Odor Control

What up all,
This is my first post here and I'd appreciate any opinions / advice any of you can provide from experience. I'm currently using a secret jardin DR90 grow tent with a 4" inline fan pulling exhaust air directly from a carbon filter. I also have a 6" can fan pushing intake air through a duct into the tent. Both fans are on rheostats to allow for speed control (I have the exhaust fan pulling slightly more cfm than the intake fan to create negative presssure inside the tent to keep odor from escaping throught the zippers/duct ports). The exhaust is ducted close to the ceiling of the basement (where the grow tent sits) and the intake pulls air from near the floor. I've considered running the exhaust duct outside, but this would require "coring" through the band board, then through the brick exterior of the house (I'd like to avoid this option as it would be a major PITA). This is my first grow in quite awhile and I currently have 9 female plants of various strains under a 400W MH for the past 45 days.

The problem I'm facing is that I am getting a slight odor in my house that my wife is complaining about and I'm looking for suggestions on controlling this odor, if it can be. I'm worried that once I flower these plants, the odor is going to become obnoxious and I want to avoid the bitching I'll hear from the wife...

I appreciate any suggestions that anyone has to help eliminate the odor.

Also, the carbon filter is new, and I'm not opposed to spending some $$$ to eliminate the odor.

Thanks in advance for your help.

MC

The problem is you do not have negative pressure inside the tent as you think. The 6'' fan has double the CFM of the 4'' fan. If I get you right and your 4'' (exhaust) fan is turned up only slightly more than your 6'' intake fan.. then I think that's your problem right there. The 4'' isn't pulling as much air as the 6'' is pushing into the tent, so you are getting air leaks. I would setup your 6'' as the exhaust fan, pulling clean air directly out of your grow tent through the flter (hook filter on top of tent). Then have the 4'' pushing fresh air into the tent from near a window or something, but make sure that one is turned way down so there is indeed negative pressure inside.

edit: also try and seal up any openings in tent w/ duct tape.

infdjedi,
Thank you for the reply, but I believe I do have enough negative pressure; I state this because the 4" exhaust fan is pulling more air in than the 6" intake fan is pushing. I can visibly see that the sides of the tent are "sucked in". Anyway, I just went ahead and turned up the 4" exhaust even more and let the intake fan on the same slow speed. I'll give it overnight and check the smell.

Thank you for the suggestion, it's much appreciated.

Also, what do you all think about using an Ozone Machine / Ionizer; would that help further eliminate the smell, or is the carbon filter alone my best bet?

Have any of you tried running dual carbon filter (carbon filter --------->inline fan--------->carbon filter ------->exhaust? Would probably drastically cut the cfm, but if it cuts the odor I'd be interested.

Thanks to you all.

MC

What I also use is on the exhaust end of my ducting I place a container of ona gel. May want to stay away from ozone machines they have a distinctive smell when a lightning storm ionizes the air. If you have constant lightning storms then cool hehehe. And what jedi said is totally correct. The exact ratio for generating negative pressure is you want your intake to exhaust to be close to a 1:4 ratio in terms of cfm's. Oh you could also place those glade plugins in strategic locations. Best of luck managing your odor .

The Ozone generator helps.. You can put it any where in the house, and it makes a difference..

calicat said:

What I also use is on the exhaust end of my ducting I place a container of ona gel. May want to stay away from ozone machines they have a distinctive smell when a lightning storm ionizes the air. If you have constant lightning storms then cool hehehe. And what jedi said is totally correct. The exact ratio for generating negative pressure is you want your intake to exhaust to be close to a 1:4 ratio in terms of cfm's. Oh you could also place those glade plugins in strategic locations. Best of luck managing your odor .

Click to expand...

1:4 ratio intake cfm to exhaust cfm? If thats the case, I was pushing way to much intake air in... I will probably in the neighborhood of 1:1.75. I'll try further spreading that ratio and see what happens.

Thanks a lot for the help, I'll let you know how it works out.

No problem, happy to help. One question though, where do you have your filter?

I use ozone. I don't flower in my house, but i do keep my mothers in a light box in my basement. Although, not quite as strong a smeller as when she's in flower, my Kali Mist isn't too far from it when she's in veg. I don't use any filtration at all. Only ozone. That shit works well. I did my homework on ozone before I started using it though. And I would suggest that anyone considering using it to study up on it too. Ozone is a respiratory irritant, so people that are sensitive in that department, probably shouldn't use it.

You will see lots of people say it isn't safe and I agree, but only if you don't use it correctly. Most ozone generators on the market put out WAY WAY too much ozone to truly be considered completely safe to use in your house if you follow their directions, in my opinion. I never came across anyone claiming that ozone, in high concentrations could kill you. And if it can, it's most definitely at a level higher than what a standard household size generator could effectively maintain in an average size open house, under normal circumstances. It's just the lung iritation you really would have to consider.

I built my own generator from the ground up. It's simple enough to do. You can get the transformer and reactor off ebay for a reasonable price. All you need to add is a fan, a box to mount the kit in and some electrical supplies and you're in buisness. I think I have around $50-$55 invested in the whole getup, including the timer. I got the 1 gm per hour kit and that is plenty more capacity than you are likely to need, unless you live in Biltmore Mansion or something.

I'm treating 3600 sq ft of floor space with this thing and I only need to run it 5 minutes on, every 3 hours. Ozone is a great oxidizer. It doesn't mask the smell, it destroys it.

Where ozone gets it's bad reputation from, is from people over-applying. If you can smell ozone in your house when you aren't somewhere in the neighborhood of the generator while it's running, you're plobably running a little rich. I just set the timer and kept dialing down until the smell was consistantly gone and I rarely would get a light wiff of ozone when the furnace fan kicks on. That's the sweet spot.

When I built the generator, I was going to take step by step pics and post them here on RIU along with a tutorial. I ended up losing steam on the idea and just wound up building the thing and putting it right to work. Anyway, the thing turned out nicely, works well so far and with the box i chose, it's even a little stealthy.

Check it out. If you decide that it's for you, I doubt you'll be dissatisfied.

don't take out the garbage for a couple days.problem solved.

actually I use ionizers by Ecoquest

infdjedi said:

No problem, happy to help. One question though, where do you have your filter?

Click to expand...

My filter is connected directly to the intake side of the exhaust inline fan mounted inside the top of the tent; ducting is connected to the output side of the fan to act as a light trap and pipe the hot air away from the tent.

carbon filter===========>inline fan=========> exhaust port on tent-----duct leading away from tent

infdjedi said:

No problem, happy to help. One question though, where do you have your filter?

Click to expand...

I definitely be interested in hearing more about your build; I'm good with my hands and would love some direction.

Thanks.

It's best for smell to vent outside, at least for an hour a day. If you are close enough to a window, you can run a flexible hose to the window, and vent it outside, and then put the hose away when not in use.

You can get an extra carbon scrubber and put it somewhere else in the house.

I read somewhere that you are only supposed to use an ozone generator if you went outside, because of something about it that is not good to breath. Just something i read, i'm not sure, but you might want to look it up.

Also, try this. It really works.
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/294252-csi-stickyickys-diy-odor-bucket.html