CO2 Queztion???

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Is the small dick measuring contest between chuck and kirk over? Holy shit. Only on JIU


Put the home me yeast bottles down and run a legit proven co2 system. I might be new to the co2 game, but I did my research for 6 months before buying anything.

20# tank plus a full back up 20#tank
Blueprint BDAC2 w/fuzzy logic controller
Dual hose 14k
btu a/c
70 pint deheuy with pump
Totally sealed room 8x12x6.75"

600 ppm wks 1 and 2
3 thru 7 1500 ppm
Wk 8 600
Wk 9 400

Running 85-90* and 65-70% rh
Hard getting my rh down in a sealed room.
BUT by the VDP chart I'm about perfect. I normally only follow VDP in veg not flower. But I have 3x 18" fans for circulation and 5x 10" fans on floor pointing up. Huge air movement in my room.
Very nice and nicely done!
I might suggest this.
Go on down to your local Gas supplier and deal with them directly for 75lb tanks that you pick up and bring in the empty ones - You tell them you have a CNC welding system in your little shop......The use of it is sporadic and you prefer to pick up and drop off yourself. (If your in a legal state - they know so don't bother with the BS)
You will save shit tons down the road over 20# ers from a grow shop....

I run generators in a 100% sealed enviro.
Same sched.

1500 at 88F with 72RH. Central AC covers the temp and RH from a controller/monitor.
 

febisfebi

Well-Known Member
Disclaimer: Before you all start slamming me, understand this. I have no idea how effective this really is, because its not my setup.

Since nobody has mentioned this idea at least in this thread, I thought I would bring up the idea and see what you all thought.

I was recently evaluating a co2 system in my friend's garden, and he is running a lot of fresh air in and out of the room, on opposite ends. 14" duct fan for exhaust and two more 10" intake duct fans.
I asked him of course, wouldnt it be a waste to have a co2 tank/regulator in a room with that much air exchange? wouldn't the exhaust fan would remove it all quickly?
He tells me, that in a sealed room, it would cost a fortune to run a Mini split AC, plus Dehumidifier, etc. Plus the amout of co2 you would need to inject in a sealed room to keep it at 12-1500ppm is massive, and far from cost effective for most people.

Since co2 is heavier than air, he has several lines coming from the regulator, each ending over the tops of the plants, so as the co2 drops down to the floor, it falls through the plant canopy.
Keeping some of your wall mount fans low(to the ground), and the intake/exhaust on opposite ends of the room, the whole environment is constantly swirling the air within the room, allowing the plants to take up more of the co2 before it is exhausted, instead of it sitting near the floor after initially falling, where the plants cant absorb it.
Essentially it is a co2 supplemnt, or booster system, to add extra co2 to the fresh air that is constantly coming in. Fresh outside air, has enough rich co2 to make most peoples efforts futile, as far as cost/benefit, like most people have already brought up.

According to my friend, he goes though way less co2 than a sealed room would take, and tells me he sees massive leaf growth/width, vs the same room without co2 supplement, which equals more photosynthesis, (the ability to use large amounts of light, and therefore the ability to grow more plant matter, considerably faster. Flowers, leaves, thicker stems, etc. Leaves are natures solar panels, and have one main purpose. To convert/transfer light energy into usable plant energy through a process known as photosynthesis. A lot of people complain about overly leafy bud, but more leaves = more ability to grow buds.

I would love to hear all your opinions on this type of setup, as it sounds promising, and I might even want to try it out myself one of these days! The initial cost is probably 1/10th that of a sealed room setup. Pretty sure its just a tank and regulator, and some tubing. I dont think he even uses a co2 controller or even a ppm reader. He has been doing this for so long, he's got it all fine tuned to the point where he doesnt need those things. He knows exactly how to tune the regulator at for his setup. For us, it might take some experimentation without these instruments, to get this right, as every setup is different, but this guy obviously benefits from it, or he wouldn't be using it. This is not his first rodeo. Sounds like a pretty cheap effective use of a co2 tank, since there is plenty of free co2 just outside your room! This is just a simple booster, and does not require a super controlled environment that requires very expensive equipment to function at all.
Good luck to all in your co2 efforts!
 

febisfebi

Well-Known Member
Thats what I said, but apparently it hangs around in the room, and gets swirled around many many times before it is exhausted, and since you have all the free co2 from outside, it doesnt take much to build up 12-1500 ppm when you are adding to that. Im not sure what the ppm is of fresh air, but anyone who has a meter can take it outside and get a reading. that should tell you how much you should be dropping over your plant's canopy ( and of course dont have fans blowing directly there, place them down low, or up high above the lights preferrably, but if you need air flowing over your lights, just mount them higher and have the co2 outlets maybe 6-12" above the canopy of each plant. even in a sealed room, most of the co2 that gets absorbed is done so on the first drop anyways, straight through the plant, if done right. This works because co2 heavier than air. I would have one outlet hose directly over the center of each plant. when you calculate the actual cubic feet of your entire room, and compare it to the CFM of your intake fan, you will find out that air is only exhausted at a few more cfm than your intake fan regardless of how big your exhaust is, your filter drags it down to have the ideal negative pressure, which might be 50-100 CFM. So if you compare that number to the CF of your room, you will find out that it takes a good hour, or so depending of course, to completely cycle out all the air in your room, unless you are going way overkill on the fans, but that only brings in more co2, and requiring even lower regulator setting. a meter of course could tell you exactly what setting you want, and could even adjust it based on the current ppm of the room.
 

DemonTrich

Well-Known Member
380 to 400 is normal co2 air, not counting if you live near freeways or polluted cities. If the ambient co2 ppm is 400 there absolutely NO way to make it stronger with out adding a tank or burner to get to the desired 1200ppm. Even if you keep cycling air in and out of a room, the ambient co2 ppm is still default at 400.
 

febisfebi

Well-Known Member
Still, you are always guaranteed 400, and the act of dropping co2 down through your plants is the important part
 

chuck estevez

Well-Known Member
if i close my sealed room and turn off the c02, it will drop to 0 ppms in a few hrs, the plants suck it up during lights on. why you need to have a constant ppm for them to breathe when they are working, blowing some occasional c02 past it is not going to benefit it to much. just having air exchanges with fresh c02 would be enough to keep room at normal c02 levels
 
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