Co2 from dry ice and light bulbs

I have a concern for fire safety. I need to know if my light bulbs will instantly bust or not if I use dry ice for Co2. I've read that it's best to do it with the lights on... But it doesn't sound like a great idea considering the bulbs and the ice are total opposites temp wise... I HAVE seen people do it on YouTube but I have no idea if they had cooling tubes (not even sure what good those really are) and I have no idea what kind of bulb they had. I just don't want to cause a fire.... But I do want to use dry ice since I find it cheaper than the other methods. I know about the yeast and sugar mix, it just doesn't really appeal to me... Can I do it when the lights are off? And yes, I'm aware it's hard to control the levels with dry ice, but I plan on getting ppm meter, so that shouldn't be a big deal. Help me! I appreciate your answers!... Oh and I,plan on buying either an 800 or 1000w hps if that helps.. And the room is about 8x7ft

dude you're gonna need shitloads of dry ice. lol. just buy a co2 tank and regulator. thats honestly your very best bet.

My advice, start small.
no need for C02 in a smaller environment .
you will need two to three zones. Veg, seedlings, Flower.
Flower is the one on a 12/12 light zone.
veg, moms and young plants can be kept on the same time schedule.
good luck !

I used Dry ice a few times, I get it for free. Unless you put the hot light into the dry ice, there won't be a problem. You can either constantly mix/agitate the ice or you can dump water into it and every now and then break up the Chunk that froze up.

Well, considering I'm not too far from a place that sells dry ice, idk about that :/.. The tanks are like 130$ + a pop plus 25 for refills... Not to mention the sensors start at 300... I'm not trying to be totally cheap either though!

~CReePeR~ said:

I used Dry ice a few times, I get it for free. Unless you put the hot light into the dry ice, there won't be a problem. You can either constantly mix/agitate the ice or you can dump water into it and every now and then break up the Chunk that froze up.

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Did your lights have those cooling tubes? And did u ventilate the room?

not sure why you think that some co2 fog will blow up a light. it turns to fog when it turns to room temperature. you can use co2 in a room that does not have air-cooled lighting. the only problem with that is managing heat build up. I agree that co2 is more of a problem for beginners. theres plenty of co2 in our air. I focus on airflow. with Co2 you HAVE TO run a sealed room. meaning not having a constant exhaust. Which in turn means you have to have a REALLY serious air conditioner to keep the room cool. I would say don't even bother with it. Make sure your exhaust is pulling more air than your intake is blowing in. This way you will create a negative pressure in the room and ZERO smell can get out. VERY IMPORTANT! Sounds like you have a lot of planning and dialing in to do. Everything will change once the room is up and running.

Hell yeah i have a lot of planning to do. You bring up another good point. The room is close to an ac vent... So to make the room cooler should i run something from the vent to the room or should i just leave the door kinda open... ? The vent blows pretty hard so maybe it'll kinda mix the heat or something. it would be kinda bad cos of the smell, but I'd probably have an ozone free ion air purifier sitting right outside plus other random fragrances lol....orrrr should i just cut a hole somewhere and just add exhaust and say screw the ac vent? Even though I really shouldn't do that to the place :s. I've read too much man and I have too many ideas. Idk what to choose sometimes.

I say listen to penguinKing and me,

start small, learn what's important to grow, I.e. How to create and maintain an enviroment under lights with fans etc.
with some cheap plants.

I did grow Basil in my setup first for a week to see how a plant survives the lights, heat, wind etc.

Then learn about Bud, nothing worse than frying your plants because you are unaware of what they consider "to hot".
( varies from strain to strain ).

buy or download a good growing book, read it.

Start reading journals looking for someone doing somthing similar.

read before you act, learn to "create" your plants shape i.e. Uncle Bens tech, standard topping, FMing etc.

ask questions and post with background info.

good Luck!

I would say board up the AC vent. Close it off. Seal it. Whatever. Have an intake fan on one end of the room. place your carbon filter and exhaust on the opposite end of the room. on the ceiling if possible. This will pull all of the hottest air out first. at the same time it will pull the air across the room and create a draft, giving good continuous airflow. The ionizer will help but ultimately you will HAVE TO buy a carbon filter. don't go cheap the first time around. buy what you need. its easier to dial down a big inline fan as a pose to having to buy another one. (google fan speed controllers)

trixxx420 said:

I have a concern for fire safety. I need to know if my light bulbs will instantly bust or not if I use dry ice for Co2. I've read that it's best to do it with the lights on... But it doesn't sound like a great idea considering the bulbs and the ice are total opposites temp wise... I HAVE seen people do it on YouTube but I have no idea if they had cooling tubes (not even sure what good those really are) and I have no idea what kind of bulb they had. I just don't want to cause a fire.... But I do want to use dry ice since I find it cheaper than the other methods. I know about the yeast and sugar mix, it just doesn't really appeal to me... Can I do it when the lights are off? And yes, I'm aware it's hard to control the levels with dry ice, but I plan on getting ppm meter, so that shouldn't be a big deal. Help me! I appreciate your answers!... Oh and I,plan on buying either an 800 or 1000w hps if that helps.. And the room is about 8x7ft

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Honestly you should learn to grow and garden, do tons of research and run a few grows from start to finish. Adding CO2 and not really know what you are doing shows your level of skill. Start small. Run a grow then add something new to the grow room. One thing at a time so you can see if what you did changed anything. Keep detailed records too. It helps when trying to figure out what you did to achieve your results.
Now to answer your question about safety. As long as you don't dump a burning lamp into a bucket of dry ice water you will be just fine. Just don't touch it your bare hand. It will freeze burn your skin.
There is a conversion chart that you can use to get the desired CO2 ppm in an X size room using X pounds of CO2. This works with either dry ice or compressed CO2.
An alternate method for adding some CO2 some might find feasible is to ferment sugar. Just like fermenting wort when making beer. ( I brew beer fyi) Get a glass jug fill with sugar water. Any sugar will work but corn sugar is best and it's dirt cheap. In a bucket or jug add some sugar water. Next add some brewers yeast. It will start to ferment and release CO2. Depending on the concentration of sugar in the water you will get a steady fermentation for about 10-14 days. Now if you are going to go this far you might as well learn to brew beer and simply ferment in the rooms. I've done this for the veg room since the temps are perfect for fermenting ales.

@dog It's hard to find someone in the same situation. I consider myself to be a crazy scientist about stuff so I'm gonna be trying several experiments lol... I just want to be safe. And of course, i dont want to waste too much of my time so I gotta ask questions! I'm gonna make tasty food out of these. Woohoooo! ;p

@penguin. What if i just build a room within a room so it can have its own temp and exhaust... Oh and please tell me if this is ok... Having a cfl for seedlings, then hps + blue leds for veg, thennn just take the blue leds down for blooming?... And what's better for blooming, more yellow or more red? I want to know what bulb to choose. Sorry for all the questions. This requires a lot of thinking! I'm going insane here lol

@couch.... I'm staring to think ill just go with the damn tank and sensor.... It's the best way because there's less space for negligence..

Trixxx420,
I get the Mad scientist reference, I am a Midnight Mad Scientist myself.

I make my edibles late as well as my tinctures and bubble hash.

I prefer when my GF is asleep and my Dogs aren't milling around.

Sounds like you have a big bankroll, that's Cool if you have cash to Burn.

you should start and keep a Journal of what your doing, it will help you as you go.

Building a room inside a room is lots more money than doing multiple tens in one Room.

Tents allow for separation without construction.

If you are doing a Big Grow then C02 is a great thing, tanks and regulator are the way to go.

If it's experimentation then I could see dry ice in a small space.

Growing weight would require the tanks over other methods of C02 production.

man i hate seeing threads like this, about running co2, lol!!! i know exactly how the op is feeling/thinking. it's like, everything you read tells you how much co2 is gonna improve your grow. faster growth, huge yield increases, and just an all around healthier bunch of plants. lol, well for the most part, it's true. but being so desperate to make it happen, that you go out and buy 100 lbs. of dry ice, or start baking a cake, lol, or whatever brewing this and that, lol. unless you're using a burner, or using tanked co2, you're pretty much wasting your time/money. now i know right now, some people reading this will get all pissy, and upset, and swear that these rudimentary methods work, cause i did it and my plants kicked ass, lol!! trust me, the tiny bit of co2 that you'll generate doing these things won't give you the results you read about when you use the burner/tanks, it's just impossible. ordinarily, there's like 350 ppm or so co2 in the air. a good number to shoot for when supplementing with co2 is around the 1000 ppm mark. (maybe a bit higher.) you just won't get that number with a bottle of yeast, or a big block of dry ice. if you wanna put it to the test, it's fairly cheap/easy to find out how much your efforts are really adding to your grow space. for around 15-$20, you can buy the syringe type co2 tester. get your "brew," ready. do a before test of the co2 levels in your area. write that number down. start your dry ice/yeast method, and give it however long you think it'll take to bring the level of co2 up. now test the area again, and write that number down. keep the brew going till it's done, and then do another test with the syringe. now, look at your numbers and try not to cry. what you will more than likely see, are two numbers that pretty closely match the beginning number, before you started using your method. if you want the full benefits of using co2, you have to lay out the bucks, that's all there is to it, sorry...

trixxx420 said:

Well, considering I'm not too far from a place that sells dry ice, idk about that :/.. The tanks are like 130$ + a pop plus 25 for refills... Not to mention the sensors start at 300... I'm not trying to be totally cheap either though!

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Like business, you arent going to make money without spending money.

400-500 in co2 gear. So if u get only 2 extra ounces out of it, you've already "paid" off the co2 gear for life, and will have dozens of grows on the same gear.

But dude, if u aren't gonna seal the room, don't mess.with co2. Blow by co2 is a waste of time and effort imo.

Remember that CO2 is heavier than air. As the dry ice dissolves it gives off CO2 and the gas goes straight to the floor. I use a CO2 generator that mixes yeast and sugar. Then I hang it from a nail near the ceiling. As the gas forms it cascades down over the plants. If you have a ceiling fan in there try reversing the blade direction to suck, not blow. Let the fan pull the gas up where it can settle on your plants. BigSteve.