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The how to and why fors of CO2 supplementation for growers
- Thread starter Lazyman
- Start date
Randybobandy
Member
Hey Sneakinman I got the 1400BTU air cooled unit. I got it on sale for 3300 I think. Many would scoff at that-3300 bucks for 1400BTU? but its the fact that it is an industrial grade machine. These fuckers run forever. And having an a/c break in a co2 room can be catostophic. I know. The condensate pump rocks too. 75 feet push I think. I dont care about power bills. As far as power gos all my concerns are on saftey. Power bills are not something to be feared but paid. Iv'e had freinds with 7000 dollar power bills-no joke. Just pay your shit and don't steal it. Dot all your i's and cross all your T's and power won't be much of a concern. Just another damm bill! Mine runs at 14.5 amps 120 but you can get 220/240 versions. While just cycling air it probably only uses 1 or 2 amps. If you buy from them just tell them its for a server room. Dude was asking lots of questions. I shoulda been like "I'm growing Medical dope man......What?!" LOL It cools the room well with 6k(Air cooled),res cooler,co2 gen, and 2 dehumidifiers. Keep my room @84 but I can keep it @70 if I need to. Hope that helps.
Randybobandy
Member
I rent I dont own. So moving capibilities are prime. I can move my a/c out of the property in five minutes easy. Not to important if you own or dont care about condensor questions(security breeches). I used this thing in 3 spots for about 7 years. never had a problem with it. And I dont have a condensor going off in my back yard in the middle of winter. Even if its quiet I don't want freinds, family or property owners asking questions. I have a freind who does this. They are sooo quite but if you walk by it you know its on. Id do this even if I owned in retrospect. But I would never grow wher I own. To great of a tangable asset to loose. The a/c has paid for it self many times over in ease of instalation, reliability,portability, and security. Mini splits do kick ass though. Had to run copper along the attick all the way outside once. PITAss. With the kwikool I just cut two 12" holes and I'm done.
So after reading through this great thread, I'm really having some time to focus and getting into my CO2 levels and am now on a mission to achieve 1300-1600 ppm levels consistently.
I was falsely under the impression that my current system came with those levels by default as that is what they advertise in all their literature but upon testing myself yesterday with soem of those colorimetry test tubes and sampling the air as you can see from my pics the tests came out much lower than expected.
I realize that a timer and a regulator are not teh recommended way to handle the co2 levels but since my system came with these already I'm trying to make the best out of the situation and get as close to the desired co2 levels as possible without spoending an arm and a leg (I can wait till afte I crop to do that lol)
I'm currently entering 2nd wk of flower and I just finished testing the CO2 levels of the Producer's that I have setup using those colorimetry tests that are supposed to be accurate within 40ppm according to Jorge Cervantes.
I tested the middle of the cab 3 times, once just after the co2 was released and once about halfway in between the releases (at 4 mins)which are timed by default to be every 8 mins it releases and then once again right before the release.
Although the tests proved to me that the levels of co2 stayed consistent which is good news, the levels were much too low, reading 600-800 ppm for each test which I am not happy about considering they say right in the manual that the machines maintain 1600ppm levels.
My question to you is, how do you recommend I increase to 1600ppm? I don't know if I should increase from 5psi when setting to 8psi or 10 psi etc...
should I just try and increase teh level on the regulator by 1 psi and then test again?
Please help me achieve the optimal co2 levels...
I was falsely under the impression that my current system came with those levels by default as that is what they advertise in all their literature but upon testing myself yesterday with soem of those colorimetry test tubes and sampling the air as you can see from my pics the tests came out much lower than expected.
I realize that a timer and a regulator are not teh recommended way to handle the co2 levels but since my system came with these already I'm trying to make the best out of the situation and get as close to the desired co2 levels as possible without spoending an arm and a leg (I can wait till afte I crop to do that lol)
I'm currently entering 2nd wk of flower and I just finished testing the CO2 levels of the Producer's that I have setup using those colorimetry tests that are supposed to be accurate within 40ppm according to Jorge Cervantes.
I tested the middle of the cab 3 times, once just after the co2 was released and once about halfway in between the releases (at 4 mins)which are timed by default to be every 8 mins it releases and then once again right before the release.
Although the tests proved to me that the levels of co2 stayed consistent which is good news, the levels were much too low, reading 600-800 ppm for each test which I am not happy about considering they say right in the manual that the machines maintain 1600ppm levels.
My question to you is, how do you recommend I increase to 1600ppm? I don't know if I should increase from 5psi when setting to 8psi or 10 psi etc...
should I just try and increase teh level on the regulator by 1 psi and then test again?
Please help me achieve the optimal co2 levels...
Attachments
http://www.co2boost.com/home.aspx
my friends favorite co2 solution for smaller grows. the bucket and pump is more than a hundred dollars but replacement buckets are cheap.
my friends favorite co2 solution for smaller grows. the bucket and pump is more than a hundred dollars but replacement buckets are cheap.
like i said its good for small grows (as in 2x2s and 3x3s) i believe, i personally want something for like a 4x6. after some looking i found this. sounds almost too good to be true i think...
http://www.bey-tech.com/CO2Blackbox.html
http://www.bey-tech.com/CO2Blackbox.html
Unbelievable, so I set the regulator at double the suggested level according to the instruction manual at BCNL as you suggested and I fully assumed it would produce near double the co2 inside the cab. Well, to my dismay, my next test (conducted just now) turned out the same results... Like, exact same results, which seems really weird.
So for clarification, I changed the settings on teh regulator to read from 5psi to 10psi when the co2 is flowing. When the co2 is not flowing the psi meter reads at about a 12psi. The timer lets in co2 every 8 mins for 6 seconds. The cubic feet of the sealed interior of the cab is 45792 in³ = 26.4999 ft³
I say sealed but in reality there is an exhaust fan at the top fo teh unit always going. one of those 6 inch axial pc style fans but witht eh metal casing as opposed to plastic.
any thoughts as to why it would be giving me the same reading now that I've doubled the output at the regulator? I conducted the test as per the instructions found here so that is a constant...
Very frustrating...
Any help is super appreciated as always...
Ok, I'll give you three guesses!
CO2 and ANY exhausting of air basically don't mix. If you can't keep your room cool with AC or air cooling hoods, you can't use CO2. The room must not exchange air with an outside source in order to keep the CO2 in!
Oh you have to refresh the acid and baking soda or whatever it uses, it doesn't last for very long.
Ok thanks, point taken, I understand. Not sure if this makes a difference, maybe u can tell me but the room that the 3 cabs are in is sealed if that makes a difference. I have a water cooled A/c cooling that 10x10 room that the cabs are in and that's the same room that the air cooled lights and the inside of each cab exhaust too.
What do u think? Any hope for me achieving my goal?
Sorry man, stoned and forgot to "not try and be a dick!" lol forgive me!
Ok that DOES make a big difference. Hmm, lemme think. So your 10X10 is a lung room of sorts, and doesn't intake or exhaust any air? If your CO2 concentrations aren't going up its being depleted or leaked, but I'm afraid I can't tell you which. Is there any negative pressure intakes near your door? Like a furnace return? Or do you have central heat blowing air into the room? Some air is probably getting in or out somehow.
What air are you bringing in for your air cooled lights? If you want your AC to run less, ideally try pulling through the window and vent into the attic (so the hood air never touches the room air, no smell/CO2 leaks if you PUSH air thru hoods!) I know this isn't possible everywhere but it's good data.
Cool deal on the water-cooled ac, longtime fan though I haven't tried one yet. I thought about trying one of the heatexchanger.ca units with a chiller and a small res, so it wouldn't use a lot of amps in the winter. Whats the power draw and water consumption of yours?
Sorry man, stoned and forgot to "not try and be a dick!" lol forgive me!
Lol, didn't even notice u were being one
That's correct, no intake or outake. Ya, no furnace vents or anything the place uses baseboard heaters but maybe some air is slipping out in the crack under the door? I'll try and seal it up better. Also, I go in and out of there prolly 3 times/day so maybe I'm contributing to the leakage as well
the air cooled lights are built intot eh cab and have a glass cover, but they just exhaust, they don't intake so perhaps this is exhausting the cab a bit as well instead of just the ballast as it was intended. the light / ballast area is enclosed and separated with powder coated aluminum but maybe some exhausting is comin through the cracks.
Cool deal on the water-cooled ac, longtime fan though I haven't tried one yet. I thought about trying one of the heatexchanger.ca units with a chiller and a small res, so it wouldn't use a lot of amps in the winter. Whats the power draw and water consumption of yours?
this things a beast but its good quality and pretty quiet actually if u can muffle the air flow pumping out of it with a silencer or something insulated. It draws 11 amps though! It needs a constant source of cool water so I plumbed it off a tee into the bottom of my sink and then had to insulate the hose so it didn't condensate. As far as water consumption goes though I'm not too sure. It drains when it runs through another hose that goes to my bathtub or sink depending on what I'm doing and then I need a catcher to catch the water from teh condensation hose outake from it which I'v already forgotten to empty a cpl of times and have had to wetvac the spillage (thank god i water-proofed the flooors with pond liner!) Had to also wire a thermostat to it and wire it direct from my breaker box but man does it keep everything cool with a problem! Here's a link for more info if you're interested. there are the ones that all my grow shops in town distribute if you want something new, this is what they recomend.. frickin expense though....
It really helps having you to think this through with so thanks man
Cheers!ah, nice thinkin with the incense sticks!
As far as the Co2 tank goes, I dunno how long it lasts because this is my first time using it and actually is my first grow. I just weighed it the other day and was going to calculate the weight as I think it was u who suggested, but now that I've cranked it to 10 psi I'll have to start that process over again I guess.
The guys at BCNL told me that if I set it the way they suggest then it would last 5or 6 wks of the flowering time... It's only a 20 #'er
