Home Made Co2 Tutorial

[ThunderLips]

Just so you know, making your own co2 is fine and all for 1 - 4 plants... but if you plan on going bigger, for around 55$ u can get a 5 lb co2 tank already filled, then all u need is a regulator(25$) and a co2 bubble counter(5$) On ebay they do sell electric solenoid co2 regulators with a bubble counter built in(65$) so that you can hook it up to a timer. All this for around or under 100$.

Go check your local beer brewery shops, they have more co2 than they can sell and its cheaper than making it yourself.

You can also get a co2 ppm kit an any hydro shop.

For those who want more, pick up a 20lb tank for only 150$ - 185$ and it should only be around or under 1$ per lb of co2 you buy.

When using a co2 tank you can do really cool stuff like throwing a co2 reactor into your hydro system, and if you are using a drip system or hydro buckets, you can fuse the co2 lines into your air lines and mix co2 into the water as well as distro through the drip sytem. Growing can be alot of fun if you keep it simple.

Co2 is heavier than air, so running a co2 line from your tank to hang from your light is what i would do, but if u have a fan or something circulating air than u should have to really worry about it since co2 is only 1 1/2 times the mass of air...

Always remember when fermenting to make your co2, your bi product is alcohol, in return the alcohol, you create when the yeast breaks down the sugar kills the yeast culture. So using more yeast to make it last longer is false. Most fermenting solutions wear out in anywhere from 7 - 12 days, and thats why you use a bubble counter to monitor how much co2 is being produced.
Simply using 1 packet of champagne yeast will last longer than bakers yeast.... 90 cents at a brew shop.

 

[Virulent Amoeba]

Simply using 1 packet of champagne yeast will last longer than bakers yeast.... 90 cents at a brew shop.

Correct, also all Extra packs of yeast do is get the bottle producing max CO2 faster! the same amount of total CO2 can be achieved with lest yeast, it would just take a little longer to get it to producing at 100% output. Adding more sugar/grain etc.(Starches of any sort) can extend the life of the Wort.

 

[OneCanSam]

Later I'll test the C02 with one of those Co2 testing kits. Then maybe add a couple more two liter bottles to see how much C02 is viable.

Also will be hooking up a better fan later today, I have a Sanyo Denki counter-rotating DC fan that has better airflow dynamics than that of a traditional fan like the Papst I'm using at the moment.

Just a headsup but I noticed a bit of a problem with my Yeast/Sugar tinkering. The fan with the co2 tubing attached that I was using to blow the co2 was a bit much, the two plants closest to the fan started to show signs of excessive c02, some of the fan leaves showed necrosis due to to high a concentration of co2 and to close a proximity, was surprised at the high ppm. I didn't think that was possible from this method (not after shaking it, but hours later the c02 was still a bit high for blowing on the plants, I removed the fan and instead hooked up the bottle to my traditional c02 tubing with the tiny holes in it, I placed the bottle above my lights and the c02 now drops to the canopy via gravity rather than blown across the canopy.

PS, I also had enough of those tiny 1/4 ounce active yeast packets I bought in the grocery store, so I super-sized. Gotta love Ebay, bought a two pound brick of active Yeast for peanuts. (I made sure it wasn't anywhere near the expiration date before I decided to buy it, cause old yeast that's dead ain't no use to me

 

[kittybitches]

does anyone have any exact measurements for this? does the yeast and sugar react to each other proportionally? is there any way to make it last longer by adding more sugar or yeast?

 

[markj]

I tried this earlier today. So now I'm shaking every couple of hours the bottle, and tomorrow I'm gonna place it right beside the pot. I'm very curious to see any difference in the growth of my plant!!!

Cheers...

 

[Br1ttany]

when should you start giving your plants co2 and how often?

 

[kittybitches]

i have my co2 bottles in my veg room cuz my flowering room has way too much airflow going to make it effective. since all the air in this place passes through the flowering room, i hope that the enrichment from the veg room will benefit the flowers at least a little bit.

 

[kittybitches]

also, i used one of those old airwick air freshener bottles, and it seems to work out for me ok after shaking and opening ever so slightly. when the pressure dies down, ill shake it again and it fizzes and creates more pressure. this cycle goes on for about 4 days or so. im thinking that this is way cheaper than excellofizz tablets or the initial investment in a co2 tank burner system.

 

[InMyLab]

C02 is heavier than air and falls.

It doesn't rise.

Kid's Science Experiment To Show That CO2 Is Heavier Than Air Video - Metacafe

Id recommend using a single 2 litre bottle for each plant, drill a hole in the top of the bottle lids and glue aquarium airline into the lid, wrap it around the top of your grow room/plants. And wa la.

Also spray your plants with Carbonated Water.

 

[chucktownskunk]

if you have a co2 tank and no regulator can you still use the tank?

 

[kingpapawawa]

does anyone have any exact measurements for this? does the yeast and sugar react to each other proportionally? is there any way to make it last longer by adding more sugar or yeast?

yeast is a living organism. it eats the sugar and in return gives off co2. its also busy creating alcohol and reproducing.

if you put 1 packet of yeast in a 1 gallon jug its enough, feed it some sugar and it will make co2 and alcohol. if the % of alcohol gets too hi it will kill the yeast. if they run out of sugar they will starve.

in theory you would only ever need 1 packet of yeast. if you make a 1gallon jug and use it for a week start a new 1 gallon jug with only water and sugar. add a cup of the old mix. there is enough yeast in the old mix to populate the new jug.

 

[Virulent Amoeba]

CO2 tanks come with about 2500PSI, thats why the regulator is to safely lower it to a usable level.

 

[ctech4285]

about 2-3 weeks, the CO2 will bubble out, if that stops or slows down its either because of high ethanol concentration lag of sugar or low temperature

after about 2 weeks replace the 3/4 of the solution, add sugar and water, not yest. this will keep the ethanol levels low. high ethanol levels is toxic for the yest...

 

[entropic]

You should place the CO2 containers ABOVE the plants, CO2 is more dense than air.

 

[goodgreen]

Yeah I Wanna Kno 2, Also Good Peice Up There. U Should Make More

 

[Gamble]

someone should post some pictures of growth without the bottle idea and then start to use it and then pictures of that to compare if it works well or not

 

[Enkilot]

I also do homebrew. If someone doesn't know what that is, I brew beer at home, using glass carboys, a big boiling pot, and all the various goods that goes with the process.

If you want an odorless fermentation so that you can get some CO2 in for your plants, I recommend doing what this tutorial says.

For me, though, I would use a Gatorade bottle, one of the rubber stoppers with the hole (get at a homebrew supply shop), a package of brewer's yeast (any type, also from a homebrew supply shp) and an S-shaped airlock (also get at a homebrew supply shop).

These are really cheap items, and can last a long, long time. Use only half the packet of brewer's yeast in the bottle, and about the same amount of sugar. Fill the airlock about 1/4 full of clean water, plug it into the stopper and bottle, and let it go. No need to shake it - the yeast will begin fermenting the sugars in its own time. The airlock creates a kind of time release, so that your CO2 will last a little bit longer than a week.

When the airlock stops gurgling, don't add anything. Do the whole thing over again, because the yeast is dead and will only stink up your room.

If you want to make it last even longer, use 2 Liter bottles (old coke/pepsi bottles work well - just get a rubber stopper to fit the mouth properly).

 

[JiggyJogger]

if you dont have a fan on your bessy's with co2 its not as efficiant...each leaf can only use so much co2 around the leaf..if the leaf isnt fluttering ur plant does not absorb all the co2..thats why Pro Groweres have 1 fan blowing co2 towards the plants and another fan down low pointed up to blow the co2 up because its heavier than air

 

[yotone]

if the plants can only absorb during photosyntheses and my grow room has a vent system how do i make it work without all the gas being immediately sucked up?

 

[Gamble]

how long do you guys let it run in small boxes? all the time or for 30 min every so often?or what?