Help tent ventilation and filtering!

Tried this in the newbie thread but no luck so thought I would try again here...

Posted a couple of times and been reading like something mad but I don't seem to be able to get any sort of solid solution to my problem. I love this place but to be honest the search feature could use a tweak or three

I have a tent that is pretty decent I must say. It is 8 feet by 4 feet by 6.5 feet tall.

Most of the research I have done led me to believe that the best way to vent this tent was with a 6" vortex powerfan fan (449 cfm) along with a 6" Odour Xtractor carbon filter.

I've written to the local person selling these to find out if I need a bigger filter as I plan to hang the filter horizontally inside the tent and "suck" the air using the fan through the filter and then vent either outside the tent or directly outside (dryer vent Y adapter).

Subsequently I have googled and search here and all over the place and about the best advice I saw so far was from an ebay seller selling carbon filters. He has on his listings that your requirements should be your growing space multiplied like so..

8 X 4 X 6.5 = Cubic Feet of your grow aread. So in my case it is 208 cubic feet. He then says to divide that by 5 as that is how many minutes the whole room should have the air entirely exchanged. OK so if I do that I am now down to 208 / 5 = 41.6 cubic feet.

So either his math is totally wrong or I am buying way too much hardware for what I need?

I'm feeling a bit confused by all this part of it to be honest so if anyone can step in and tell me if his formula is right or how I can make 100% sure that 16 plants in a grow tent of my size won't alert anyone either inside or outside my house

Thanks in advance and look forward to some replies!

I have the same exact setup you have with the exception of the carbon filter, mine is this one http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=AOCDBDFS04B&eq=&Tp= but I have the same size tent and same fan. I dont think its overkill at all and actually I wouldnt want to go any lower on any of it. When it comes to ventilation, especially in tents, you can never have enough and more is always better. With that setup I'm lucky if I can keep my temps within 10 degrees compared to the outside of the tent and thats using 2 600's. What kind of lights are you planning on running?

Hi and thanks for the reply!

Yes I was going to use 2 X 600W lights too with standard reflectors (I figure the monster fan will cool the lights too) and the ballasts are digital so I can just swap out the bulbs to HPS when I go in to flower. The filter I am getting is a 6" phat filter. Apparently the local store I was getting it from had other ones but they were bought by phat so phat it is heh. I was going to post a link to the site but I swear he uses MyDNS or something and runs it off his home computer it's that slow!

Anyway, do you use an intake fan as well? Local dealer is trying to get me to buy one but I don't think I need it as the tent has two more 6" openings and flaps too if need be. I figure as long as the pressure stays negative inside I should be OK.

The other thing I am really trying to find out is if you (or anyone) has gone through an entire grow without any smell issues as I am using mine in a basement and odor control is of the utmost importance!

Thanks again and look forward to hearing back.

If you do everything right you shouldnt have any smell issues, those carbon filters really work well. One time I did have a problem with smell and it was because I didnt tighten a clamp very well. Other than that no odor whatsoever. I should also mention I am using air cooled hoods, I'm not sure if I could keep temps in check without them. I am going to start replacing my 600's with 1000's and I have a feeling heat is going to be a real problem even with the air cooled hoods.

As far as an intake fan, unless you are planning on pumping cool air in from a particular source such as an AC it is completely unnecessary, your exhaust will take care of that.

I"m "hoping" with mine being in the basement and fall not too far away and living in Canada (chilly lol) I *should* be ok (I won't turn the basement heater on this winter) but I can always add venting to the lights if needed quite quickly.

Thanks for the reply and I appreciate the advice!

Do you really think switching to 2 X 1000 is the best way to go with a tent that size? I was about to order my ballasts (digital, switchable 600W for $150 cdn / no taxes and shipping included - Figure I will hang on and see if you reply

Fox farm or advanced nutrients now.. decisions decisions!

You probably will be ok in a basement, mine is also in a basement but I am running 2 of these setups and until I figured out a way to vent outside my whole basement was heating up to 75 degrees (from 65).

600's will work fine depending on your goal. The corners and edges of the tent receive maybe half the intensity of light as the rest of the area but depending on the strain I can yield about 1.5 lbs on the 600's but I would like to get it up over 2lbs. 1000's will also penetrate a little deeper hopefully making those lower fluffy popcorn buds into something more, but we shall see. Sounds like a good price on the digitals though, I have all Lumatek digitals and paid close to $300 (US) for each one.

Kinda funny because I was pondering adding another setup as well For me, I am going to vent out the dryer vent that is already there. I figure if the air doesn't smell no-one will know the difference!

Now you have me pondering the 2 X 1000.. think I am gonna stick with the 2 X 600 though and if I want to increase it I can with the next tent once I get that set up.

1.5 lbs out of it eh? awesome! After I play with soil for awhile I might try to go hydro in there.. this is my first grow though so I am trying not to go too crazy and keep it as simple as possible.