Quick question about DIY carbon scrubbing

[Moonchild]

All the DIY teks I find about carbon scrubbers always seem to show the canister style, with a cylinder inside a cylinder. I was wondering if it would be possible to simply place a "shelf" layered with carbon inside the budbox, right above the area where the light is. What I mean is, right above the light would be a screen, with about an inch-thick layer of carbon on it. This screen would have the same dimensions as the budbox, of course, so that no air would go around it-- it would have to pass through it. Then, the exhaust fan would be above the carbon layer, sucking air through it and out the back of the cabinet.

Does this sound like it would work? I mean, if the extractor fan is powerful enough, of course.. Because it seems this would take up less space inside an otherwise crowded cabinet than a canister filter would, and the filter must absolutely be inside of the cabinet.

If anyone can [understand the gibberish I wrote above and] help me out, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

This is inside of a Nimby-style dresser, by the way.

 

[Ray of Light]

Yeah ... if the layer is thick enough it will work. But your style wouldnt be my personal choice.

ray

 

[Jesusbuiltmygro]

I'm having trouble visualizing that exactly, but I can tell you that the density of the carbon matter temendously, so you will want to have it packed together no matter what design.

You also want to pass the air through the most amount of carbon and you want the fan to match or be larger than diameter of the thing packed with carbon that way the air has a nice open flow design.

Simple passing the vent air through a layer of carbon i inch thick which is the diameter of your vent duct or fan exhaust will not be enough because it will be a small total amount of surface area that your forcing the smelly air through and it will limit the effectiveness of the cleaning.

Most designs work on maximize surface area and flow rate hence the tube/can design being so popular.

 

[Ray of Light]

He grows in a small cabinet and for you dont need a big mofo scrubber for that.

-Just one gram of activated carbon has the surface area of approximately 500 m2

~5 pounds should last for at least half a year for a small cabinet.

 

[Tirs]

Exactly, a fan won't be able to push air efficiently through more than an inch or two of carbon. The way to get around this is a large surface area, hence the cylinders. Your design would work only if you are venting are very small grow.

-edit- how small?

 

[Moonchild]

Okay, thanks for your responses guys. This is in a dresser that is about 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall, by 1.3 feet deep. I think I'm understandng what you guys are saying about surface area and such... so even though the screen would have been filled with plenty of carbon, the thing is the stinky air would still be only travelling through one measly inch of it, right? I think I'm understanding why the cylinder, now.

So, then, I wonder how small I could make the scrubber, for it to still be effective for this cabinet? By the way, I'm using a 265cfm Dayton blower. This cabinet is just for flowering, only. The top 1.5 feet of the 4-ft height is for the ballasts and scrubber and blower and all that, while the lower 2.5 feet are the actual growing area, with 2 x 150w HPS, that will be going through DIY cooltubes.

The area up top is plenty of room to put a scrubber in there... it's just that I was going to try to use it as a space to hang and dry buds, too.

Oh well.

Any more advice anyone can give me? I'll try to take a picture of my cabinet soon, so that if anyone wants to critique it, they could feel free to do so. I love this place!