Home Made Co2 Tutorial

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bakajohn

Member
About to start setting up a grow closet with that's about 5'x3' and 6.5' tall. Running a 600w hps/mh light so I will need to vent for heating. So my question is would 2, one liter bottles be sufficient for this area? Or maybe a 5liter tub with a airstone or fishtank pump? Also unclear about a couple things after reading this post in entirety haha. should I use these for veg and flower or is it only beneficial for flowering? And do I take them out when the lights are off since the plants don't use co2 in the dark? New to this so I'm sorry if these are stupid questions..

Or would it just be better to invest in a small 5gallon co2 tank, or would that be overkill for my closets dimensions??
 
Systema

Systema

Active Member
h20xygen said:
Home Made Carbon Dioxide Tutorial

Well after asking around and finding the simplest methods I came across a real easy way of making home made Co2 (thanks to skunkishybrid and m420) and i've illustrated it aswell, just thought i'd help a few of you out there who are new to this like myself.

When plants photosynthesise to make energy and grow they use Water (h20) and Carbon Dioxide (Co2) plus Light. They use half the amount of Carbon Dioxide to the amount of Water they use so this is alot of Carbon Dioxide if you think about the amount you water them, so giving them a boost of Carbon Dioxide during growth would be an advantage.

So here's my guide on how to make your own little amount of Carbon Dioxide to give your plants the boost they would love.

Step 1.
Obtain a bottle of any size, preferably plastic and fill it half way with water




Step 2.
Peirce the plastic lid using a hot pair of scissor or a pin




Step 3.
Make a funnel, either out of some card or paper or grab a funnel from your kitchen




Step 4.
Get some yeast, doesnt really matter what sort of yeast as long as it's active.. This only cost me £1.50 Sterling so probebly about $2-$3




Step 5.
Get some sugar or glucose, I've used sugar but glucose is cheaper, just get what you can get your hands on




Step 6.
Put about 1/5th of sugar to water in your bottle and the same for the yeast, 1/5th, it doesnt really matter so long as you have a decent enough amount




Step 7.
Ensure that your water has gone cloudy and remove your funnel and put the lid back on your bottle




Step 8.
I've used about this much yeast/suger mix at the bottom of my bottle




Step 9.
Cover the hole at the top of your bottle and shake well and continue to shake regularly for the next 48 hours to start off the reaction




Step 10.
Leave to stand for a second and pretty much straight the way bubbles should be on the top, this is the Co2 being given off



Positioning
The bottles should be ideally placed at pot height, because from what I remember from chemistry Carbon Dioxide is lighter than air, because air contains so much nitrogen which is a heavy (Carbon = 12 atomic mass / Nitrogen = 14 atomic mass) so if place at pot height the Carbon Dioxide will rise into the plants leaves and stem where the photosynthesis occurs



this is a 3D image of how mine are setup




Finally
Hey presto, everytime you want to give your plants a little boost of Carbon Dioxide the cheap way! Just shake up the bottle and stand it next to your beloved plant. For greater Carbon Dioxide production, use a bigger bottle. If no more bubbles are produced after shaking your bottle then it means you need to add more sugar, if no more bubbles are produced after the sugar has been added then more yeast must be added to the solution.


Much lurve.

Paul:joint:
Click to expand...

It's a long time from now but thanks for the info! i'll try that
 
jpeg666

jpeg666

Well-Known Member
Can you put an airstone in the water to constantly agitate the water instead of having to come in and shake it to get the Co2?
 
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born2killspam

Well-Known Member
You can actually generate more CO2 that way.. When yeast have fre O2 they don't ferment the sugar to alcohol, they convert it to more yeast, and the process yields more CO2.. It's important to give them nutrients though too.. Tomato paste works great, but they aren't picky..
 
jaibyrd7

jaibyrd7

Well-Known Member
Systema said:
It's a long time from now but thanks for the info! i'll try that
Click to expand...
hey, just thought id let you know H2Oxygen is a little off on his tutorial, but it makes a big difference. CO2 is HEAVIER than air, so it falls to the floor. in his diagram, co2 would just lay on the floor, giving no benefits to the plants. you can hot glue an air tube into the top of your bottle (air tight inc lid) and run it to the top (by your lights) and i recommend attaching it to an airstone to diffuse it, so it can fall down on your plants. if you have a fan blowing on your plants, you can just put the tube behind your fan so its distributed that way. also, a fan on the floor blowing up into the canopy will recirculate any co2 thats collected on the floor. Props to H2Oxygen for an otherwise nice tutorial!
 
jpeg666

jpeg666

Well-Known Member
Just turn the ceiling fan on reverse so it pulls the air to the top of the room then falls back down. Only if you are growing in a room that is
 
tumorhead

tumorhead

Well-Known Member
I had to brew more than 5 gallons of the stuff at a time to fill my tent enough to maintain 1200 ppm, and added more sugar each week. Not sure what you'd get out of that little water bottle. I have a real time co2 meter I used to monitor and if I built up to 1200ppm after a week it would be in the 800's and ready for more sugar and maybe a little fresh water.

At least the bottom half of your area should be sealed.
 
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green poetry

Member
ONE MISTAKE HERE !!!! carbon dioxide ( co2 ) is HEAVIER than air ,,,, not lighter,,, so place it ABOVE your plants .a way to prove this is to use dry ice , just frozen carbon dioxide , it tends to stay smokey in the bowl till it reaches the lip of the bowl then it cascades over the top and DOWN to the table. I personally don't smoke the stuff but I love the plants especially now that it is almost legal here !!!! enjoy
 
BilboBag

BilboBag

Member
Adding more sugar and yeast is just going to be a waste. When yeast breaks down sugar and releases co2 it creates alcohol. Typically when co2 production stops its because the alcohol concentration is greater than the yeast can survive and it has all died. This requires a clean fresh start. New water, new sugar, new yeast. Different types of yeast are sold if you want to spend more money for a longer lasting reaction. Champagne yeast and such are more resilient than bakers yeast meaning longer production.

EDIT - I just noticed this has 30 some pages of postings. Redundant.
 
IHeartHead...band

IHeartHead...band

Member
Thanks for the tutorial! For people that are interested in this there is great thread on here about the science behind bottles like these that you could look into. Forget exactly what the title was but shouldn't be hard to find. I know it's out there.
 
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drew425

Active Member
ThunderLips said:
just a quick shot of information for you guys,

CO2 is 1.5 times the mass of air. also aquarium tubing is the worst thing to use with CO2. You lose somewhere around 30% of your CO2 in the walls of your tubing which causes it to deteriorate. This is why they make CO2 tubing. Its generally black and they sell it at just about any hydroshop.

2nd for anyone spending a bit more money on their grow setup and not just a closet grow....
1 full 20lb tank - $150 USD
1 Regulator - $100 USD
1 CO2 Control System(monitors the amount of PPm & keeps your room at a constant 1600 PPm) - $300 USD

So for roughly under $500 you can have a nice little automated CO2 system and depending on the size of your grow room, you will only have to refill the tank once every 3 weeks.

My room is 6x8 and is not air tight, I burn through a 20lb bottle every 3 1/2 weeks, this brings my costs for CO2 to just under $60 USD per cycle!
After a few crops using yeast and now a 20lb bottle, this is my preferred choice. I have posted in this thread a few times, showing my yeast setups, as well as helping others with theirs, but in my experience with CO2, your best bet is to just do what I did.

Screw those boost buckets, for $150 USD and another $80 on the refill kit every cycle. Ive seen people waste money on these multiple times and the thing is pretty decent it produces CO2, but not worth the money.
Click to expand...
I apoligize again for bringing up an old thread, but was there a noticeable difference with added CO2 to the grow? My room is 4x8x7

And you have to have a controller, or can you just go with the regulator and tank?
 
DrKingGreen

DrKingGreen

Well-Known Member
Not reading 36 pages to find my answer so... Does this really help a noticeable amount? If I were to throw 4-6 of these in my closet grow would it be worth my time and added maintenance/fumbling around them all the time???
 
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drew425

Active Member
DrKingGreen said:
Not reading 36 pages to find my answer so... Does this really help a noticeable amount? If I were to throw 4-6 of these in my closet grow would it be worth my time and added maintenance/fumbling around them all the time???
Click to expand...
Theres no way of telling unless you have a meter to read CO2 ammounts. IMO its not worth the time, effort, and maintenance. I had about 6 of these in a 4x8 tent and it started to really become a hassle so I scraped it. The first few days im sure it raises the CO2 ammount quite a bit since I could tell when I would shake the bottles I would get a lot of pressure escaping out of the hoses on top of them. After week I didn't notice much and after 2 weeks you have to add more sugar to restart the process.

I could be one of those dicks on here that scold you for not reading the thread and using the search but I probably wouldn't want to read through 36 pages either. Stoners have a short attention span anywaysbongsmilie

Ahhh San Jose. The good ol Silicon Valley
 
DrKingGreen

DrKingGreen

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the understanding ;) If I had to spend the 3 hours of reading to get a minor help with already healthy plants I wouldn't. I'm sure everyone understands and thanks for the response!
 
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