Keep losing my CO2...

[DIYer]

So i just spent a few hours trying to seal my 11'x12'x9' grow room, to no avail. After i was done i filled the room to 2000ppm, then turned the exhaust and intake fans off, left the AC and cool tube fan on, and left the room, and when i came back in less than an hour it was down to 1100.

I've completely duck taped one of the two doors leading into the room entirely shut, even over the hinges. The other door i sealed with weather stripping. I can not see a light leak or feel an air leak from the outside. I duct taped the one window in the room shut. I squirted a can of Stuff-It in and around my 4" HVAC tubes leading in and out of the room, and around the AC unit as well. The AC unit is a 7K BTU window mount i have installed correctly, front third, the cool part, is in the room, the hot two third back part is in the attic. The air being sucked through my cooltube comes from outside the room also. I really don't get why it all goes away so fast. I also have a white tarp on my grow room floor, its one solid piece, wall to wall and up the walls a bit, taped to the baseboard (incase of a flood). I'm on the 2nd floor... it can't all go through my floor... hmmm...

Ideas? Tips? Tricks?

 

[superstoner1]

well im betting on......
1. dont forget plant usage alone will drop it.
2. the window ac will have loss.
3. the light ducting. double check all clamps, then use a good aluminum tape to seal everything. or a mastic.

 

[highboo]

simple. get a spray bottle and load it up with carbonated water. you know? the water that has the bubbles like soda? well yea just fill up a spray bottle with that and spray the plant. BUT BE WARNED. If you spray water while in the flowering stage. YOU WILL GET MOLD

 

[superstoner1]

that was useless.

 

[xxEMOxx]

It most likely either from leaks in the vents somewhere..... ur a.c. for sure.... also CO2 is heavier then air and settles to the floor rather quickly....

So between ur plant using it, and it settling depending on where your ppm meter is placed that could also be a cause to what seems like a much larger then in reality is occurring.

 

[DIYer]

Hey boo, guess what,.. you're a flippin idiot.

Superstoner1: Thanks for the input. I wish my plants were eating the CO2 that fast man, but at the moment i only have a few small plants in veg in the whole 12x11x9 grow room, no way their eating up 900ppm of CO2 in less than an hour. Also, i question how a properly installed window AC unit would remove air from the grow room? Check the below picture out man, it's a pretty good representation of exactly how my AC is designed and laid out. You see where the air comes in warm, and goes out cool? See that wall behind the blower? Well mines the same way, and that divider between the cool front parts, and the hot back parts, in mine is a 2" thick solid hunk of styrofoam. So warm air from my grow room gets sucked in the front bottom, goes straight up right away, over the cooling parts in the very front, and out the front top. Never mixing with the air from the back, so i should never lose any air from the room if i understand it correctly.

Mind you my setup is a bit unorthodox, and i would totally love someone to tell me where i went wrong, but to date i can't find a flaw in my design. I couldn't mount the AC unit in a window, so i set it into a crawl space above the closet in the room, and i built an airtight flew for its hot exhaust to vent into the attic. See where it says outside air, picture three 4" flex tubes feeding that air, directly from the HVAC vent inside the grow room. So all the air cooling my AC unit and my cool tubes is coming from outside the room, sucking it through the homes central air duct. I did a little scribbling to better illustrate how i have things routed.



I have the CO2 meter about 3' off the ground, right where the bottom of the plants are. No way it should go from 2000 to 1100 in less than an hour. It'll be down to ambient, 550 in way less than 2 hours. I hear some guys say their CO2 stays for half a day. How the heck they do that?

 

[DIYer]

Ok,.. i gassed the room up to 3071ppm just now, and turned off everything HVAC related. No AC running, turned off the lights and fans in the cool tube, just left the LED's and CFL's on. Also turned off the homes AC. It's so fucking quiet in there its creepy, lol
Lets see how fast it goes down now.

 

[superstoner1]

diyer, i know you and i can butt heads but when you only have so many options you cant just shut the ideas down. so you have what seems is a basic understanding of a window ac, but have you ever really torn one apart? there is always loss of enviroment with that type of ac. the only ac with no enviromental loss is a minisplit.
and i will say that i was also very sure about my light ducting being sealed when i noticed my co2 dropping, turned out i had a spot that had a bad seal but it took me a while to find it.
try the no ac test and then try it with just the light cooling system running. see if it narrows ir down.

 

[BeaverHuntr]

simple. get a spray bottle and load it up with carbonated water. you know? the water that has the bubbles like soda? well yea just fill up a spray bottle with that and spray the plant. BUT BE WARNED. If you spray water while in the flowering stage. YOU WILL GET MOLD

what the fuck lol

 

[DIYer]

diyer, i know you and i can butt heads but when you only have so many options you cant just shut the ideas down. so you have what seems is a basic understanding of a window ac, but have you ever really torn one apart? there is always loss of enviroment with that type of ac. the only ac with no enviromental loss is a minisplit.
and i will say that i was also very sure about my light ducting being sealed when i noticed my co2 dropping, turned out i had a spot that had a bad seal but it took me a while to find it.
try the no ac test and then try it with just the light cooling system running. see if it narrows ir down.

Hey i said i would totally love someone to tell me where i went wrong, I'm not shutting down any ideas, except boo's, lol
I have taken apart my AC unit, i thought that 2" thick foam wall that spans the entire height and width of the unit behind the blower, was perfect to keep the front and back doing there own thing, separate from one another. But it is clear after my shut everything down test that it does lose CO2 faster with the grow room AC, home AC, and cooltube fans running. I still dropped 300ppm in an hour with everything off though. I really don't get how some keep levels for so long

 

[BeaverHuntr]

run your co2 as scheduled and see how long your tank lasts with your set up and properly sealed room should last you anywhere from 6-10 days on a 20lb tank also make sure you arent cross threading the nut and threads on the regulator to the tank, also check your o-ring inside the regulator make sure its not cracked and is in good condition.

 

[superstoner1]

now that my room is supersealed when my lights and co2 gen kick on after 12 off my room has only dropped about 100ppm. with my window ac i used before the minisplit it would drop 600-800ppm.

 

[DIYer]

Sorry beaver, i should have said something first. I don't use a CO2 tank. Check my sig for how i fill my room. In short, i use my water heater. Good thing its free too (kind of) because with how fast it vanishes i'd have a hernia from lugging co2 tanks by now. I guess i can't bitch (although i will) before this my ladies were at 550ppm 24/7, at least now their getting boosts when i take a shower. I'd need an shower taking OCD to keep 1500 though, lol

Does CO2 seep through walls much? Drywall/paint, and carpet/plywood? I have a lot of panda film, was wondering if it would make much of a difference if it were coving the walls and floor.

 

[DIYer]

now that my room is supersealed when my lights and co2 gen kick on after 12 off my room has only dropped about 100ppm. with my window ac i used before the minisplit it would drop 600-800ppm.

Nice,.. see thats what i need. What all do you use beside the mini split? You cover the walls and floor? Are you in a room, or in a tent in a room?

 

[BeaverHuntr]

CO2 doesnt penetrate walls a lot of home growers would probably die in their sleep lol....Good luck dude that seems like a tricky co2 set up.

 

[BeaverHuntr]

Nice,.. see thats what i need. What all do you use beside the mini split? You cover the walls and floor? Are you in a room, or in a tent in a room?

Mini split is the true way to go dude. A 20lb co2 tank will last you a good month.. You can paint the walls white it doesnt matter just make sure you weather strip the doors and try and plug up every crack.. I grow in AZ and my grow room is a spare bedroom and I converted it into my grow room I use the central AC thats in the room to keep things cool and I'm filling up my 20lb tank every 10 days or so.

 

[DIYer]

Yeah, i didn't make it easy for myself, but then again if i had dropped $500 and bought a minigen, it would be running for its life right now in my room. With all the HVAC shit running i can lose 3000ppm concentration pretty fast.

Mini split is the true way to go dude. A 20lb co2 tank will last you a good month.. You can paint the walls white it doesnt matter just make sure you weather strip the doors and try and plug up every crack.. I grow in AZ and my grow room is a spare bedroom and I converted it into my grow room I use the central AC thats in the room to keep things cool and I'm filling up my 20lb tank every 10 days or so.

Hey man im not far from you, dealing with the same desert environment, fucking 100+ out today again. Im also in a spare bedroom. Do you use a mini split also?

The water heater co2 deal isn't too tricky, just a 4" flex-hose from the exhaust of the WH, routed to the grow room 30+ft away. I only need to an 80mm 12v PC fan, loosely placed into the 4" flex-hose to suck in thousands of ppm worth of CO2 in minutes, one WH run cycle, one shower basically. But only when the WH is running. When its not running what it sucks in from just the pilot light burning isn't enough to raise the CO2 level much above ambient.

I need to find a way to have the fan kick on when the burner in the WH fires up, and have it stop when it goes out, and or when X level CO2 is reached. Also have the room more sealed so when its filled, it stays.

 

[glassblower3000]

poor boo..dude the advice you gave out was solid but these guys aren't dicking around....... Seltzer water will give off co2..but these guys are looking for automated consistensy.

 

[polyarcturus]

did you tape the flanges of the hood to the duct? the gaps between the glass and hood?

regarding the window AC some are know to have an air exchange to the outside, i have 2 out 3 this way, with a name like that, you should be able to take them apart and fill the hole, personally i just stuff foam in it, also check the bottom usually the whole bottom is a condensation tray and air from the front can get outside this way too.

do you have floor boards? or solid floor? with old floor boards your gonna have to cover it with poly GOOD.

 

[polyarcturus]

but you are correct for the most part they are no meant to exchange air.