co2 worth it?

Co2 is a wonderful thing to use, but only after you have perfected all other variabled temp, humidity,nutrients,ectra! When everything is right co2 will blow you away. But if you dont have everything under control then co2 can kick your but. Increased nutrient needs, increased water uptake and kicks your plants into overdrive!! You do save AC cost due to fact you can run higher temps! But watch humidity closely! Ballasts are not that bad, a good magnetic ballast will last a long time. Heres a link to what I used. You have to wire them your self but a ton cheaper. http://www.horticulturesource.com/product_info.php?products_id=2642
Bsafe

SupraSPL said:

I think what DIYer is saying is that if you don't go sealed you don't need to worry as much about CO2. Worldwide ambient air is now just over 400ppm so it would be easy to check your meter to make sure it is reasonably calibrated. Indoors CO2 ppm rises very quickly just from breathing which would explain his reading of 750.

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Sup dude,.. how the LED's treating ya?

Breathing into the meter is cheating, lol.. Reason i'm lucky enough to get 750 ppm c02 level in my grow room, is because i live at real low altitudes, it's the norm. Before my grow room was a grow room though, it was my bedroom. I had the c02 meter back then also. When me and my girl would fuck we'd make the c02 alarm in it go off at 2000, we topped out at 2300 once, lol. So if you ever wanna give your plants a shot of c02 gas just get busy next to your buds

IMO once you see the results CO2 can produce you'll never wanna go back.. Its a total difference in the way your plants grow. Faster, stronger, bigger, healthier looking. And buds much denser with bigger yield.. You can get a controller for around 300 and it will run it for you based on the levels in the room automatically. Typically youll need a 20 or 50 lb bottle, a 20lb will run you like 160. You can expect to refill it about once a week for roughly 16 bucks each time.. So that's a basic price rubdown for you. In my opinion its worth every penny.

$160 for a bottle then $64 a month to fill it? my 30# propane tank for my minigen runs $23 to fill and lasts 3 months. so in about 6 months the difference has paid for the minigen, and working on the controller. thats a big difference.

hmmm..sounds like alotta shit lol def something i need in the future but i dont even have an air-cooled hood yet so my light is sucking a ton of co2 from my plants..i def spend te extra $60 and get a 50lb less fill ups..but right now outta my budget..gotta get tht hood first but thanks guys for the info much needed

Dutchmast3r said:

hmmm..sounds like alotta shit lol def something i need in the future but i dont even have an air-cooled hood yet so my light is sucking a ton of co2 from my plants..i def spend te extra $60 and get a 50lb less fill ups..but right now outta my budget..gotta get tht hood first but thanks guys for the info much needed

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How is your light sucking co2 from the plant? That statement is a bit confusing.

just like everyone else I love using co2, but boy can it get expensive.. the most expensive part is the co2 ppm controller, but if you take all the propper steps 100% air tight room and such you can get by without it using simple mathimatical calculations or they have them cool cheap cathode ray tubes with syringe to check your levels.. good luck and do your homework first cause co2 can jack your crop just as easily as it can help you...
Cheers~Reggae

budleydoright said:

How is your light sucking co2 from the plant? That statement is a bit confusing.

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doesnt the heat off the light deplete the co2 ?

Heat doesn't deplete co2. A fan circulating air in and out of your room will deplete added co2, but will keep it at atmospheric levels.

if you want CO2 in your grow, read this:
http://ezinearticles.com/?CO2-for-Free&id=48431
..and heres someone who successfully did it:
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/225177-diy-natural-gas-co2-generator.html

BUY A CO METER AT WALLY WORLD FIRST!!

please dont let this guy help you kill yourself by trying to save $100 over a real co2 generator.

superstoner1 said:

please dont let this guy help you kill yourself by trying to save $100 over a real co2 generator.

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Its well beyond $100 if you don't have to buy a damn thing. Not to mention um, might be worth a bit to save the fucking planet. Ignorance won't help anyone you know that right? Least alone you. Proof is in the pudding, (link in my sig) its been being done for years now, read and learn, or continue to overpay in order to stay under your rock.

you went from a diy'er to a didick'er.

Thats ok, you went from someone who i thought might have been able to help me, to someone too stupid to learn whats been being done for a decade now, ha

For those who have the reading and understanding thing down, ill be posting a link to the video of my DIY, including video i just shot today of my new CO ppm meter/alarm, showing me my home, and even the closet where my water heater is, both read 0 ppm. I'll be taking readings after as well.

budleydoright said:

Heat doesn't deplete co2. A fan circulating air in and out of your room will deplete added co2, but will keep it at atmospheric levels.

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Yeah basically you are sucking your co2 out if you dont pull cool air from another room through your grow hoods. In order to use Co2 effectively one must seal up their grow room really well and by sealing up I mean add some weather striping to your grow room make sure all your hoods are sealed up properly and always pull air from another room, never pull air from your grow room with co2 because it will suck it all out and exhaust it like you do the hot air from the hood, most growers will be able to tell if something is wrong because a 20lb co2 tank wont last you more than 3 days if you dont have a properly sealed room.

DIYer said:

if you want CO2 in your grow, read this:
http://ezinearticles.com/?CO2-for-Free&id=48431
..and heres someone who successfully did it:
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/225177-diy-natural-gas-co2-generator.html

BUY A CO METER AT WALLY WORLD FIRST!!

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DONE!!

Hooked up the Y, ran some flex hose (30ft of it), CO meter in place, reading 0ppm. Whole install cost me less than $50. CO2 meter was reading 550, took a shower, and it went up to 2700, CO meter still at 0ppm. Ha!

Got a gas water heater? Do it, it's free CO2 and it works.

wish i had a home..i rent upstairs and water heaters in the basement..few more years

It is worth it. It can increase your yield by an extra 30% at max. You need the right equipment and computer controls. All together it cost me 1200 bucks for the whole setup.
Havent even been able to use it in the new place cauze its not airtight. The last place I had I had a window box pulling in cool air through my lamps and out a different window so it didnt heat up the air in the box or suck out my Co2. I got great yields. If you dont do it right its a huge waste and a see-saw game from 1500ppm - 250ppm. Up-Down-Up-Down.
Dont do it until you do your research first. Plus Co2 from propane is nothing to play around with. READ - PLAN - READ SOMEMORE - PLAN SOMEMORE - INVEST IN THE BEST -GOOD LUK!

Dutchmast3r said:

wish i had a home..i rent upstairs and water heaters in the basement..few more years

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If you have a gas water heater down there in your basement, i'd bet money the stack off the top of it goes to your roof,.. which means it goes through your attic,.. which is exactly what mine does, and that's where i Y'ed it off, in the attic crawl space. Hot and cramped as fuck up there, i took a backpack full of tools and water, as well as my cell incase i fell half way through the floor, lol.. Came down 45 min later drenched in sweat, but got it done. If yours is the same, id do it. a 4" hole cut out of the ceiling isn't hard to replace before yo move.


A glitch though:.. so maybe i'm not "DONE" yet, ha!..
tat2ue (the guy who inspired me to do this, CO2 link in my sig) he said "For the most part, the fan that pulls the co2 into the room is doing so mostly from the pilot light"... he also said, "After trial and error I got it to keep a constant 1500-1900 ppm by setting my timer at 15 min on and 30 min off". I don't know about this, first off he said he never had a CO2 meter, so i'm wondering how he measured that. I've put my CO2 meter right by the fan blowing in, and it only reads higher than the ambient CO2 level of 550 when the water heater is ON. Mind you i have a lot longer run then him,.. but i won't keep that fan on if it's not helping. Only when there is CO2 enriched air in the pipe would it benefit me, otherwise I'm just sucking in hot air from outside. My WH is outside on a closet on the patio, hot as shit out there this time of year so the thing isn't going to run much. I suspect his pilot light alone isn't doing it for him, and at 15 on 30 off he's probably just catching CO2 in the pipe at times, and has more spikes and dips than he would prefer. Duct power dampers might be in order, that's what the original article recommended.