Ok, to bring those of you who don't know up to speed, I'm currently running 2 separate grow tents for my 5 plants. The 2 "sativas" are about 4 1/2 feet tall including their buckets and the 3 "indicas" are about 3-3 1/2ft tall with bucket (these guesses are off the top of my head, at the computer). I've got 2 600w HPS lights running through the 6'x4'x4' tents and I'm using 4"x12" carbon scrubbers in each room (1 in each, that is) and I can still pick out that distinct smell in certain areas of my house. Now, what I'm wondering is WHY DOES IT STILL STINK? The way I've got the canister/fan set up is the can is it the corner on the floor with the vortex fan drawing air up through the can towards the roof of the tent. Does anyone have any experience with grow tents and keeping the stink down? I figured that with all the CFM's these things pull, I'd be good to go, but the nose knows, and at the bottom step into my basement I sure as shit know I've got some what not growing. Oddly enough, when I get into the respective rooms where the tents are, the odor seems to dissipate. I'd really like the cable guy not to know WTF I'm doing, so I'm open to suggestions :not-worthy: Obviously I won't let anyone in the house in this condition, I'm just using that as an example :thumbs-up:
Recirculating the air in the tent. My thoughts were (AKA I was told) it just "sits in the corner and scrubs" which made a little sense b/c I figured the air would get drawn thorugh the bottom, filter through, get blown upwards, bounce off ceilings/walls and then back through the filter.
There will always be a bit of the air that doesn't make it through the filter. I'm sure it would smell much more if you didn't have the filter, but a small percentage will never go through the filter. The best way would be to vent the filtered air out of the tent and that will also bring fresh air into the tent. This will ensure that all of the air exiting the tent has gone through the filter.
I guess that would depend on how good your filter is. Give it a shot and let us know if it works. :thumbs-up:
I think I'll give that a shot tomorrow and see if I notice any changes. Feel free to keep posting suggestions and I'll look 'em over tomorrow. As for now it's nighty night time for this young old man :good-nite:
pharmdoc imho, the exit air from the room needs to go out of the tent , room and into an attic or basement but out and not recirc...i have tried both ways and for sure to draw complete clean fresh air and to get rid of any used or scrubbed air into a completely new area... the attic works best for me...not sure of your house setup or surroundings...outside is a bit of a problem if u have neighbors... one thing i also did pharmdoc was to buy an oversized , and i mean way oversized fat boy 6 inch by 3 feet tall by 3 feet around..for a room of 5 x 5 room...with a vortx fan on the suction side with 6" hose to the attic...and you need to keep a positive pressure in the grow room...make sure it is sealed well... also there are other means that i am sure you have thought about as well...hope this helps some... oh get the filter off the floor..put it up towards the top...and i hate to dissagree but you will get all the air out of that room...you should be changing air several times an hour as a matter of fact...have you used the air circulation calculator...its on this site..somewhre...i will go look and amend this if i find it... my speelling sucks...sorry..hope you can makes heads or tails of this...i am crazy engineer you know...lol....
Just to clarify you want ur grow under negative pressure...for the given reason that all the stink is going through your scrubber. And out clean. Also mounting the scrubber in the top of the space allows you to exhaust the hottest air. Even with good air circulation the warmest air accumulates at the highest point...unless inside ur grow is a tornado...which wouldn't be good for the plants Using ur scrubber in the way you are will also cause it to stop working in a shorter period of time from what I've read. Happy Growin'
one more try at this...on your question about positive vs. negative pressure, it depends on what your goal is. For the life of a fan you want positive pressure, you have air actually moving to the exhaust even without the fan, helping it and easing strain on the motor. For odor control you want negative pressure, so that any little cracks and crevices are having air drawn in through them as well.That's the trade-off -- with positive pressure you could be pushing odor out the cracks and crevices, and with negative pressure you are straining your fan (by definition -- if the fan was stronger then it could pull more air and there wouldn't be negative pressure).good luck...maybe this helps as well, i found this pic on another site...fyi /monthly_2010_05/Layout.jpg.b0c00f60e6f5fadbc24a334b414ffcbb.jpg
try what again? I'm guessing this must be a typo...by which definition are you refering? Seems to me 'stronger' and 'pulling more' that ur refering to pulling more of a vacuum, which is contradictory to your point...and also pulling more air would decrease the pressure on the suction side of the fan if no other parameters were changed, ie increasing the size of the return...just trying to clarify. What type of fan is in use here? Centrifugal/eliscent style fans are actually well suited to pull negative, which is what I assumed we were dealing with here. I assumed that the term 'tent' meant a plastic enclosure, denoting a lack of sealed corners. And judging by the 4"x12" carbon scrubbers I assumed he wasnt moving much air anyway. Besides I'm pretty sure the consensus on setting up carbon scrubbers is to suck through the filter. At least according to the instructions....they must be wrong. Reguardless...
go for it goblin... me thinks you are trying to hard......not sure if you have ever used a carbon scrubber by the sounds of it....if not..i would keep giving advice....if you have i would keep on giving advice... pharmdocs a smart guy..i am sure he will get it..good luck doc and say hi to mrs doc too and dont make her do all the work...lolasssit:
Hey Pharmadoc! I was just readin your thread about the stench of pot, and i also have 2 rooms goin... I got my first scrubber when i moved last year, and it needed to be changed about 6-7 months after i got it... I noticed the smell was becoming increasingly stronger throughout my grow area, as well as in other parts of the house, so i decided to do some research. I ended up getting a scrubber called the "Odorsok" carbon air filter. Here's a link: http://www.growlightsupply.com/odor-sok-air-filters-p-55.html They were the least expensive on growlightsupply than anywhere else on the web. They start at $39.95 and the shipping was quick and stealth. The neat thing about this carbon scrubber versus the one i had is the odorsok is machine washable AND re-useable! How awesome is that??? And the first scrubber i had was the kind that had to be plugged in as well, whereas this one does not. So anywho, the Herijuana i was growin was soooooo smelly it was unreal! This little scrubber (i got the 6") has brought my mmj smell down to almost nothing. Seriously, you can not smell it in my house ANYWHERE except in the grow areas... Hope this helps! Let us know what you end up with! Peace -LM
High Pressure point before a resistive load = leak point.Low Pressure Point before powered sink (can fan intake) = suck point.You MUST to have your leak point inside your room. Suck point outside.Your configuration has both points outside of the room.Put the canfilter inside of the grow space. Fan right ontop of it outside the grow space and pull through the filter, don't push into it. With a tube, you can't do that, so you would run additional tubing and connect the filter to the front of the tube, but then you move ther suck point inside the room and you got a change of pulling non filtered air through a leak in one of the connects between the tube and the hoses.Its better to keep your cool tube isolated. Use outside air so no filter is needed and you get maximum airflow through the tube you can get away with for max light cooling. With an external venting tube, you push the air through it, otherwise you get suck points inside and get get odor out. Then you use the can fan for the filter since you need its force to pull through it. You could get away with using a lasko blower from like home depot for $50 to cool the tube. I cool 2 lights this way with 450 degrees of turns and it can move air, you just got to mod the blower end to fit dryer tube. /monthly_2010_05/wsasd.jpg.4829b25c82941e9461faa660fc2f65df.jpg
No I haven't used a carbon scrubber as typpically is used, however carbon filters of the commercial/industrial variety I have used plenty. I know about moving air, which is what I commented on and corrected. I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything incorrect or misleading. Excellent info LM!! Is is flexible along its length? This looks like 'that ting I been lookin fer'
Couple things on the chart/graph. 1) You don't want to push or pull for that matter, the heat of your light through the carbon. Heat + Rh = Rapid decrease in effectiveness. Your carbon will "burn out" really quick. Run the tent's atmosphere/air through the carbon. Cool your light with a completely different air circuit. Fresh air in, hot air out, all ducted, making a sealed light cooling system/circuit. 2) WTF is a leak point? It should be a) Vacuum and b) Pressure. If you have "leak points", then use some duct or aluminum tape to seal them.
shake that shi! You also may want to shake your filter before you vent it out. You should hear no noise at all.
Oops sorry I think I'm wrong there. The page didn't load all the way before I replied. I thought u were using a different filter
This is actually how I've got it set up. In the Indica room for example, I have a fan OUTSIDE the tent ducted to my reflector, then out the other side. The scrubber is sitting in the corner SUCKING air through the filter and blowing upwards, causing the walls of the tent to bulge slightly (indicating POSITIVE) pressure inside the tent. I believe this is where my problem is arising from. However, yesterday I took the prefilter cotton sock thing off the can and maybe I'm insane but it seems to be working more effectively. I do have a small fan in the tent circulating the air, and a fan outside the tent blowing outside air into the tent through one of the vents on the bottom of the grow tent. LM - I actually switched FROM an OdorSok TO these canisters b/c I felt as though the sock deal wasn't adequate. Maybe I was using it incorrectly, but I definately had better luck with the 2 canisters vs the sock. If it worked for you, awesome. I was hoping it'd hold up for the whole grow, but unfortunately it only lasted through the "closet phase"
