Carbon scrubber

Hello,

I am an all out DIYer, I have homemade almost every area of my grow. I think it looks good, from he lights to the hydro systems, to the net cups the the ventilation system, now i am onto the carbon filter. I have spent most of the night sifting through the DIY section of RIU looking at all the carbon filter designs. I am leaning toward the style with the filter wrapped around the screen, seems nice and simple.

Here is my question, which work better, the activated carbon filter sheets, or the box of crushed up activated carbon, does it matter? any ideas before i go and build the wrong one?

thank you for any input.

Hey smokendude, I have done both. Mixed results, they both looked great but remember you need a hefty fan with a lot of pull to move much air. The screen one was fairly easy to assemble and worked well enough, but after a week I had it down and in pieces using stuff for something else. I found a nice DIY to create a filter and it was really compact, contained enough carbon (from the fish store, 2lbs for $7, good deal) to do the job. It lasted a week. I just needed more air movement and they were to restrictive with the 230 cfm 6" fan I used.

I simply find it way easier to avoid strains that have much of a strong odor to begin with. Sure I can forget skunk and some other strains, but there are plenty of low odor killer strains around. My C99 is great and you don't smell anything beyond the grow room door. Remember, odor control should attack first and foremost any odors that are leaving your grow room currently. I have a barn with a grow room within it, the barn has only a small odor, not a marijuana odor but more of a green fresh odor. Treating the odors outside your room is easier than trying to treat EVERYTHING inside of it. Your grow room will always smell, it's the rest of the place that you control through whatever means necessary to avoid someone going "sure smells weird every time I walk by the neighbors place."

With the right strains odor control can be something as easy as a scented can that off-gasses for weeks, a small ozone generator is better outside the grow room than inside (more effective). Try which ever one you want to build, just get a beefy fan, maybe a Vortex with some pull. Make sure your pulling air through the fan and not trying to push it through. Good luck!

thank you for your input,

i went about my grow all wrong i guess. i figured id give this a try before spending money on seeds, i just used bag seed. i plan on doing as you say soon as i raise more money, although i am extremely leery about buy seeds online, any suggestions there? I am using a A/C blower for my exhaust, it is sealed in a small box with an intake and exhaust of its own, i ported its intake into my flower room since the veg doesn't smell at all, outside attest. it should pull well enough, not sure on CFM, but i took it off an a/c unit, was main blower fan on a 3500+ sq ft home and it was venting the whole house, squirrel cage style. the fan will be venting only a 2.5 x 4.5 x 5 area. i am installing a rheostat and hooking it into a contactor and to a thermostat for temp control. so basically in my current situation i need smell control. i live in town and get to much foot traffic for this operation...i am just trying to avoid moving grow trailer out to country where i have Land, but don't want to raise suspicion due to the fact that the bill has never been over $30 a month, one outside light (also it is so convenient where it sits). it does not smell right now, but i haven't started to flower, i don't want to take any chances, i will start flower in about a week.

are the carbon activated pad that you can buy at Wally world any good? I am positive the fan i have would pull air through a bag of quikcrete it is a cpretty intense unit( quite overkill, but free. I may use it to ventilate both rooms, not sure, depends on future smell, funding on another scrubber. I would like to grow some skunky bud. prolly when i build my new home on land out in the country though.

again though thank you very much for your quick response, I would like some low smell seeds until i relocate, any suggestions?

low smell strains: Nirvana Blue Mystic, Nirvana Northern Lights, Female Seeds' Grapefruit, Dutch Passion Mazar, Serious Seeds Chronic, Basically anything crossed with northern lights where NL is dominant will be low smelling; no skunk X.

The activated carbon pellets work better than the activated carbon sheets/filters. But if you're going with a low odor strain to begin with, either will work fine. Plan on replacing the carbon every month.

purplehazin said:

low smell strains: Nirvana Blue Mystic, Nirvana Northern Lights, Female Seeds' Grapefruit, Dutch Passion Mazar, Serious Seeds Chronic, Basically anything crossed with northern lights where NL is dominant will be low smelling; no skunk X.

The activated carbon pellets work better than the activated carbon sheets/filters. But if you're going with a low odor strain to begin with, either will work fine. Plan on replacing the carbon every month.

Click to expand...

A 2 in one filter is prolly what i will have to go with. i made an exhaust dedicated solely to my flowering room (haven't even began the flower) and i still smells with just the carbon filter sheets. I am going to try to fashion it up so i can make two filter layers with carbon pellets in between. I used a 25 x 30 carbon sheet wrapped on a 6in duct cap and sleeve, my exhaust is ample enough suction, may it be to much to allow it to work? should i slow it down, i plan on installing a rheostat.

any ideas if this new idea will work?