I’ve been searching for an inexpensive way to bring down humidity in a grow tent. Am I smoking to much or is it possible to line the bottom of your tent with a unscented silica-based cat litter? They use silica in just about all packaging to protect from humidity. I was think 2-3 bags at the bottom of a tent would work.
Has anyone ever tried this before?
I have no idea if it would work, but interesting question. It may lower some, but my gut tells me probably wouldn’t bring it down enough to make much difference. If you do it, keep us updated how it works out.
Silica is capable of absorbing ~40% of its weight in water, which isn’t very much. Consider that dehumidifiers can extract a few gallons of water every couple of days. It’s going to take an awful lot of silica to even come near that. Water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon, so would need many pounds of silica to accomplish the task.
Some forms of silica can be baked to remove moisture and recycle the silica, but who wants to bake pounds of silica every few days. It’s an awfully expensive and time-consuming way to go about it.
Try a 5g full of rock salt. Drill holes in it. Drop into another 5g.
Might help a bit.
Less mess I’d say.
Silica dust is as bad as asbestos I wouldn’t want to be in there breathing silica dust
After looking into it rock salt is probably a better option. I only need to knock off about 5% humidity. I don’t think the cost of running a dehumidifier can be justified for that.