cooling a RDWC reservoir

[sopappy]

I'd like to try a wort cooler (kinda pricey, maybe too big for bucket) or just a simple stainless steel coil sitting in the bucket. I'd just run cold water through it to chill the res. Sourcing a small or cheap wort cooler is tricky... think I can find a simple SS coil to drop in a bucket? nope. procurement pia Then I think why not just drop a coil of the tubing itself in to the bucket. Of course the heat transfer wouldn't be nearly as efficient as SS but we're talking a couple degrees.

 

[budz4me]

how many gallons is your rez? How many degrees you need to drop?

 

[RubyRed]

I read people place frozen water bottles in the rez and change every day

 

[sopappy]

Hi budz, I have two small RDWC systems, 5 gal buckets...
2 buckets and a res AND 3 buckets and a res
I couldn't source a SS coil so I tried just using the silicone tubing...
I throw about 15 feet in to a 5 gal bucket, maybe half full and running cold water through the tube drops the temp 1 degree after 10 minutes.
Promising but I think I'll try harder to get the coils.

 

[WeedHopper]

I used frozen water botttles in my 5 Gallon DWC grows, ,and it worked just fine. I was growing in Florida at the time and it was hot as hell,,and they kept my solution cool enough,,,and they dont take up very much room at all.

 

[sopappy]

I used frozen water botttles in my 5 Gallon DWC grows, ,and it worked just fine. I was growing in Florida at the time and it was hot as hell,,and they kept my solution cool enough,,,and they dont take up very much room at all.

hey grasshopper... yup, i did that too. I re-used those plastic containers nuts and stuff come in. I had a nice little rotation going there and yes, it did lower the temps just fine BUT
I should have used bottles... I got that pythmeoffium on all my roots so I went mental and shut down the buckets for a beaching and good rinse. I'm pretty clean so I'm thinking it might have been the labels on those containers but just a guess.
I moved the 4 plants to soil and one is doing great but i think the other 3 are doomed.
Ya know.... I am really starting to think these feminized seeds are crippled right out of the starting gate, I'm switching back to regular seeds. I mean, look at Jenner.... it's not nice to fool with mother nature.

View attachment 100_0858.JPG

 

[sopappy]

Jeeze louieeeze... I bought this 12V solenoid that works fine until you run water to it. The tube pressure from 1/4 inch tubing tapped in to 1/2 copper is so high, I can't keep the tube on the solenoid (even turning tap to a trickle!)
I ty wrap the tube on to the nozzle and it pulls off after pressure builds.
I guess I need a washing machine type solenoid.... cripes, it never ends!

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[budz4me]

yeah if its only 5-15g a few frozen water bottles will work just fine. I actually piked up that tip from hopper:ccc:

 

[WeedHopper]

Im blushing. ..lol
It really did work well for me cause i life in the south where its hot as hell. Those frozen bottles saved my plants and kept my roots cool. I couldnt afford the alternative.

 

[sopappy]

Im blushing. ..lol
It really did work well for me cause i life in the south where its hot as hell. Those frozen bottles saved my plants and kept my roots cool. I couldnt afford the alternative.

Glass or plastic?
I guess freezing solution in to big ice cubes would be dumb. (The lid popped off my container:-(

 

[WeedHopper]

Plastic is all i ever used.

 

[sopappy]

Plastic is all i ever used.

What about nute ice cubes? The lids kept popping off so I filled my containers with water from the rez instead and now I'm dropping in giant nute ice cubes.

 

[WeedHopper]

Cool idea. Get it
Lol

 

[sopappy]

Cool idea. Get it
Lol

I must admit I AM warming to the idea. They're about 4 inch square containers, pop one out in to the rez and fill up the empty container. Even if freezing neutralizes the nutes (they just keep coming), I don't think it'll affect the plants much.

 

[sopappy]

I'm trying again after a Pythium disaster and am using the coils. I'd call it a very slow trickle running constantly. It cools 3 - 4 degrees F

 

[Hushpuppy]

Hey I did the rez cooler technique a couple years ago when I was running my big grow. I got 1/2" copper tubing from the hardware store and got hose to fit on it. It is flexible enough that I was able to bend it gently into a coil. I connected the hoses and put hose clamps on it. this I dropped into the rez and put a small fish tank pump in there to circulate the water. I then ran the hoses from the coil (one)back to a 20gal cooler which had holes drilled through the lid for the hoses to go through (silicone in place), and a 100gph submersible pump inside connected to a second hose that went from the cooler to a chiller. The other hose from the coil went to the output side of the chiller.

This formed a circle from the cooler(which served as my cold water reservoir) where water was pumped from the cooler, through the chiller, to the coil, and then back to the cooler. This setup was on a bigger grow but still only served 4-8 plants in a hydro system and kept the water in the main rez at a constant 68f.

I bought the chiller online for about $300 for a small one. This setup ran clean, bottled water through the chiller so that the solution wouldn't have any kind of interaction with the chiller coils. It was a little pricey to start up but worked flawlessly in the summer. I took it out in the winter and used 100w fish tank heaters to keep the temps up to 68f.

Here are some pics of it. They are very small so I hope they show well

View attachment water chiller1.JPG

View attachment water chiller2.JPG

 

[Hushpuppy]

Here is the chiller that I used: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Active-Aqua-Chiller-Refrigeration-Unit/dp/B0048IVBT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441571044&sr=8-1&keywords=water+chiller&pebp=1441571044732&perid=1FVJ7N69YJVRRFDGSGME[/ame]

 

[sopappy]

Hey I did the rez cooler technique a couple years ago ===snippedl

Ah the complications of temperature. Nice job. I'd really like to try some propane heating this winter for the co2 benefit but I'm nervous <br/>
I used stainless steel from Chine ( I see RUST where I cut it), a bugger to bend in to a coil but running a trickle through it constantly lowers the res 2 C.

 

[Sweetmansticky]

Neat little set up you got there hush!!