home made hepa filters

[Bigred]

gday all i have a big carbon filter would this work as a hepa filter or does any one have any good cheap ways of making one

i have fans carbon filters (phat filters) many differant sizes they should work and i have ozone generators as well does ozone kill

spores etc any feed back would be greatly appreciate it

big red

[occidentalis]

No, a carbon filter is not a HEPA filter

HEPA filters are very fine mesh filters that remove particulate matter. Carbon filters just remove odours and chemicals from the air, not small particles (well, they may remove some particles, but it's not their main purpose).

[satyr]

as occidentalis said...

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/12484920#12484920

[OPP]

I have seen pics on shroomery of a glovebox with a UV light to kill anything that makes it through the HEPA filter.

Sure, if you have one lying around and want to experiment but it seems a bit over the top for a hobby mycologist to me.

[waterboy 2.0]

^ in case anyone is considering jerry rigging UV lights, first thing is you need a light that puts out UV C (not A or B ). This is the germicidal spectrum.

When incorporated into laminar flow hoods they are designed to switched on at least an hour before using the flow cabinet shining down on the work surface(which is also run before using) and switched off before sitting down to a session. Typically there is a cover for the front to prevent UV light shining out into the lab.

DO NOT PUT YOURSELF UNDER UV C LIGHTS..... NOT EVER....its not real good for you.

Edited July 30, 2012 by waterboy

[LokStok]

if your going to be doing culture/transfer work in a moving airflow, it really has to be coming though a HEPA filter. Anything

less than that- your much better off doing it in a still-air environment eg. glove box/bag!

[Darklight]

DO NOT PUT YOURSELF UNDER UV C LIGHTS..... NOT EVER....its not real good for you.

 

+1

A long time ago I was working on UV induced mutation of some ornamental plant cells while wearing a short sleeved shirt. The height of the light was below shoulder and it was shielded from my direct vision by it's reflector

The reflection of the light ( or maybe it was stray light ) from the stainless steel on the flow hood base over 8 minutes was enough to give me serious sunburn on my lower face, neck, arms and shoulder area. Luckily I was wearing UV filtered safety glasses and wearing latex gloves

LokStok I posted a tek on Perspex Tunnels here a while ago. They can work well for small numbers of culture vessels if your sterile manual handling technique is good

[Anodyne]

Some sunscreens help to block UV-C and are recommended for welders, but better just to avoid it altogether.

[Bigred]

thanks for the help i saw a furnace filter and its has the hepa logo if i put this infront of a fan would it be enough for a

hepa flow bench cheers bigred

ps whats the gadget used to detect particles in air

[LokStok]

@Darklight -yeah saw that. Simple.Elegant. Nice. Got me thinking of a very portable roll-up travelling model made of much thinner perspex.

Edited July 31, 2012 by LokStok

[Bigred]

i put toget her a small fan with gasmask filters on the intake i plan on leaving it run in the room i use my glove box

i dont think any particle would make it through any help would be really helpful

[Darklight]

i put toget her a small fan with gasmask filters on the intake i plan on leaving it run in the room i use my glove box

i dont think any particle would make it through any help would be really helpful

 

I'm not optimistic this will work, but then I have a very conservative approach to trying new equipment teks

If you do try it out, try it on an open petri dish with some PDA or MYA in it or similar, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds etc, then seal and incubate to check for contaminants for a week or so. It beats wasting precious time and germplasm where you could contaminate potentially clean stock you already have, or inoculated plates that you care about. If there are no, or few contaminants, go for it live with mycelia etc

The whole point of laminar flows is that they distribute clean air in a horizontal direction and evenly distributed in such a way that no air pockets can be formed while the hood is empty. Your tek might not offer that. And the point of a perspex tunnel is that it has very, very little air moving into it, especially while your hands are in there blocking the sides and anything under it is cleaned first

Let us know how you go

[Bigred]

thanks for all the help everyone but im just going to make a propper filter i got told its not worth the hassle

[occidentalis]

Yep, I think that's what we've all been trying to hint at ;)

[Bigred]

and thanks to everyone i was thinking making one with ply wood and a fan blower and a hepa filter does anyone have any pointers

i have a good idea on how to build it just if there is any thing to improve it like mods could you put a ozone generator inside it would it help

[Darklight]

Don't overcomplicate it, a UV germicidal tube and a hepa filter should be fine. Paint the inner sides with something long wear and glossy and seal cracks with silicon

There are bucketloads of flow hood patterns around if you do a search for them. One is here:

http://www.fungifun.org/English/Flowhood

[Bigred]

thanks heaps i am going to buy a sunbeam hepa filter its about 2ft x 1 ft should do the trick thanks again everyone

least now i wont fuck it up