Home Made Co2 Tutorial

HydroKush

Active Member
ok wut about co2 bottles for paintball guns. can i use that? its only a 20 oz bottle but i can get a bigger 1 and just crak the seal and it will spray everywhere :)
 

Drizzle

Well-Known Member
I'm using this method on my current grow. The smell is kinda bad, after a few days of fermenting, but I guess that just means you know its working. Supposedly this is how beer was discovered - Yeast fermenting in a sugar water solution, which creates CO2 and alcohol.

Does anyone know how effective this method is, compared to other methods? For instance, how many 2 liter bottles would it take to match the air CO2 concentration maintained by expensive tanks and regulators?
 

mbud

Active Member
Can you get too much CO2? I put a bottle in and overnight the plant closest to the bottle turned yellow.
 

skunkushybrid

New Member
Can you get too much CO2? I put a bottle in and overnight the plant closest to the bottle turned yellow.
Plants do not take in co2 during the night. I think the leaves (or I'm sure it is believed) somehow hold onto bits of co2 during the night ready to absorb the particles as soon as lights come on or sun comes out. Although, you still don't need extra co2 during the night. Even if the leaves do attach particles of co2 during the night there is enough in the air already. Cities have higher concentrations than rural areas.
 

iToke

Well-Known Member
shake for 48 hours?

You mean shake every now and then for 48 hours to keep it working?

or keep shaking it for 48 hours then it will work


im assuming its the
first one lol but not 100% sure

i would just go and try it but i dont have any yeast so ill have to wait till tomorrow to get some :)

clever one tho

i been blowing up a black bag and leaving it in there during the day lol!
 

munch box

Well-Known Member
you need to top the bottle up every 10-14 days with sugar OR replace it altogether. My question is at about how many parts per million would this increase in co2 levels for my grow chamber which is 72 cubic feet? Hypothetically, how many of these bottles would I need for 8 plants?
 

OneCanSam

Well-Known Member
My apologies for bumping this 6 month thread, but appreciated the advise in the first post about this method.

Even though I have a 20lb Co2 tank and regulator, I decided to try this method as I'm tired of shlepping my Co2 tank to get it filled. So for a couple weeks I'll use this method. (Just tinkering with the sugar/yeast Co2 method as I like to experiment, last month I expiremented with the CREE XLAMP LEDS for lower foliage illumination, that went well, so now I'm tinkerin with this) :mrgreen:

I did however change it a bit and used a bit more sugar and yeast in the two liter bottle. I had to tape the aquarium tubing an extra 6" in a vertical position as the reaction in the bottle was creating more Co2 than expected, and the vertical tubing has a added bonus, I can see the Co2 going up the tube in an constant Co2/water bubble every few seconds. To finish this, I simply placed the aquarium tubing to the center of a 92mm quiet Papst dc fan (Running it at 8 volts) that blows the Co2 across the top of the plants. Haven't decided if enough Co2 is created to use the normal Co2 tubing with all the holes in it. Later I'll test the C02 with one of those Co2 testing kits. Then maybe add a couple more two liter bottles to see how much C02 is viable.

Also will be hooking up a better fan later today, I have a Sanyo Denki counter-rotating DC fan that has better airflow dynamics than that of a traditional fan like the Papst I'm using at the moment.
 

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OneCanSam

Well-Known Member
now i am curious if you have an exhaust fan in your grow room is adding co2 still beneficial?
Yes indeed, normally I have my C02 from the 20lb tank and regulator shut off when I exhausted my HID lighting's heat draw, I bought one of those 8 tube T5HO flouro fixtures last week to compare it to my HID grows. Pretty happy with the T5's so far as venting is a whole lot less often than with the HID lights, using the Flouros makes tinkering with the Yeast and Sugar a whole lot easier since venting is not so much of an issue.

So in conclusion, it's just low tech yeast/sugar and flouros in an enclosed closet for now, the HID lighting is on the sideline, if the HID lighting could talk, it would tell me to please go fill the 20lb co2 tank and no more tinkering over the tried and true HID lighting. :neutral: I'm going to use the T5HO fixture as side lighting in a couple more weeks to use with the HID lights, when that happens, I'm pretty sure I'll be shlepping my c02 tank to be refilled. :)
 

Virulent Amoeba

Well-Known Member
Nice man....But is there any truth that alcaseltser in a water bottle releases co2 aswell
While Alka seltzer may release SOME CO2 as the tabs disolve(not sure they even use CO2 as a disolving method.), the cost of continually popping Alka seltzer tabs in water will get REAL old and real costly.

Compare that to 1-2 cups sugar a week..... well you do the math.

20 Alka seltzer Tabs $5 (hours worth max!) :shock:

2 cups sugar $.5-.75 /week :cool:
 
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