New Grower Anyone use two carbon filters?

[Cerebral Goo]

Don't worry about the fan motors - you can add a second carbon filter on the outlet without it being an issue for the fan itself. But, a 2nd filter will probably reduce air flow by ~20% due to the extra flow resistance - which sounds like an issue for your setup.

You can also try taping a charcoal AC/furnace filter on any circulating fans inside the tent. Or, add an additional carbon filter / duct fan inside the tent that doesn't exhaust outside - i.e., just exhausts inside the tent to circulate air through the filter. Those would help adsorb some of the odor molecules before it goes through your main carbon filter without reducing your overall temp/humidity air flow.

Otherwise, you're probably stuck with having to add another fan and ducting for the 2nd carbon filter, or a separate whole-room filter outside the tent.

Thanks KDAWG! Several great ideas. Talked to my HVAC buddy last night. Ordered another filter, a back up motor, and a anemometer to test the CFM. He said it would put a little more load on the fan, but not that much. Suggested the back up motor which is never a bad idea. Will look up the xtra carbon filters for HVAc as well. Thanks again!

 

[Cerebral Goo]

I have my new filter in my tent and my old filter at my fan, works great imo! I couldn't see throwing my old one out.

Probably still has some life in it, so yeah, why chuck it. Thanks for the reply!

 

[juagaerheld]

Is it safe to use a carbon filter on both the intake and exhaust of my ventilation system? Will the fan get too hot and start on fire or something crazy like that? I intend to watch the temps of the tent to make sure there is still adequate airflow overall, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience if this Tutuapp 9Apps Showbox generates too much stress on the inline fan.

 

[DCLXVI]

I had a smell issue on my first grow and assumed it was the filter. Turns out the tent leaks quite a bit. You may want to try some strategic tape placement first.

The foil backed aluminum duct tape works great on the inside. Tape over and close any unused port holes. Same with those passive viewing windows, unless you use it a lot. That Velcro over mesh does not seal worth a darn. I did the outside with gorilla waterproof tape. That helped a lot

I also built a bucket carbon scrubber to vent into. Basically a perforated 5 gal bucket with a perfed section of pvx down the middle, exhaust hooked to that, bucket filled with carbon pellets, and then wrapped with oneof those carbon odor removal pet filters.

Try some tape first. It's cheap and might do the trick.

 

[olbobcat]

You can also just put a filter outside the tent with a fan scrubbing the air in the room

 

[Cerebral Goo]

Is it safe to use a carbon filter on both the intake and exhaust of my ventilation system? Will the fan get too hot and start on fire or something crazy like that? I intend to watch the temps of the tent to make sure there is still adequate airflow overall, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience if this generates too much stress on the inline fan.

I did that for a few. It definitely works. Filter inside the tent and one on the end of the duct outside the tent. It will put some stress on the fan motor, but not that much as long as it's sized somewhat correctly or isn't a really cheap one. I ended up with high humidity in my tent even with the fan almost maxed out after I posted. So, I had to open the tent panels slightly which made it smell even more!
I ended up with the filter inside the tent, a homemade carbon filter that I put on the dehumidifier exhaust in the bedroom with the tent , and what olbocat mentioned. I bought another fan and hooked the second carbon filter onto that. I put that in the main room the tent ducted into. I have a largish finished basement. The central HVAC would pull the air up to the main level of the house. I then bought a carbon filter for the central HVAC as well. You can buy prefab filter for almost any HVAC size. You can also get charcoal to make your own filters online and/or pet shops