Quick question about CO2

corinth

Well-Known Member
So i got an insulated shed im using for my flower room . Im running 2 hps 1k air cooled hoods uour basic set up . My question is if im exhausting air with inline fans and imcoming is there an option to increase co2 with those mushroom bags etc. Im exhausting air so it wouldnt build up in the air id imagine at all is there something i can do other then having an enclosed room . I was thinking of just putting 2 of those mushroom bags in the room every few months think their good for but then again the rooms like 14 ft long 10 wide 11 high. Thats alot of space to fill with co2 i imagine and if im exhausting air itd be pointless? Is there something else i can do tonadd more co2 rather then from fresh air etc.
 
Personally, I'm not going to put any faith whatsoever in a product like that when the manufacturer advertises it can "increase the level of CO2 in a grow room to 1,500PPM" - when said manufacturer does not bother to list the *size* (volume) of that grow room. Imagine if you walked into a store to purchase a grow light, and the clerk handed you whichever product he had the highest profit margin on was having the most trouble selling felt like selling you, and said, "This light will be perfect for a grow room," without ever once asking you what the area of your grow space is. Would you put any faith in it, lol? I'm just saying...

But be that as it may, no, they're not going to do much at all (other than produce mushrooms, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, IMHO). At minimum, you'd need to adjust your fan timer(s) so that your room is exhausted on an on/off/on/off/etc. cycle throughout the "day." Something like 15 minutes on, 45 minutes off (or longer off, to allow the level of CO2 to increase markedly before you suck it out of the grow space). A real setup with a tank, emitter, etc. would be better. Not least because you'd have at least some idea of how much you were actually adding. But also because it would be a more consistent level of production, you'd be able to stop the flow of gas (via another timer) when your fans kick on, etc.

However...

itd be pointless?

YES, because:

Im running 2 hps 1k

...plus...

the rooms like 14 ft long 10 wide 11 high.

...equals 7.142857143 watts per square foot!!!!! I'm honestly surprised that you're getting any appreciable growth with that meager amount of light-energy. You've got 140 ft.2, and a couple 1Kw HPS lights would be good for... 40 :rolleyes: . Maybe a bit more, depending on reflector efficiency, strain selection, whether they're photoperiodic plants or autoflowering, "third light effect," et cetera. But only a bit - *NOT* another 100 ft.2. Your plants aren't going to use any more CO2 than what you're bringing in by running your exhaust fan(s) and having adequate passive intake vents. It's light that they're lacking. Cannabis isn't lettuce, lol - it's a light-loving plant. Get a lot more light in there or reduce the size of your grow space to 50 ft.2 or thereabouts, then see what happens. . . .
 
Im getting more lights brother. Im looking at vivosuns de 1k hps x2 maybe then also use the air cooled hoods maybe with mh instead of the hps in there now. My fear is how much heat its gonna put off. I installed a window ac above the flower room door though so i could judt crank that on i do in the summer its digital seems to help. Im not really trying to push out 4k watts but i could itd prolly add another 100 bucks a month on my eletric or so but your right man. I bet i do well just dont have the adequate light. And i was told my hydro supplier about how people will exhaust that co2 once a day or something ? But yea a regulator would be idea i could probally have 1 installed but when i speak to the hydro guy there like 700 to set it up. Which isnt so bad but i wonder how long a big tank would last im sure i could get a set up somewhere for cheaper then brand new or maybe e bay amazon etc. I bet those vivosuns are crap but i see mixed reviews. There like 270 for everything but bulb i think while i see those gavitas etc for 700++..?im sure most people will try to research b4 they invest in that kind of stuff but either way 2 more lights is needed. I hate having to try to mess with those plants midflower cause the light distance aint right. Im sitting here looking at these 3 jars i just trimmed and thinking i made more weight in my closet with just 1 1k hps and those plants close together. Can someone please help me figure some of this dtuff out with the lighting situation as in what i should be using.
 
Ima do it dude. Sooner the better . But what lights with what i got goin on im wondering. Its not 14 ft long more like 12 and 10 ft wide but the ceiling is 10 ft or so . I made my shed 10 by 20 by so high. And cut it in half a bit so prolly like 12 ft longthose double ended hps need to be raised higher i hear from canopy. My hps now has this fat hood and i notice most de's are more compact. Hows that work. I m pretty sure i got room for 4 lights no more unless i have stuff hanging down but i like air cooled cause of heat dissipation. The ac will work though im sure.
 
Yes, everything is a... it's an art of balance, so to speak. The size of the space and the lighting. Amount of light energy + temperature + CO2 level. Equipment costs + monthly operating expenses. For that matter, everything + costs.

It looks like you're striving towards that balance. If it's in the budget - or if you can manage to borrow one from someone - a "PAR" light meter would go a long way in regards to helping you (again) strike a balance between that theoretical perfect setup and your available resources. Once you get your light "budget" up, you'll be producing more heat. The CO2 will allow you to operate at a higher temperature (and, kind of assumes it). This will help. High airflow through your reflectors - and, of course, keeping that air segregated from the grow space - will help a lot. With luck, maybe you can end up with one of the reflector brands/models for which someone manufactures insulated reflector covers. Insulated duct material will help, too. They make insulated flexible ducting, and there's always stuff like Selkirk Type B gas vent pipe, which is double-wall metal (and you can then wrap it with insulation, if you feel the need). That kind of thing adds to your equipment outlay, but saves you money on the monthly electric bill. They say 600-watt HPS are more efficient than 1,000-watt ones, which might end up allowing you to run slightly less watts of lighting devices and still end up with the same amount of gross light-energy. This, again, is more money for equipment. With the PAR light meter, you would be able to better map out your setup, both to get a more even coverage throughout your grow space - and to ensure that you don't end up paying for more light (and to power that light) than you actually need to in order to meet your chosen target (yield).

In a "confined space," you can assume that you'll be producing 3.412141633 BTU of heat per watt of HID lighting. That ought to help with your calculations, when you get to the stage of sizing your air conditioning unit.

It would be - you guessed it ;) - still more money, but there are water-cooled lighting setups. Those things can potentially remove an awesome amount of heat - your bulbs would be enclosed in a jacket of moving water. However, that narrows your choice of reflector (as far as I know), and the water plus the material that encloses that water (borosilicate glass in the one setup that I saw, some years ago) would attenuate the light output more than a simple sheet of tempered glass would. Still, if you really feel the need... You'd want a reservoir and some method for cooling it - or a large in-ground swimming pool, lol, which would be exponentially better than a 55-gallon drum of water with a reservoir chiller stuck in it. If there happens to be a river abutting your property, you're golden - they cool power (generation) plants this way, right? Et cetera. This is the same concept that serious computer "geeks" use to keep their CPUs alive when they overclock them far beyond manufacturers' specifications/recommendations, only writ large. The one I was given the opportunity to see... It wasn't that the thing was "barely warmer than the grrow space," lol - I could (and did) place my hand on the thing, and it was like touching the wall in someone's living room! It was a 1,000-watt HPS, too. And these things are easy to scale up for multiple lights, just... just add money, heh. That one was called Fresca... Sol, if I'm remembering correctly, so a web-search for
Code:
Fresca Sol water cooled light
should provide you with both information and product links.

Okay, I'm going to stop spouting generalities now. Hopefully, someone with recent "commercial-sized" grow room experience will see your thread and be willing to offer specific advice. As always, I wish you the best of luck with your cannabis growing endeavors!
 
6x 8 vege / clone room 2 inline fans 1 16 in hurricane 3 t5 8 bulbs. I usually run 3 but i just pit a bit in flower so figure ill turn half the lights off. 3 of these t5s seem ok in vege ?
 

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Ima do it dude. Sooner the better . But what lights with what i got goin on im wondering. Its not 14 ft long more like 12 and 10 ft wide but the ceiling is 10 ft or so . I made my shed 10 by 20 by so high. And cut it in half a bit so prolly like 12 ft longthose double ended hps need to be raised higher i hear from canopy. My hps now has this fat hood and i notice most de's are more compact. Hows that work. I m pretty sure i got room for 4 lights no more unless i have stuff hanging down but i like air cooled cause of heat dissipation. The ac will work though im sure.

Apologies - I just noticed that post as I was on the verge of closing this web browser tab (/shutting the computer down / attempting to grab three hours of sleep :eye-roll: . A thought occurred to me as I did: Have you considered some sort of grow in which your bulbs (or, at least, most of them) are arranged in a vertical orientation? Possibly a "stadium grow" (have to do a web search for that, I'm exhausted)? It's been several years, but a guy named (or who went by the name on cannabis-related forums) Heath Robinson was legendary for his cannabis grows. He posted the vast majority of his threads/information elsewhere, but he did drop in here once or twice. Here is one of his little(?) grows. The grams per watt numbers were "pretty high," as I recall:

G'night.
 
Ac unit . Remodeled this shed yr ago for flowering. Put 3 or 4 20 amp breakers in figure i was gonna need for the lights. I made room for 4 thought 2 was overkill but i need 4 . Im not gonna mess with co2 its a can of worms i need to perfect what i know somewhat 1st as you said perfectly its a balance. And im not at par in so many of those areas. 1st thing i need is those 2 more lights. Its cooler weather now prolly 50s but with my 1ks im at 75 i beleieve bit less some days. But yea the 600s push 90k lumenz or whatever as the 1ks push only 30k more so dial my 1k hortilux bulbs down to 600 and add 2 1k de? I dont really wanna push out 4k watts . But ive already invested least 5k in this basically at once. And as i see im spending 250 a week on these ounces i better start figuring out my priorities.
 

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Brother get some rest i feel you. I was up till 3 am trimming and my gfs son woke me up at like 630 am for his online school heh. I just have a hard time sleeping i guess heh. Thanks again Tortured for taking the time to help i value your knowledge greatly.
 
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