Tell me... would this ever work?

I am hooking up co2, all I have is a timer the regulator and the tanks, no controller. Do I have to have an exhaust for the CO2? Its in a tent so I was thinking I should charge the room when the light comes on at 8 then an hr before they go off I should just open the then and let all the co2 dissapate. Would this work or do I have to have it dialed in so that the co2 comes on, charges the room, then 3 hrs later the exhaust comes on and takes all the carbon doxide outta the room then fill it up again with frest co2? Please help, I have never done co2 before and would love any help!!! +rep

you dont wana echaust the co2 out of your room at all, really you wanna try find a cheap controller as you want to be able to keep a constant amount of co2 in your room at all times or it really wont be helping much

I hope you have a meter to measure the CO2 released. If you exceed 2,200 ppm in 24 hours you will do more harm than good to your plants.

Plus, from what I understand, added CO2 is a waste of time (and money) while the lights are off. So adding shortly before lights out is a no-no!


Like was said above - you deffinately need some way to measure the CO2 consentration so you can keep it at 1,200 - 1,500 ppm. In other words, you don't really need to put out money for a controller - you can dose it out by hand every "couple of hours". But you really do need some kind of a CO2 meter.

Cool, I do have the little syrenge that you can see how much co2 is in the air.

I was not going to dose it while lights were off, sorry if I wrote that. I was going to dose when lights came on then let it out at the end of the day.
So what you are saying is that I need to dose it with co2 then just keep checking the levels (like the controller would). If the level got too far below 1500 ppm then I could add a little more.

I am using a hydro farm regulator, so using a calculator like this CO2 Calculator - Greentrees Hydroponics I would have to run my co2 for about a third of a minute to charge my 4x4x7 room? Does this sound correct? Then just keep checking it to see how much co2 is in the tent?