bottled co2 usage

[doctor.dank]

I'm looking for first hand experience on how long a 50lb co2 tank will last in a completely sealed 10x10x8 room. 4 trees, 5k watts. I only plan on running 800 to 900 ppm. Exchanging air at night to control humidity. I've tried to use the co2 calculator and they don't seem to be helpful.

Also besides needing a doly to wheel it around does anyone see a problem getting a 100 or 200 lb co2?

Thanks for any input guys.

 

[Snype]

I'd estimate that your CO2 would last about a month with what you stated using a 50# tank. My 20 pound tanks last about 2 weeks in 4k rooms.

 

[Treetroit City]

All depends on how well you seal it up. I have a 12x13x8 room and I can get at least 6 weeks out of a #20 tank at 900 ppm. In this room I taped every seam and every staple. I tend to leave the door open to veg when I'm out there working so normally I get 4-5 weeks. If I make sure to keep the door shut 95% of the time I bet I could go 8 weeks on a 20.

But! I don't exhaust at night so when my lights come on the room is about 1500 ppm from all the excess co2 the plants dump at night. This means I'm not using any from my tank for many hours each morning.

About sealing, I recently built a 5x11x8 room and didn't bother to seal it up that great and found that I only was getting about 2 weeks on a #20. Of course I went and with spray foam and now get 4 weeks in that room.

As far as my bigger room, I hung Orca film on the wall and panda film on the ceiling and taped it all up. My small room has nothing on the ceiling so where the walls meet the ceiling is where I'm losing most of it.

Good luck, do it right and you won't have to worry about keeping that much on hand.

 

[doctor.dank]

Thanks guy. When I was looking it up online and trying those usage calculators it was saying a 20# tank would only last like 70 hours. thanks for the first hand experiences

 

[Treetroit City]

No problem. A few folks tried telling me I would need a couple 50 pounders for my room. I was glad I tried with the 20 first.

 

[growshopfrank]

With the big tanks its always a good idea to mount a couple of eye hooks and a length of chain to the wall to prevent the tank from falling accidentally.
The last thing that anyone needs is a 270LB torpedo flying around their garden

 

[Weed Gretzky]

curious what controllers/monitors are you guys using? do i need fuzzy logic? Are they better then analogue sniffers? i just have a regulator right now. Was thinking of getting just a desktop monitor and adjusting with the regulator as i go. I've been looking at hydrofarm autopilot stuff right now, any opinions? Any other controllers i should look at?


http://autopilotcontrollers.com/CO2

 

[Treetroit City]

I use the autopilot myself. Have two of them and haven't had any issues with them.

 

[growshopfrank]

curious what controllers/monitors are you guys using? do i need fuzzy logic? Are they better then analogue sniffers? i just have a regulator right now. Was thinking of getting just a desktop monitor and adjusting with the regulator as i go. I've been looking at hydrofarm autopilot stuff right now, any opinions? Any other controllers i should look at?


http://autopilotcontrollers.com/CO2

For injection of CO2 fuzzy is the way to go.
The big advantage of controller VS sniffer and timer is efficiency with the controller hopefully saving money by not injecting when not needed. The bigger the space/CO2 bill the more sense a controller makes.

 

[hush]

You definitely want fuzzy logic on your controller if using bottled CO2.

 

[Granger2]

growshopfrank and hush,
Please educate me why fuzzy logic is better than say an analog AutoPilot. What are the advantages? No BS, I really don't know. Thanks. -granger

 

[growshopfrank]

growshopfrank and hush,
Please educate me why fuzzy logic is better than say an analog AutoPilot. What are the advantages? No BS, I really don't know. Thanks. -granger

The "fuzzy logic" means that the controller will do short injection cycles than pause with a read on the CO2 concentration then if necessary another short injection and pause until it hits your set point without going much over your setting. After a short learn time it adjusts to your spaces parameters
The regular controllers just inject till they hit your set point which can be wasteful because the CO2 takes awhile to evenly disperse in the room and this tends to cause higher that set CO2 levels.

 

[hush]

^ Exactly what he said. I couldn't have said it better myself. Without the fuzzy logic, you will have dangerously high levels of CO2 in the grow room, which also means wasting gas and refilling more frequently.