c02 light cycle questions

About to implement co2 into my room with a regular - I prefer to not burn the gas in the extra bedroom. I tested out what my temps when all exhaust\air cooling ventilation is off and it took over 30 minutes to rise over 85.

Right now I am vegging and the lights are off from 1PM to 8PM. I want to switch it to them being off from noon to eight instead...does switching their light cycle by an hour during veg stress them at all? I've done it in the past with no problems but I'm curious about your opinions.

Anyhow, my question about the c02 is as follows. I won't have a brain to monitor my temps and c02 levels, so I'll just have to use the simple math on the regulator to figure out how long it takes to fill my room with c02. My room is 9 by 11 with 7 foot ceilings. My digital timers only have 12 program settings I am a bit limited in how many times I can set fans off\c02 on.

Would filling to the room for 15 minutes with c02 and then cutting it off but leaving ventilation off for an additional 15 minutes for them to absorb the c02 give me good results?

Can anyone give experience with the regulators. I can play around with the pressure on the tank to fill it slower or quicker but I am new to c02 so a bit confused how to work this.

Have a friend who told me even small amounts of c02 helps a ton. Right now his temps are too high so he burns gas with his exhaust still on (I know, what a waste!) and still notcies an increase in yield.

I don't want to give my babies too much c02 but it's hard to find the PPM in the air without the brain hooked up. Do people who use regulators just use the chart on the back of the emitter? Not very precise I was thinking?
Smoke Legal Buds

Your plants will be fine with the change. It's not a big deal at all. I haven't tried co2 w/o gauge and can't tell how long it would take to get your room over 1000ppm. Since you're using co2 from a bottle there should be a few here that have experience with that method of co2 enrichment.

...yeah my friend said he would come over with his "brain" and we could fuck around and see how long it takes to hit 1000-1200 PPM and then I could just write it down and continue to do the same exact thing every time, and the math should stay relatively the same.

He also said the math on the back of the box is actually pretty accurate if you just enter the cubic feet of your room into the equation correctly.

Anyone have any experience? Let me know!!

I am also a bit concerned about harming the plants with TOO much c02 if I'm unable to test the air, but I've read on a few different sites that they can only absorb so much c02 and it's really hard to fuck them up with excess c02. Is this true? I thought I read in the past the PPM of the c02 can never exceed the PPM of your nutrient mix, but since I do organic I never test my water... simply put my nutes in and do what the ladies tell me... a little burn and I back off, so far so good on this run!!!

There are Co2 auto calculators online. just search google for one. My room is 4x8x6 is sealed. My co2 runs at 1 bar for 13 minutes to reach 1500 ppms( the air already has 300 ppms of co2 so you need to calculate for 1200). I add another 2 minutes just to make sure it hits that 1500 mark. It fires every 3 hours when the lights are on.

how many bars does your regulator go to? if it is 1 like mine then you will need more then 13 minutes because your room is much larger.

[QUOTE=how many bars does your regulator go to? if it is 1 like mine then you will need more then 13 minutes because your room is much larger.[/QUOTE]

Not exactly sure how many bars it has just yet, I need to purchase it. What are bars... the amount of setting for flow intensity or something like that?

Do you notice a big increase in yield only running it once every three hours? I was told at the store I would want to put the c02 out pretty much every hour. I figured a simple twenty three to twenty four minutes of every hour the fans would be off, and I assumed emitting c02 for about 15 minutes would probably give me the desired PPM.

At the hydro store though I was told I would likely need more than twelve programs and I'm not sure why... I would assume once an hour would be plenty but I could be wrong?

Thanks for the info about c02 calculators online, I'll have to take a look. I also have a friend with a brain that measures PPM in the air, so he said he'd be willing to bring it over and I can monitor how quickly my room fills etc for a few hours and run my cycles accordingly - this combined with rough estimates from dimensions of the room should be enough huh?

Found one, it said if your room is about 594 cubic feet which mine is, you'd need to emit c02 for 21 minutes to reach the desired 1500 PPM.

As for how often I would need to do that to maintain a nice level of c02 in the air, that would be something I'd have to play around with I guess.

Every few hours should make a good difference in yield I would have to assume? I will have small leaks, as the door will let some air out, but not a ton should be leaving the room with huge speed as all exhaust will be off, right?

Can anyone comment on the article that I read that says the PPM in your air can only match the PPM in your water otherwise your plants will burn a bit, is this true?

Untrue-

Fer instance, atmo is ~=340ppm CO2, but you can run yer nute much higher than 340 ppm.

The " match yer ppms" rule of thumb is meant to reduce waste- if either nute or CO2 availability becomes a limiting factor, excess of other factors becomes waste.

You won't see phytotoxicity from CO2 till ya hit about 10,000 ppm. Nute, obviously, much sooner.

a bar is a measure of c02 per square inch over time. in other words it measures how much c02 is being pumped out of your tank. How powerful the spray is. this is a factor because when using a timed method you need to measure the pressure at which the c02 is being emitted. it should say on your regulator. plug that into the equation.

Yeah lots of band info around on c02. Had someone tell me anything higher than 3K is going to harm the plants big time, but it seems they can take even 10K without damange... just wasting a buncha c02.

anyhow, will keep you guys posted.

1500 ppm is the optimum level of c02 you need. Once again, 300 ppm is in the atmosphere already so your co2 regulator will need to pump out 1200 ppm over time

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JeffersonBud

There are Co2 auto calculators online. just search google for one. My room is 4x8x6 is sealed. My co2 runs at 1 bar for 13 minutes to reach 1500 ppms( the air already has 300 ppms of co2 so you need to calculate for 1200). I add another 2 minutes just to make sure it hits that 1500 mark. It fires every 3 hours when the lights are on.

how many bars does your regulator go to? if it is 1 like mine then you will need more then 13 minutes because your room is much larger.

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Thanks for the info Jefferson you da man.

Measured my room...

It's 960 cubic feet.

The main area is 7.5 feet, height is 7.5 feet, width 11.75 feet.

Also a little closet area that wasn't measured in the main roon is

3.5 feet deep, height 7.5 feet, 6.0 feet in width.

For the calculator I used online it says 960 cubic feet will get filled to 1500 PPM with 23 minutes of co2 being emitted at a rate of 2 cubic feet per hour.

Do most regulators have several release rates? I would have to imagine so.


So now, I will release it for 23 minutes..and then would you guys reccomend leaving my exhaust off for an additional 10 minutes or so if the heat doesn't become a problem?

Last time I checked I could leave my exhaust off for 32 minutes before the temperature exceeded 85 in the canopy.