaust ports. The exaust ports are kept a little higher than the canopy. Co2 is a heavier component of the atmosphere so it will lay lower than other gases so keep this in mind when you place your vents. Anyone that can grow plants inside a sealed container should work for NASA. I can see it if you had two equal systems working back to back and the heat of the lights was being discharged by cool tubes or something similar. Otherwise it would require alot of expensive gear. Not to mention the electricity. I just believe in enhancing the atmosphere so the plants can breath easier.

I'll just leave this here for anyone who wants to learn something. [video=youtube;4jkkCDUhpNI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jkkCDUhpNI[/video]

 

[spandy]

Not true. I set up sealed rooms all the time with intakes and exhaust ports. A controlled environment requires all systems to work in conjunction with each other. A true sealed room will require a fresh air intake and exhaust to allow control of humidity and temperatures. Sensors will be placed accordingly to control systems like c02, fire retardant, high heat alarms, moisture alarms and many others in a properly sealed room. A sealed room without intake and exhaust is a...well...coffin. In either respect I believe most growers would benefit spending their cash on other items first, dial in their own experience and that should give them their answer on the c02 question. JAS

Actually, you are wrong.

A sealed room is a sealed room. If you are opening up for fresh air to enter the room in any fashion, it's no longer a sealed room. The point of a sealed room is to NEVER have any air exchange, all systems are internal.

A sealed room has no intake or exhaust. Now, someone might say venting your lights with sealed hoods is, but it's not because those are a sealed system in themselves and that air coming in and out of the hoods never actually enters the room or removes any air from the room, again, because both systems are sealed separate from one another.

In a sealed room, you control humidity internally with a dehumidifier/humidifier. You don't have to exchange air to accomplish this.

Temperatures can be controlled in a variety of ways without opening the room. Mini splits, water cooling, etc. All of which no air is exchanged in the room.

Co2 is controlled with some type of in room device, co2 burner, bottles, etc. Lots of options here as well without having to exchange air and dump all that co2 out of your room.




Do you even know WTF you are talking about? I know I do, and years of experience doing it without exchanging any air WHAT SO EVER. The only air exchange I get is when I enter the room through the sealed door, but that is nominal and not part of a normal operating system, but maintenance is a must.

But this school of thought that you have to exchange air is not only completely wrong, but its retarded to even attempt to argue.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

Co2 threads are always out of hand. Hell any thread with Chuck and Johnny is LMAO!!! Think cuz everything costs so damn much, and there's so many ways of doing it that causes confusion. Not to mention all the myths. I think sealed during the day and exchange just enough at night to bring down co2 levels would be the way to go...while everything is controlled of course. Whatcha guys think?

 

[FilthyFletch]

Co2 helps in the growth process and in photosynthisis (yeah spelling errors) which inturns allows the plants to feed more efficently and mature faster. Most of this is pretty basic biology tons of this info on the web and it has been gone over many times in many forums so if your one saying you never heard of this then your just being lazy. A 20 lb tank will last my entire grow in a 4x4 tent. I have seen people get almost an 80% yield increase when running co2 properly side by side with a grow with zero co2 but idential otherwise. I see on average 40% increases but I do get lazy sometimes and miss a tank refill once in awhile.

Costs are minimal for running co2 and the outcome more then pays 1000 times over in outcome.

 

[FilthyFletch]

And yes Spandy is correct on his definition of a sealed room. There are sealed, non sealed, vented, and negative pressure rooms also.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

Unfortunately I have no completely sealed room. I'll be getting a Jardin or some other quality tent soon. So can I just pump co2 while "mostly" sealed in light, waste just a little hopefully while controlled, and just shut off at night to let co2 levels drop? I know they take in O at night so wouldn't a completely sealed room hinder this a little? What would be the best way with a tent?

 

[Justforme11]

Warning... Newbie is about to chime in on this topic.... : ) feel free to smack me around!

i have heat issues... I am on my first grow, but somewhat less than an idiot. My biggest mistake so far is that I over built my cabinet. (Please assume I have the ph, RH, and ppm for nutes is correct) I have way too many lights. I am not running a sealed room by any stretch of the imagination. I know how to solve that problem now and don't want to divert his conversation... Just a bit of background.

If the perfect growing environment is to have CO2 levels between 1,200 a 1,500 and I am able to increase from what is currently 550ish to somewhere around 850 ppm... Isn't that still beneficial to the plant? What am I not seeing?

 

[a mongo frog]

Warning... Newbie is about to chime in on this topic.... : ) feel free to smack me around!

i have heat issues... I am on my first grow, but somewhat less than an idiot. My biggest mistake so far is that I over built my cabinet. (Please assume I have the ph, RH, and ppm for nutes is correct) I have way too many lights. I am not running a sealed room by any stretch of the imagination. I know how to solve that problem now and don't want to divert his conversation... Just a bit of background.

If the perfect growing environment is to have CO2 levels between 1,200 a 1,500 and I am able to increase from what is currently 550ish to somewhere around 850 ppm... Isn't that still beneficial to the plant? What am I not seeing?

Yes 850 is beneficial to the plant.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

Any input on that very good ? from post #69...

 

[max420thc]

I have no experience with co2 But i have never heard of anything that will reduce flowering time Is there any science behind that claim? If a plant takes 8 weeks then it takes 8 weeks i would love to see evidence to back up that claim

I see evidence of it every day.I cant contribute it to one thing over all but several things over all that speed up finish time.
I see people in here who run the same strains as i do in dirt with co2 and im 10 to 14 days faster in the same strains they are running.
So i dont think i can attribute the speed to the co2..but i can attribute it to hydro vs dirt.
How you are feeding them what you are feeding them and when you are feeding them i think can be a factor in the speed up of my time over others i have seen.
Wish i could give you a more exact study as how much time is shaved off for hydro.how much is shaved off for nute schedule. etc.
But i know..without a shadow of a doubt plants can finish faster with the correct conditions and feeding.

 

[jason1976]

in that size room wouldnt it be better to grab one or two of those co2 bags? i have 2 in my 6.5 x6.5x6.5 tent. they last like 6 months and i can definetly tell a difference with them in there. greener more bud ect.

 

[bird mcbride]

IMO to avoid a bunch of hassle to go totally sealed you have to run two equal systems(tent,room) having the hps(or equivalant) lighting 180 degrees out of phase and vent the two to each other accordingly. The side with the hps on would supply enough O to the lights off side even with the added co2. Even still I believe it would be beneficial to have positive air exchange periodically. I would like to add for people using gas burners if you smell propane because of a leak don't turn on any light switches etc. The main breaker for my grow-op is in a separated building so I can just hit the breaker and fix the problem starting by opening doors and stuff. The smallest spark can set this stuff off. This is another reason I went with the homemade charcoal burner. It just proved to be so much safer and a lot less dangerous. Cheaper also.

 

[max420thc]

Do you "juicers" turn co2 off at night since they breath in oxygen at night. Are the burners more efficient that tanks?

I run a sentenal generator on LP gas.A tank of LP lasts me around a month at 20 bucks.Many co2 controllers have a photo cell on them that senses when lights are off and turns the generator off when lights are off.Gas generators create heat that must be cooled.That is the major difference between tanks and generators.The tanks can be found at any local gas station but are cheapest at mennards or lowes.
I use a green air co2 controller that has the photo cell built right into it to shut co2 off.
Fresh air is taken in at night and evacuate the co2 at night.
Filthy fletch is correct . CO 2 should be evacuated and re enriched a couple of times a day to keep any air or co2 from becoming stagnant.
CO2 increase growth kind of like a NFL player taking hits of OXYGEN on the side lines.The plant will grow larger faster.some claim it speeds up finish time.
As co2 increases growth if there are any deff. what so ever in your plant your nutes or your enviro they will show up faster because of the increased growth.they will also show up more severe because of the accelerated growth.
I hope this helps.

 

[a mongo frog]

Any input on that very good ? from post #69...

Yes, get a good tent. Here's what I'd do and I do but it's against everything most of us have been preaching about sealed rooms. But some of us don't have a choice. Get a carbon filter and a damper for the size of ducking required. Hook that system (carbon filter with damper) to the cooling plug in port on the co2 controller that your going to buy. This way if your room gets too hot for your liking your room will exaust and your while shutting down your co2. Then when your room is cool enough your co2 sysem will start up again. And with the damper u will be as sealed as u can with your out port. That's what I do and it works great.

 

[rcpilot04401]

This is the easiest for my my friend...I use the coleman lantern like I said...gets the ppms up to 2200 if I leave the curtain open a little, and the temp doesn't usually go up over 82, and I ALWAYS have my fans on...not to mention a CO2 reader in the room that I got from my local hydroponic store...cheap an easy, a regular size tank usually lasts me about a month and a half...and the room is about 4x8x7, I've got 2 of em in my basement, and I just let 'em go at their own pace...I've had great results...it just makes sense to use co2.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

I'm thinking burner in LED 4x4 to help with raising temps, and tank in a DIY sealed vert room. I used to have a sealed terrarium and CO2 injected aquarium and it was a massive difference with it.

 

[416headband]

Plants breathe in co2 during the day, so it is a very essential part of the life cycle. How much depends on a lot of factors. In a negative pressure environment all of the air in the room is continuously being exhausted thus constantly filling the room with co2 rich air. In a closed environment however the air is not being exhausted so in order for the plants to breathe there needs to be co2 enrichment. A good rule of thumb is to keep light intensity fertilizer ppm and co2 ppm balanced. For instance if plants are vigorously absorbing light, fertilizer ppm will approx match co2 ppm.

In an exhausted room w proper cfm, plants can live off as little as 400 ppm. If the stale air is being replaced immediately. In a closed system I wouldn't go under 800ppm

beware of co tho. For every hour that you have co2 burners running u will need to exhaust for at least a minute to get rid of carbon monoxide. Hint hint.

 

[spandy]

For every hour that you have co2 burners running u will need to exhaust for at least a minute to get rid of carbon monoxide. Hint hint.

I was just re-reading this thread and thinking to myself "no one ever talks about carbon monoxide poisoning in relation to co2 burners." Good on you to bring this up.

It was a reason I went with bottles over burners because I knew I needed to be in the room when the lights were on, and didn't want to die in there lol.

 

[chuck estevez]

I was just re-reading this thread and thinking to myself "no one ever talks about carbon monoxide poisoning in relation to co2 burners." Good on you to bring this up.

It was a reason I went with bottles over burners because I knew I needed to be in the room when the lights were on, and didn't want to die in there lol.

Only inproperly burned propane produces carbon Monoxide. Gas is another story.

Propane undergoes combustion reactions in a similar fashion to other alkanes. In the presence of excess oxygen, propane burns to form water and carbon dioxide.
C
3H
8 + 5 O
2 → 3 CO[SUB]2[/SUB] + 4 H
2O + heatpropane + oxygen → carbon dioxide + waterWhen not enough oxygen is present for complete combustion, incomplete combustion occurs when propane burns and forms water, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide.
C[SUB]3[/SUB]H[SUB]8[/SUB] + 4.5 O[SUB]2[/SUB] → 2 CO[SUB]2[/SUB] + CO + 4 H[SUB]2[/SUB]O + heatPropane + Oxygen → Carbon dioxide + Carbon monoxide + WaterUnlike natural gas, propane is heavier than air (1.5 times as dense). In its raw state, propane sinks and pools at the floor. Liquid propane will flash to a vapor at atmospheric pressure and appears white due to moisture condensing from the air.
When properly combusted, propane produces about 50 MJ/kg. The gross heat of combustion of one normal cubic meter of propane is around 91 megajoules.[SUP][11][/SUP]
Propane is nontoxic; however, when abused as an inhalant it poses a mild asphyxiation risk through oxygen deprivation. Commercial products contain hydrocarbons beyond propane, which may increase risk. Commonly stored under pressure at room temperature, propane and its mixtures expand and cool when released and may cause mild frostbite.
Propane combustion is much cleaner than gasoline combustion, though not as clean as natural gas combustion. The presence of C–C bonds, plus the multiple bonds of propylene and butylene, create organic exhausts besides carbon dioxide and water vapor during typical combustion. These bonds also cause propane to burn with a visible flame.
Greenhouse gas emissions factors for propane are 62.7 kg CO[SUB]2[/SUB]/ mBTU or 1.55 kg of CO[SUB]2[/SUB] per liter or 73.7 kg/GJ.[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]