DIY pro style carbon filter

[0p0rat0r]

I was at the hardware store today and I found that out for myself, but thanks. I picked up all the parts to build this carbon scrubber today. One question I have, when covering the inner cylinder with the pantyhose do I cover the opening of the cylinder with the closed end of the pantyhose or do I leave it open?

 

[senseless]

i think you leave it open.

look at the picture on page 1 looking down the carbon scrubber.

 

[MID TOWN]

so you actualy fill the whole outer layer solidly with carbon.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Operater,
you can get a special metal cutting hole saw, but i for cutting sheetmetal, i just use a reg wood cutting one. it's not like we're cutting a hole in the bath tub.

and ya leave the opening to the center core open.

MID TOWN,
yea, the area between the inner core and the outer skin gets filled completely full of carbon.

 

[krustytheclown]

Beauty thread. That's the same scrubber I built using Son is Shining's directions, too and it works flawlessly!

K+ for bringing that knowledge over here.

 

[rastamonunika]

i only have 2 questions =P

how much did it all cost to put together>?

and how do u fill it with carbon<? im still slightly confused on the construction part, but i dont have any of the ducting parts handy to see how they would fit together. . .

lots of love

unika

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

I have a link for virgin activated coco granualated carbon 4X6 mesh at a $1.12/lb.

Miniumn is a 55 lb sack. My DIY- SiS Carbon filter uses 16 lbs of carbon and last for over a year for my grow. With shipping it costs me 82 bux for three plus years of carbon.

Google "Activated Carbon Copr.", They are in Compton Ca.

minds_I

 

[krustytheclown]

You can also buy activated carbon from fish-supply stores. Check Wal-Mart's pet section, too.

If you're gonna grow a good bit, buy in quantity.

Good luck!

 

[SpacedCWBY]

Certainly on my shopping list! Very nice. A far cry nicer than the "Carbon in a screen over a bath vent fan" that I jerri rigged together. Somehow it still worked well - But this, I mean come on.... BAD ASS!!

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

Yeah, you can get AC at wal-mart but not at that price.

My filter is a SiS design-18"long X 9.5"dia. The inner sleeve is 4 inches-this gives me just over 2 inches of thickness. It takes 16 lbs (~1/2 cuft) to fill my filter. Walmart carbon is way expensive for the application.

Besides, for the price mentioned above- they deliver it to my doorstep. Nothing illegal about activated carbon-it is used in household water filters and is delivered in bulk everyday. And ata $3.19 a gallon of gas its worth it.

If your carbon filter is small and does not use much-then I suppose the Walmart aquarium carbon will do the job nicely for the investment.

minds_I

 

[BullDoWza]

Hey everyone, bieng my first post and all just wanna say hi...

Anyways im currently growing some C99 in a SCRoG setup under a 400W HPS in a cab. I've grown one time before with this setup however the circumstances were much different and smell never really became a huge problem. However its my 2nd grow with this setup and everythings going real good. As im here to take care of them this time and not leaving for an extended period all the plants are doing very good, and now at 4 weeks into flowering starting to get pretty smelly. Due to the cabs location noise was a huge consideration so we went with 3 high flow 120mm computer fans to pull air through the cab. I really need to do something for odor control and was gonna build a nice little carbon scrubber. However I don't think the computer fans will be able to create enough back pressure or whatever it is to pull enough air through the scrubber to make it effective. Anyone have any experience in using computer fans and a carbon scrubber? I can use 2 of them for the scrubber (other ones used for cooltube). Im not opposed to buying a decent inline fan however as I said noise is a huge concern, and as it currently is the only thing you can hear when standing right next to it is the faint noise of the bubblers, but with a fish tank right next to it thats not a problem.

Any help with getting odor in check would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SpacedCWBY]

Any help with getting odor in check would be greatly appreciated.

There was a DIY odor control unit that may work well for what you have to work with. Can't recall where I saw it, here or high times.

The air was exhausted from the space through a 4" duct line and into the lid of a 5 gallon pail (you can get away with a smaller pail if need be). In the bottom of the pail, they used Ona Gel odor neutralizer mixed with water. About 50/50. Then they drilled vent holes in the lid of the pail to let the air back out. As the air is flowing into the top of the lid, it's blown down on to the water and the resulting air pressure pushed the refreshed air back out the top of the pail. Pretty ingenious setup. Not sure how well it works, but as long as everything is doing it's job, seems very realistic for a setup with computer fans such as yours.

I don't think that the computer fans would really be able to draw enough air through the carbon to keep your temps low enough. You may be able to get away a fish filter style bag of carbon hung on the backside (so that it draws through the bag then into the fan) of the fan though - just don't know if that would keep the smell down though.

This DIY stuff is kinda fun to figure out.

Best of luck.

 

[BullDoWza]

Thanks for the suggestion but as you also said, your not sure if it works, and from what ive come accross I havn't been able to find many accounts of the ona gel really doing a great job. While I may not have many plants (screen is about 4-6 sq ft, don't have exact measurements atm) I still have a feeling come 6 weeks+ into flowering their really gonna start putting out that ohh so wonderful smell. It's already to the point where I have people walking in the house anytime near when lights on and they can smell it no problem, just been goin with the excuse that we just smoked (generally just did anyways...) so it wasn't to big of a problem.

Anyways to stop rambling on and get to the point...

I currently have 3 fans that are rated at 35.5 dBA each. I don't completely remember how the dB system works but I do remember something about doubling the sound (having 2 fans) adds like 3 dB, or something like that, so lets say the 3 fans are operating at around 40 dBA in the cabinet. Now I was looking at some vortex fans, because right now id much rather put my money into something I know that works then betting on something else. Both the 4" and 6" are said to operate at 49 dBA. They also offer a pretty cheap speed control unit, however im guessing its a manual turn nob and not heat sensitive.

So at balls out the fan operates at 49 dBA? How much louder then my current fan setup do you think that would be? At night when the lights on I don't mind if I can hear it because no one except for people who know will/should be in my room, but during the day when people might be around I can't have something that sounds like a god damn vacuum cleaner going on in the cab. Anything out their, preferably DIY and cheap cause im poor at the moment, that would adjust the speed based on temp? And one last question, what are any of you other cab growers doing for odor control and still keeping it semi silent.

I may be over-exagerating the 49 dBA that the vortex puts out, but without a reference I have no idea how loud that truly is inside the cab. Just lookin for a little peace of mind here.

 

[HIDEyourBUD]

Suck it up and buy a fucking CAN50 carbon filter and 6" vortex fan from www.mdhydro.com and be done with it. You can get the combo for less $289 right now. That's way less than your bail will be if the wrong people smell your plants. Don't be dumb, do it right the first time. Save yourself 5 to 10 years.

 

[0p0rat0r]

I was going to try to rig up some type of carbon filter to PC fans because they're so silent, perfect for stealth applications, however I decided to go the easy route and get a centrifugal inline fan. A couple of my PC fans are rated at about 28 db and they produce only the slightest hum when in the same room, it's almost not even noticable.

I picked up the smallest centrifugal inline fan I could and it's rated at 40 db. It's quite a bit louder than my PC fans. I'm going to have to get something external like an air purifier unit or something else to mask the noise. I've got a speed controller too and it does quiet the fan down a bit, but at lower speeds the motor noise replaces the air noise.

Your fan is rated at 35.5 db and mine is 40 db, but that might not necessarily mean much. I get the impression these sound ratings are pretty subjective. Some small muffin fans / pc fans I've heard are almost as loud as my centrifugal inline fan. I suggest you go to a local hydroponics shop and see if you can listen to some of the fans yourself.

I had another inline fan just before I got this one and it was rated between 42 and 45 db, I can't remember exactly but that fan sounded like a jet engine even on the lowest speed setting, yet it was only supposed to be 2 to 5 db louder. This fan was sitting on a towel inside my cabinet with the doors closed too.

At any rate if noise is a big concern for you, as it is for me, you'll probably want to mask the noise your fan makes if you go with an inline, the fish tank might even do the trick.

I'd still like to go back and see if I could design some type of odor control / ventilation system that uses silent PC fans. Between my carbon filter and inline fan it's taking up 1.5 feet of height out of my cabinet and is noisier than I'd like.

 

[BullDoWza]

sucking it up and buying the fan and shits not the problem, the problem is like what 0p0rat0r described...something sounding like a jet engine coming from a cabinet in a closet. Was wondering what kinda fan you had 0p0rat0r? Hoping these vortex motors are well built and balanced well so at the lower speeds the motor noise doesn't become a problem. I would love to head over to a local hydro store but unfortuanately cannot as their is none probably within a good 250 mile radius of here.

Just trying to get an idea of how loud the supposed 49 dB fan is going to be inside the cab before I buy it. Another thing I can easily do is just to keep music playing in my room at all times. According to a chart I found 50 dB corresponds to "very soft music" so just gonna have to have it cranked up during the day.

Probably just gonna order the 6" vortex tonight but if anyone has any other ideas or even better yet, experience with a vortex fan inside of a cab would love to hear about how loud it is.

Ohh ya thanks for that link, so far think thats the cheapest ive seen the vortex.

 

[Guest]

There's no need to be messing with those pellets, you can buy sheets of carbon filter from the hardware store and just wrap that stuff around your tube. Pellets are not practical for filtering air, they are best for liquids. That's why they are at the pet store. Air purifiers have carbon filter sheets in them and you can get replacement sheets at a store like Home Depot.

 

[krustytheclown]

Hey, BullDoWza,

Welcome to ICMag!

I use this filter, which is attached to a 265 CFM blower. You can hear it when you are in the room with it, but outside of the room with the door closed you cannot hear it at all.

What's the extreme concern with noise? Please tell me you're not living with your parents and trying to do a grow!

BTW, the clone room shouldn't smell, and the computer fans should be unnoticable. Try hanging them from miniature bungee cords. You can get them at places like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and even outdoor sporting goods stores.The are 4-6" long and you can knot them up to shorten them, if you need to.

As far as using a computer fan to push air through a carbon scrubber, I don't think you can, due to its relatively low power. Perhaps you could if you used a *really* small scrubber.

 

[cid420]

plastic pellets can help u get the best shelf life for carbon , dont ask me how , they just do . carbonbreeze uses them in all there set ups , granted they waste of money and u can build your own , just thought i would add that .also a 2 draw file cabnit also makes nice scrubber if u wanna do the multi layer carbon scrubber

 

[Guest]

do it