Grow tent walls cave in TOO MUCH!

[veen]

Hello all,

Im having a prob with my 4x4 grow tent. I have all flaps and such sealed for maximum odor control with one passive intake hole that is 4". The problem is that when the doors are closed and the 550 CFM fan is running at 35% it still sucks in a great deal. I am worried that I am losing 10-15% of my canopy/grow space due to these walls invading inwards! Anyone had experience with this? Turning down my fan still wont make a difference and I dont have the cash to invest on another nice vortex fan for intake. Would a cheap booster inline fan from menards work for intake? Some sort of secondary frame built around the inside of the tent?

Thanks!!!

 

[stonedar]

need more intake, open your flaps. it won't make it smell more, you run your fan/filter 24/7 right?

 

[Keyz]

Yep, Open up the vents, and a few of the flaps. The odor won't escape if you have a carbon filter in there, because the fresh air will be pulling into the room, forcing the odored air out through the filter.

A little bit of negative pressure is okay, but you don't want your tent to collapse on you. Unless you're running CO2, those vents need to be open for fresh air exchange. If you ARE running CO2, then they would be closed, and you'd have to do something like recirculate the carbon scrubber so no air is being actually pulled from the room.

 

[DRE on Dat Good]

open your flaps your filter should handle the smell

 

[trichrider]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=22756&pictureid=515598 You are cleaning the exhaust aren't you?
aint no smell coming out of a vent that is sucking like a chest wound, at least not unless your vortex drops dead from creating a vacuum in that tent.
dr120, same thing different problem, light leaks from opening the vents...I compromised. Open vents part way, and reinforce the sidewalls somewhat.
I first tried string around the support poles, didn't work; ended up with some support poles from a boat bimini top. Connected two of the tents outer support poles with the bimini poles as crossmembers.
If you need visuals I can throw up a foto, or... can you see?

 

[Natagonnaworrie]

all good ideas. what i did was install a small booster fan to the 4" intake. to stop the (In or Out) light pollution i added something like this:

http://www.ironsmith.cc/drain-grates.htm

home depot has them in all shapes and sizes.

then turn that fan down as much as you need to to get only a little suction and you are good.

 

[veen]

Yes I am cleaning the exhaust- only thing about opening flaps is this; My passive intake is pulling from the outdoors (through a window) and I am exhausting into the room the tent is in. 2 things with this though- The air will be so cool here in the winter that I think opening the flaps may help balance the frigid winter air since the room air will be warmed from the exhausted tent air (get it?). OR will that be to much warm air coming through the flaps?
Boat bimini top? is that like the top that can go up or down to cover you while on your boat?

 

[veen]

Notagonnaworrie- YES! I had sort of thought of that, I am glad someone has experience with this. Did you use a cheapo one from a building supply store like home depot/menards?

 

[trichrider]

yeah, thats the ticket. could use more than two but was too cheap to purchase more...
a person (you) could substitute 1/2" pvc cut to length and secure with a ziptie...maybe a hole drilled thru each end...
grow on
an I just stacked milk crates in front of the intake flaps to mitigate the light leaks...

 

[dgkish]

i had a tent that did that as well. so much neg pressure that the seams ripped open by the end of the first pull. i dont use them anymore. good luck!

 

[Prest1]

My tent gets sucked in too. I added a better intake fan and have just also added a passive intake with ducting. Its still sucked in, but not as much as before. As mentioned above, smell wont be able to escape if air is being sucked in at high speed (due to the extake fan).

 

[sdholic]

had this problem as well and the PVC and zip tie idea is the best i have heard yet. thank you trichrider

 

[Dislexus]

You could get a second 4x4 tent, flipflop them, aircool both with ducting joining to the same fan outputting to the filter. You got a whhoole lotta fan for a 4x4.

 

[Delta.9]

get some hemp twine and tie it between the poles , it should help resolve the walls caving in.
∆.9

 

[durka_durka420]

how about some pvc T's with some screws drilled into the T's to act as set screws (or use self tapping and screw into metal poles) and then attatch pvc into the 2 T's without glue so you can remove them later if needed..

 

[Rusty Shaklford]

My solution

My solution

I had the same problem with sucking tent walls.
I have a huge homemade tent that is in 1/4 of my 2 car garage. What I did was get 2 of those light dimmers switches at Home Depot. I turned my exhaust fan on a little, then my intake fan on. Watching my tent suck in and out, I adjusted till I had just a little more blowing in than coming out which pushes my walls out just a tad when my tent is closed.

 

[Prest1]

Rusty Shaklford, that could make the smell worse...

 

[Dislexus]

Dude yeah Rusty... he's right... You're pushing smell out of the tent not thru the filter

Also, intake fans are not necessary and redundant, if airflow is that restricted then increase your total intake area. Make more/bigger holes.

 

[festivus]

Hey veen, after reading this thread, I took a look at my tents. I knew they did colapse somewhat when the fan had pulled a vacuum. What I discovered was that it was causing the edges of the tent to be shaded from the light. I decided to open up another passive air intake, thinking it would help. While the fan doesn't have to work as hard, I still had the shaded edges. So for the 2nd intake, I used a sheetmetal 6" elbow at the vent hole, attached to 3' of lined ducting. I propped a putter (small golf club lol) against the metal elbow on the inside, and it keeps that side from sucking in.

Thanks for the thread veen!

 

[ShroomDr]

get some hemp twine and tie it between the poles , it should help resolve the walls caving in.
∆.9