co2 running out quickly?

Lots of gas companies say a pound of co2 will enrich 7.5-8.7 cu.ft. If I run my co2 regulator all 12 hours at .2cu.ft/hour then I'm using roughly 2.5 cu.ft a day.. so assuming I use a little more that means a pound should last me roughly 3 days. I was curious why my 20 lb co2 tank empties in about 1.5-2 weeks.. instead of 60-70 days like the math says it should. Thank you for any help understanding this.

first offf NEVER EVER RUN YOUR REG FOR MORE THAN 10 MIN!

you have a leak in the regulator you need to take it apart and use nylon tape and reseal the piece.

this is another thing to watch out for, WHO YOU REFILL WITH.

i get refills at one place only becuase i have been ripped off several times at the hydroshop with underfilled CO2 tanks. i go to a different hydroshop now for refils or a gas exchange, welding gas place, or a soda gas refil place.

you need a timer or controller. i would love to see you ppms.

polyarcturus said:

first offf NEVER EVER RUN YOUR REG FOR MORE THAN 10 MIN!

you have a leak in the regulator you need to take it apart and use nylon tape and reseal the piece.

this is another thing to watch out for, WHO YOU REFILL WITH.


i get refills at one place only becuase i have been ripped off several times at the hydroshop with underfilled CO2 tanks. i go to a different hydroshop now for refils or a gas exchange, welding gas place, or a soda gas refil place.

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If you have a leak in the regulator shouldn't it freeze up or at least get really cold. I have my co2 on a controller and it runs for longer than 10 minutes so I dont get where you are coming from about not running a regulator longer than 10 min. Hydro shops just subcontract their co2 refills from a welding supply store.

use this

http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/co2_calculator.asp

It is always on because I also have an ac vent going in the tent or it will get over 85 degrees. I use a ppm controller. The reason it stays on is because the ac pushes a lot of air/co2 out of the tent.. but I would rather do that then burn all the girls again. The ppms stay at a constant 1400. As for enriching then having a period of no enrichment.. I respect everyone's method. However, the tent is always 85 degrees.. so being as the plant is a c3 type and not c4, I am hesitant about putting it in an environment too hot naturally for them without co2 at any time. I read several "scholarly articles" about agricultural tests with lots of different plants and how they act with co2 at different levels.. hops, wheat, beans.. every different species showed best results with the ppms constant.. this method produced the most by far. I hope that explains why it is always on. By the way I always make sure escaping co2 goes in a room with positive pressure and an open window.

Great calculator. It's the one I used as well. It says at .2 flow rate constant, a tank will last 588 hours or something.. so far I am at 102 hours of .2 flow and almost empty.

So you are constantly sucking out your co2 and constantly replacing it ? YOu know you can turn off your co2 during lights off.. Plants do not use co2 in the dark.

Yes constantly exchanging air and co2. If you check out my threat "burnt top colas" you will see why. Without the ac it gets 105 degrees. With it gets 85 max. I have lots of fans in for air flow so the 2.5x2.5x5 tent needs the ac with six 5' plants all pulled over under a screen haha. I have the lights and co2 hooked up on the same timer so co2 only during light period. And it really doesn't always run. It shuts off occasionally when ppm's reach 1500. I know my co2 is depleting quickly this way.. but according to how fast the co2 is going I'm on track for $100 total for 2.4 months.. so not terrible.. just wonder why the math with a calculator and free hand doesn't match how quickly it empties. Gotten co2 two times now 2 different places. Air Gas the second time is almost lasting twice as long as a private party. I asked a hydro store why the math and results don't match.. he said grow regulators aren't perfect or top quality.. so I asked if the bubble meter isn't accurate then and he said it is accurate.. which makes no sense haha. Unfortunately hydrofarm won't talk to a customer over the phone so I can't ask them.

If you google "scholarly articles agriculture co2" and check some of those top results out I'd love to hear opinions. I also checked out over 10 other sites and downloaded their research data to compare and for the most part they are all about the same.

when i first started growing indoors again, i went all out with the best of everything i could find.

i had a nice CO2 setup. i filled it up at at company a few times without a problem. one day, the freshly filled tank was standing in the kitchen, snug against a corner. i heard a noise like i was in a tunnel and a train was coming. scared the crap out of me. a seal had broken on the tank (bought it brand new), and it slammed around the kitchen a bit and emptied out in a few seconds.

i thought about that happening in the trunk of my car and never bought CO2 again. it does help yeilds but is not needed for the casual grower.

BeaverHuntr said:

If you have a leak in the regulator shouldn't it freeze up or at least get really cold. I have my co2 on a controller and it runs for longer than 10 minutes so I dont get where you are coming from about not running a regulator longer than 10 min. Hydro shops just subcontract their co2 refills from a welding supply store.

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do you mean it should freeze up and get really cold cause if you are running your reg for long periods this is what SHOULD happen unless you have an inline heater.

polyarcturus said:

do you mean it should freeze up and get really cold cause if you are running your reg for long periods this is what SHOULD happen unless you have an inline heater.

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Yeah thats exactly what I meant. My controller works everything I dont do shit but adjust the flow rate! Dont need a heater thats more for large scale grows where they have to set their flow rates really high.

fatboyOGOF said:

when i first started growing indoors again, i went all out with the best of everything i could find.

i had a nice CO2 setup. i filled it up at at company a few times without a problem. one day, the freshly filled tank was standing in the kitchen, snug against a corner. i heard a noise like i was in a tunnel and a train was coming. scared the crap out of me. a seal had broken on the tank (bought it brand new), and it slammed around the kitchen a bit and emptied out in a few seconds.

i thought about that happening in the trunk of my car and never bought CO2 again. it does help yeilds but is not needed for the casual grower.

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I agree unless you have a sealed room or high plant count I wouldnt mess with co2. Man you must have used a shitty welding supply store. lol

I used to use co2 in a garage at .5 cfh and it would freeze a lot. I have never had it freeze yet at .2. That is with the stock heater on the Hydrofarm regulator.

Very scary fatboy. I am definitely going to keep the bottle cracked from now on with the regulator. I've opened tanks before cracking them and it doesn't push. I know right now it's actually all the way open I think. Pretty dumb since first thing I learned in construction and welding is crack the tank.

*smokes another*

BeaverHuntr said:

Yeah thats exactly what I meant. My controller works everything I dont do shit but adjust the flow rate! Dont need a heater thats more for large scale grows where they have to set their flow rates really high.

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yeah i froze multiple regs at first so i was just giving him some first hand ive never used a controller so... yeah and i dont have an inline heater either i just had to retime my reg so they would stop freezing, had one shatter on me, pretty scarey when a c02 canister evacuates.

polyarcturus said:

yeah i froze multiple regs at first so i was just giving him some first hand ive never used a controller so... yeah and i dont have an inline heater either i just had to retime my reg so they would stop freezing, had one shatter on me, pretty scarey when a c02 canister evacuates.

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Man controllers are so easy. I use the Titan Atlas 1 and its basically plug and play.

BeaverHuntr said:

I agree unless you have a sealed room or high plant count I wouldnt mess with co2. Man you must have used a shitty welding supply store. lol

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one of the biggest in phoenix. my company did business with them so i figured wtf.

one day, one of the guys said that i didn't get my tank from them and that they would not refill it. i was pissed. i found the receipt that said i did buy the fucking thing from them and made such a noise that most 0f their guys came into the sales area to see who the crazy fucker was. lol

it just wasn't worth the hassel/danger.

BeaverHuntr said:

Man controllers are so easy. I use the Titan Atlas 1 and its basically plug and play.

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i just bought a monitor 9not controller) im kinda a fresh air co2 supplement kinda guy, i like my air dry so plants do not only grow fast but frosty too. fresh air tends to be dryer so i use it.