question about a sealed grow tent...

i was wondering what you guys think about this... plan on building a 6x6 tent out of pvc framing and panda film. is it possible to make a pvc tent with panda film completely air tight?


i plan on doubling the panda film by gluing two 6mm thick sheets togather, and than using a lot of silicon caulk/duct tape/insulation foam to try and seal it airtight... does anyone have any experince making a pvc frame tent airtight?


thanks for any help in advance

p.s. the reason i want to make it airtight is for co2 injection, and also to help control odor problems...

Try this instead... 3/4" thick x 4' x 8' foam insulation board with a reflective mylar "hammered" finish. Polyshield is the brand name at the big orange store. Use flex-fix brand flexible (also reflective) duct tape to seal the joints. This tape is the exact same material as the reflective mylar coating on the foam board. Use some 2" x 4" 's to frame it and double up on the foam board for a door and hinge that foam door with the flex-fix tape right down the length of the left or right side of the door. The foam door should squeeze into a slightly smaller opening to maintain the airtight seal. The reason why I tell you to do this is because panda film is vastly inferior to 3/4" thick polyshield foam board. Matter of fact, polyshield foam board is used for cloning, reflective flooring and scrambling the infrared frequency of a heat gun or thermal imaging device. It is in fact the most indispensable material ranking second only to water.
To control odors to the tune of 100% elimination you must not maintain a 100% airtight seal of this room. You will need to keep an exhaust fan on at all times ( with properly rated carbon filter, make sure your fan can handle the static pressure load of the filter and still be effective at removing heat). To remove odors at all times, you need to maintain a negatively pressurized room. Simply create an airtight room, and then poke a small hole or two ( size of a penny is more than enough) on all four walls and the ceiling. Keep some kind of fan/filter combo going at all times and you will always remove odors as long as your carbon is not exhausted (my carbon filters are going strong for about three years now). You run the risk of releasing odors during CO2 injection if you shut off your fans.
With the money some people spend on CO2 injection rigs you could instead buy 100 beans, run a progeny test with them, find the super yielder/excellent quality elusive pheno and get way more yield in the future with a negative pressure room as opposed to a 100% sealed room. Hope this helps and best of luck.

sum420 said:

i was wondering what you guys think about this... plan on building a 6x6 tent out of pvc framing and panda film. is it possible to make a pvc tent with panda film completely air tight?

i plan on doubling the panda film by gluing two 6mm thick sheets togather, and than using a lot of silicon caulk/duct tape/insulation foam to try and seal it airtight... does anyone have any experince making a pvc frame tent airtight?
thanks for any help in advance

p.s. the reason i want to make it airtight is for co2 injection, and also to help control odor problems...

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after buying all that pvc it will cost about the same to build the room out of 2x4's and drywall. and it will be a lot more solid and sealed. just my $0.02

thanks problem solver, i just read your post and it has a lot of good ideas and some very great information... i love this polyshield stuff already..i will definitely be taking this into account for my future builds... but i forgot to mention one kind of strange caveat, i need this tent to have terribly poor insulation. the reason for this is because i plan on using a 14k btu window a/c for cooling and it will be hooked up outside of the tent. i figure if i have no insulation and i drop the temps outside the tent, that it will help keep the temperature down inside the tent. i actually have a portable a/c i could hook it up inside the tent but im worried that my co2 will go out of the exhaust.


i should of mentioned that i already have a co2 rig setup, a cap extreme green house controller with fuzzy logic co2 monitering, and a co2 regulator with an electronic solenoid.. i just need to buy an actual co2 tank and i will be set... now im wondering if i use a carbon scrubber/inline duct fan recirculating the air inside the tent, will there be any issues with positive air pressure? im worried because my carbon filter uses a 1000 cfm inline duct fan that it might create enough positive pressure to create an airleak.

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

after buying all that pvc it will cost about the same to build the room out of 2x4's and drywall. and it will be a lot more solid and sealed. just my $0.02

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thanks... now that i think about it would also probably be a lot easier to setup rather than dealing with all those different connection pieces for the pvc.

sum420 said:

thanks problem solver, i just read your post and it has a lot of good ideas and some very great information... i love this polyshield stuff already..i will definitely be taking this into account for my future builds... but i forgot to mention one kind of strange caveat, i need this tent to have terribly poor insulation. the reason for this is because i plan on using a 14k btu window a/c for cooling and it will be hooked up outside of the tent. i figure if i have no insulation and i drop the temps outside the tent, that it will help keep the temperature down inside the tent. i actually have a portable a/c i could hook it up inside the tent but im worried that my co2 will go out of the exhaust.


i should of mentioned that i already have a co2 rig setup, a cap extreme green house controller with fuzzy logic co2 monitering, and a co2 regulator with an electronic solenoid.. i just need to buy an actual co2 tank and i will be set... now im wondering if i use a carbon scrubber/inline duct fan recirculating the air inside the tent, will there be any issues with positive air pressure? im worried because my carbon filter uses a 1000 cfm inline duct fan that it might create enough positive pressure to create an airleak.

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If the air is sucked from the tent and exhausted into the tent you should have a neutral atmosphere so you'll be fine, no positive expulsion.

thanks problem solver... do you think having an a/c outside the tent will help even if the tent is sealed?

How will you support weight of lights/fans? I would prolly recommend some form of metal tubing? Covering the tent in canvas? The panda film will tear much easier..

sum420 said:

thanks problem solver... do you think having an a/c outside the tent will help even if the tent is sealed?

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Intake? No intake, no cool air.

thejimi said:

How will you support weight of lights/fans? I would prolly recommend some form of metal tubing? Covering the tent in canvas? The panda film will tear much easier..

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ive decided to go with the 2x4's to build a frame instead of the pvc piping... i have some very heavy equipment and figured it wasnt worth risking it.... the reason i wanted to cover the tent in panda film was so that the room wouldnt be insulated... (i plan on running a window ac unit to try and cool the room outside the tent, hoping that it would help keep the temperature inside the tent down)

thejimi said:

Intake? No intake, no cool air.

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no intake because i will be running bottled co2...... its really hard to cool a grow room without wasting the co2. wish i could afford one of those water chilled a/c's

yeah mate, i think your only solution for sealed c02 is a chiller in the room.. However, if you are in a well ventilated room C02 can only do so much, the plant can only process so much. Like you will not seea return on money spent on a C02 setup.

thejimi said:

Intake? No intake, no cool air.

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Just thought I'd share my setup. i am by no means an expert. In fact this is my first grow room. But here is how I managed to solve my a/c situation. Here is the wide view. A/c is partially vented into the flower room. The rest of the cool air remains in the veg room. It actually pushes a lot of air into the flower room. So much in fact that if your doing an enclosed setup, you will definitelly need some type of exhaust big enough to vent the excess. In my situation, I am simply cutting a large hole into the attic space and putting a grate with a filter. The kind of grate and filter you see feeding a furnace in a house. Otherwise, when I close up the room, she puffs out like she's trying to give birth. Still, it provides fresh, cool air; and that's the whole point right?

just make yer own c02 bottle!
and props on the use of gaffa tape mate! fucking marvelouse stuff

and rofl did u realy just compare your grow tent to a chick giving birth!!lolz realy?? haha

I built a two-chambered box that attaches to my window A/C and is sealed with foam weather striping. Two 6" flex ducts go to my tent. there are two fans inside the tent pushing and pulling air. The A/C and fans are controlled by a WIN 100 outlet thermostat inside the tent. A 4" duct branches off and cools the reservoir. Has worked well. 2 x 600w lamps, 4 x 8 tent. 5200 btu A/C. Uses less than 1.5lbs co2 a day.

thanks for all the feedback and the great ideas.... rigging up a duct to the a/c is ingenious... my guess is as long as it doesnt run for more than an hour or so the positive pressure it creates in my sealed tent should be managable


is it ok to hook up a window a/c to a thermostat? i use a c.a.p. xgc-1 (extreme greenhouse controller)

sum420 said:

thanks for all the feedback and the great ideas.... rigging up a duct to the a/c is ingenious... my guess is as long as it doesnt run for more than an hour or so the positive pressure it creates in my sealed tent should be managable is it ok to hook up a window a/c to a thermostat? i use a c.a.p. xgc-1 (extreme greenhouse controller)

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The pressure is neutral. One fan pushes air from the tent to the A/C, the other pulls from the A/C to the tent. The sides of the tent hang slack when the A/C is on (or off). Both fans are the same and run off the same speed controller. The A/C and both fans are running off a remote thermostat now, you just need a A/C that can restart on its own after a power interruption. I think nearly all do. Just set the built in thermostat in the A/C to its lowest setting. The remote thermostat turns it off and on. The built in fan in the A/C is no where near powerful enough to push and pull sufficient air thru 15 ft of ducting, hence the two fans. Using two fans also balances the pressure. Don't put a filter on these A/C ducts as it throws the balance off and you'll loose co2. I have a co2 tank on a timer and a CAP-4 controller, it stays at 1500 ppm during lights on and shuts off when the lights do. Daytime temp is 78, lights off is 75. I have found that setting day temp higher allows the reservoir to get too warm. Since you're only cooling the grow chamber, any piece of shit A/C is more than enough. Building the box that replaces the front cover of the A/C is the hardest part. The box also blocks all the daylight that comes thru the Styrofoam guts of the A/C. The original cover is still attached to the A/C and dangles buy the cord under the box. I use a WIN 100 remote thermostat, but I see no reason your CAP-xgc-1 controller shouldn't work. If you have any questions, send me a PM.

IC3M4L3 said:

just make yer own c02 bottle! and props on the use of gaffa tape mate! fucking marvelouse stuff and rofl did u realy just compare your grow tent to a chick giving birth!!lolz realy?? haha

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No reputable dealer will refill a home-made co2 bottle.

Red1966 said:

The pressure is neutral. One fan pushes air from the tent to the A/C, the other pulls from the A/C to the tent. The sides of the tent hang slack when the A/C is on (or off). Both fans are the same and run off the same speed controller. The A/C and both fans are running off a remote thermostat now, you just need a A/C that can restart on its own after a power interruption. I think nearly all do. Just set the built in thermostat in the A/C to its lowest setting. The remote thermostat turns it off and on. The built in fan in the A/C is no where near powerful enough to push and pull sufficient air thru 15 ft of ducting, hence the two fans. Using two fans also balances the pressure. Don't put a filter on these A/C ducts as it throws the balance off and you'll loose co2. I have a co2 tank on a timer and a CAP-4 controller, it stays at 1500 ppm during lights on and shuts off when the lights do. Daytime temp is 78, lights off is 75. I have found that setting day temp higher allows the reservoir to get too warm. Since you're only cooling the grow chamber, any piece of shit A/C is more than enough. Building the box that replaces the front cover of the A/C is the hardest part. The box also blocks all the daylight that comes thru the Styrofoam guts of the A/C. The original cover is still attached to the A/C and dangles buy the cord under the box. I use a WIN 100 remote thermostat, but I see no reason your CAP-xgc-1 controller shouldn't work. If you have any questions, send me a PM.

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thank you for this great information, very helpful to me and probably many other growers that have this same exact problem. id just like to check and make sure that i am understanding this right.

so you setup a duct to pull in cold air from the a/c and push it into your tent... than setup another duct to pull the air out of tent and push it into the intake on the a/c, so the co2 makes a closed circuit with the a/c. does the exhaust coming out of the back of the a/c "steal" some of the co2?

redd i cant send you a pm because your inbox is full