Kegerator CO2 Conversion

[DirtyDaub]

I wanna set up a CO2 system in my grow room for as cheap as possible. I have a tank, regulator, and psi indicator from an unused kegerator and was wondering how hard it would be to set this up. I've been looking online at hydrofarm's CO2 regulating system: http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=7105. Its fairly cheap at $155 + s/h. I was wondering though, do I really need all that stuff? (It comes with a timer, flow controller, a solenoid and some tubing.)

Or could I just turn my tank up to a certain psi and let it do its thing?

 

[DirtyDaub]

any advice?

 

[Guest]

Dirty I think the reason there is little response is the same reason as last time,people that have used co2 effectively know there are no cheap effective shortcuts.An inadequete co2 enrichment system is a limiting factor in itself,its much better to make the investment and do it correctly.

 

[Guest]

Hey Dirty,

Yes you need all that stuff. I began with CO2 similar to you, looking for the cheapest way to get it. Here's what I did and where I'm at now:

Started with 2liter bottle filled with sugar water n yeast - Result: Sucked

Changed to rubbermaid with sugar water n yeast - Result: Sucked

Bought a CO2 tank, flow controller and timer - Result: Wasted a TON of CO2, no idea what ppm's were, didn't see much of a chance in plants (other than what I 'thought' was change due to placebo affect)

Bought a CAP3 CO2 PPM monitor: Result - PERFECT.

So, as you can see, I started with kitchen stuff and ended up with a tank, flow controller, ppm monitor and a timer (to turn on CO2 during lights on period only).

Happy shopping!

 

[Guest]

Thats exactly what I said in the other thread,I saw real results when I got my controller.Even a cyclestat timer results in too wide a co2 fluctuation,keeping the gas stable is as important as having the correct PPM's.I found even when using the timer correctly with the right sized generator for my room the fluctuation was too wide.If you gas the room to 1500 PPM and the level has dropped to 700 before the next injection,your plants arent benefiting at all.A fluctuation of 200PPM is appropriate,the plants have time to adapt to the higher levels without the gas dropping down and going up all willy nilly.Thats what a cap PPM-3 provides,a controlled high co2 environment where the level never variates over 200 PPM from setpoint.Even a generator with a cyclestat timer is pretty ineffective IMO so you can forget the yeast and paintball escapades lol.