question on: ventilation, co2 enrichment, heat exhaust hoods and carbon scrubbers.

[AlaskaGrows]

hello, i have a few questions for u heads out there if ya'll dont mind.

first off i acquired a co2 tank, which i want to implement into my grow room. the room is approximately 6'deep x 15'wide x 7'tall.
last harvest i left the door cracked for ventilation, which proved un rewarding with my harvest. plus i did not have a scrubber so everything was MUCH too stinky, even from my front door

anyways, what i want to accomplish is to raise the c02 levels to the optimum level while scrubbing my room of the stank.

is the type of scrubber that runs independently on the floor circulating the air any good? reliable?

another thing i wanted to do was to lower my hood because i can hook an exhaust up to it.

but will my new accommodation (c02 tank) allow for it? i dont want to vent my c02 out LOL!!

i think thats about it!
thanks for the help.
AG

P.S.- if it is better to run my room with ventilation let me know. maybe its better to time the co2 with the fans??

 

[keylime]

I've never run Co2, but to the best of my understanding Co2 is generally run in a sealed room, no scrubber is used, and the heat is removed by the use of air conditioning.

In the 'normal' system, fresh air is constantly brought in for the plants as well as keeping the room from getting too hot. In order to accomodate the air that is brought in, the stinky hot air is 'scrubbed' through a carbon filter and exhausted out.


keylime

 

[AlaskaGrows]

what u say is true. but with 'sealed rooms' the smell still gets out. u need some form of odor control. and ive heard of growers not worrying about temps as long as u are enriching with o2.thanks for the response.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I think you can scrub the room with a carbon filter. It would just recycle the air in the room. People do it all the time, not sure with Co2 though.

to air cool the lights and use Co2, you would need to have an intake and outtake on the hoods. Basically the hood is sealed with glass, and air from outside the room is brought through the hood, then out of the room. In theory, the air going through the hood is seperate from the air in the room

 

[Guest]

I do exactly as Keylime says,its not that you dont have to worry about temps its that optimum is around 85 F at the canopy for 1500PPM.Vertizontals are frickin great to flower with co2 enrichment and a window AC.You want to stay away from portables even dual hose portable AC's.I guess I could hang a scrubber but the vaportek optimum 4000 works well enough for me.You want 3-4K BTU per 1K vertizontal at 50W sq ft.

 

[AlaskaGrows]

lol what is vertizontal?

thanks yamaha on the tip about hoods. the air would indeed be seperate, enabling me to enrich the room.

and since i am in alaska i'd rather not use AC, i should be able to have a decently cool room w/o it. all i need to do now is get the gear for my co2 tank - a piece of glass for my hood, fan / ducting for it- and a carbon scrubber to run inside grow.

perfect thanks guys.

if ya'll have any recommendations for the gear i need feel free to pitch in .

 

[Guest]

A 4 ft open octagonal parabolic hood in which the lamp can be oriented vertically or horizontally.Perfect for sealed grows with co2 enrichment.

 

[AlaskaGrows]

ahh i see. i have a hood like u speak of but i can only hang the bulb vertically, not horizontally.

i can slide a piece of glass into my fox farm hood.
will that decrease my lumens?
i see alot of people use them but have heard a few talk bad about them.
cuz if u test a hood with and with/o a lens they show a difference. i dunno just wondering.

i feel if i lower my light enough it will make up for the few lumens that are lost....right?

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I think the lumens that are lost is minimal and the benefits of aircooling your lights outweighs the loss of lumens. Almost everybody running multiple lights air cools their hoods.

 

[AlaskaGrows]

i have a few more questions.

is the hydro farm light rail the best for the money? i want to get a 6' for my 1,000w and a 4' for the bottom half of my cabinet, 2 70w security hps lights.

Hydrofarm has both at their website for 115$ and 110$, not to bad i think, havent found them cheaper.

for my hood lens i am going to ask my hydro dealer, see if they have one in stock. because online it says my hood should have came with one. i dunno if it should have.

how much CFM do i need to pull to get the hot air out, i dont want to over due it. which product would u guys use if u dont mind me askin?

the best carbon scrubber i've seen is THIS one on ebay for 60- 70 $ or an ozone generator for 73$ HERE
my room is approx 6-700 cubic feet

now one of the last things i need is my co2 gear.

i got my tank, so is this all i need?? costs 160$HERE

as soon as i figure this out i can get to flowering again (with ur guys' help of course)

AG

 

[AlaskaGrows]

bump

i could really use peoples opinions on these items i would like to purchase... i just loaded a pre-paid card with 500 buck-aroonies and would like to order ASAP so ... PLEASE HELP

 

[NiteTiger]

Heya Alaska!

In my opinion, your knowledge is outstripping your experience. Not a bad thing at all, don't think I'm insulting you, please. However, with only two grows under your belt, CO2 is a bit overkill. You're right to step up your options, but not to that extent, in my opinion. CO2 is great, so I've heard, but is more of a 'completer'.

CO2 is something you add after you've done everything else right. You've gotten the absolute most out of the strain that you're going to get. Repeated max yields. Then you add CO2 to put the icing on the cake so to speak.

So you see what I'm saying now, right? You just haven't had enough grows to know that you've maxed out yet. Hell, I've got quite a few grows under my belt, and I don't use Co2. Just not worth the expense unless you're running commercial with the same strain and have maxed it out.

Don't know about you, but I'm not up for dropping ~$400 for a Co2 tank and controller, not to mention the cost of setting up a sealed room, when I can't even tell if it is making a difference. Keep in mind, you can't definitely see a difference until you have several consistent harvests of the same strain.

In regards to the cooling, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have an A/C on hand. No matter how cold it gets outside, I'm assuming you're in an insulated area. If that's the case, you're still going to have to deal with the heat generated by your lights, especially if you're thinking of sealing your room. You may or may not need it, but it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. No matter how much air cooling you have, there is still radiant heat.

No matter what the setup, you should have air cooled lights. Best thing since sliced bread in my opinion Make a cheap cool tube, and save yourself a hundred bucks or so.

A carbon scrubber is a must, whether it is in room or exhaust scrubbing. The biggest security threat you face - assuming you tell no one you're growing - is the smell. Scrub the living shit out of every molecule of air in, leaving, or around that room. Period.

I didn't see you mention what lights your using. To figure arrangements, gotta have that info. Unless you're going commercial, you really don't need to use all of that room.

 

[AlaskaGrows]

hey nitetiger!

thanks for the feedback, but i am still going to give it a shot during flowering, i believe i would notice a difference or not. maybe ill be proved wrong.

i used 1,000w the first time and 2,000w this last time. now im just going to use one 1,000. one of the purple digi's.

ill make sure to update what eventually happens

ag

 

[NiteTiger]

No problem bro, glad to help if I can.

I certainly don't fault you for bringing in the Co2. It certainly can't hurt, unless you run it without a controller and your PPMs get too high

Using a 1kw light, I'd partition off that room and go vertical. I think in Alaska you can have 4 (or is it 6?) plants, so I'd do 4 trees myself. You may want to try what I'm transitioning to - 1kw vertical flip flopped. Get two flowering areas off of one ballast :wink:

My personal opinion is that you'll do better devoting all of your light to a space maximized to the light, instead of trying to stretch it out using a mover. Nothing says you have to use all the space available. Hell, if I was using all the space I have available, I'd be running at least 8kw

No matter how you run it, I really, REALLY hope you'll partition off that area to maximize your light, instead of trying to make your light fit the area. Not to mention it's a lot cheaper to pick up some 2x4s, plywood, and panda poly than it is for light movers. I built my pods, both of them, for about $100.

The plants seem to appreciate it :wink: This shot is actually taken outside the pod, but gives you an idea of how happy and healthy they are.

 

[AlaskaGrows]

i forgot to mention that i wont be using that whole area lol! im done with growing trees . i am going to try and add 1 plant every 10 days to flowering. would give me 60 + days of flowering. i am going to fit no more then 8 in flower, 6 moms, and 10 veg (including clones)

the reason i want the light mover is simply to maximize the lighting.

i dont believe the average citizen is allowed a number of pot plants. last i knew our 4 ounces was struck down to 1 ounce per 21 y/o, but if you keep under 24 plants then it is a misdemeanor. thats what i am aiming towards.

thanks again bro!

btw i want to pick up a tds/ec meter to test my nutes. ill need a ph eventually too for hydro. is there anyone specifically that is better then others?

 

[NiteTiger]

Blah, no telling where I got that plant number then, I could have sworn I read it somewhere though.

As far as PH meters, you'll get a lot of opinions on that one. I personally use a little PH meter I got from eBay (eaglescales) for $15. It came precalibrated, and I haven't had to adjust it yet