I swear you are a painter by trade lol. Am i right?Voila...now res connected.
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Here's why.
(Outdoor = growroom)
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Cheap water cooler
- Thread starter Demask
- Start date
TintEastwood
Well-Known Member
Nah. IT background. Lol. I just like painters tape.
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5BY5LEC
Well-Known Member
3,000 dollars for the 900w one.
DCcan
Well-Known Member
He wanted a link for a real one...The 500 and 250 watt Polar series are up there too.
I was thinking look for a second hand one, if you know what they look like.
A lot of research labs in corp HQ have these unused, along with vapor hoods, water filtration, exhaust systems.
They gut the place and throw it all out, they don't list it and haggle, unless its family owned.
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ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Unless the growroom temps are out of hand, a waterfall system will keep the res temps in the mid to low 70s, will aerate and agitate better, eliminate the need for a chiller, air stones or air pumps and save a bunch of money by not having to buy, maintain, replace, cool or power any of the above.
It worked so well for me that even when I deliberately inoculated my RDWC with pythium from a bucket with rotten roots, nothing happened.
I'm the guy who used water chilling for RDWC, full spectrum environmental control and even for chilling water cooled LED fixtures, so I have been there and done that.
If waterfalls won't keep your RDWC temps in line, you have bigger problems than warm water.
It worked so well for me that even when I deliberately inoculated my RDWC with pythium from a bucket with rotten roots, nothing happened.
I'm the guy who used water chilling for RDWC, full spectrum environmental control and even for chilling water cooled LED fixtures, so I have been there and done that.
If waterfalls won't keep your RDWC temps in line, you have bigger problems than warm water.
TintEastwood
Well-Known Member
Great info. I'll try that method for the non-summer months.
I'm leveraging the chiller recirc pump to keep keep res agitated, and waterfalling. (pressure pissing)
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Gquebed
Well-Known Member
I got that chiller too. Doing a 240 litre res for my tables. Set it and forget it. Love it.
5BY5LEC
Well-Known Member
By environmental control, are you saying you had it hooked to a heat exchanger of some kind to cool your space?
It seems like that would be much more efficient than running a/c, no?
Keesje
Well-Known Member
If your room temperature gets to 80 degrees F / 27 degrees C, then your water temperature will become 80 degrees as well, eventually.
I mean, if...
... your reservoir is in the same room as your lights.
... if your reservoir is in there long enough.
Of course if you would change or refresh your reservoir every day or 2 days with cold water, then it will take some time to get to 80 degrees.
Heat from the air will eventually also be absorbed by the water. If not, it would be in conflict with the law of thermodynamics.
So I don't see how water will stay colder as the room it is in, just because of the way or aerating.
Only by an exterior force (like a watercooler, or frozen bottles, or pumping your water to another colder room) this can be achieved.
Perhaps the way how you aerate your water can slow down the heating a little bit (for example if you use an electric pump with a higher wattage)
Or I misunderstand, but then please tell me how it works.
Water temps will always be cooler than ambient temps this can range a lot but I generally find at least 5F cooler. This is due to evaporative cooling not to mention the surface temp of whatever your reservoirs are placed in such as cool concrete or wood
GreenLegend420
Well-Known Member
You should focus on cooling the room instead of the water. My room stays at 75-80 degrees 24/7 and my water with lights on stays around 73-74 degrees. My air pump sits outside the room in ~74 degree ambient temps with a fan blowing on it 24/7. I pump air into the water 24/7 as well and I havent had any problems with hot water.
Good option if you are using lighting with IR but with LEDs you would end up with leafs temps a bit to low for optimal growth. I still think a chiller is a good idea if you are newer. While I agree a well established live system should have no issue running water temps even into the low 80's it's a risk with a big cost attached. I would and always will recommend a chiller to someone newer with little understanding of bacteria waterfall or not. I personally feel the biggest factor is a healthy colony of beneficial bacteria.
GreenLegend420
Well-Known Member
I should mention i have a waterfall effect as well is i use both the waterfarm pumping column as well as an air disc. I also use 0.5ml of roots excelurator gold per gallon.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
You are right, but still it has nothing to do with the way you are aerating your water.
A concrete floor is an external factor that actively cools your reservoir (or could warm it up when the room under your concrete floor is warmer then your growing room
) Cooling by evaporation will only work till a certain point. At a certain moment the temperature of the air and the temperature of the water are even. Then some water will evaporate and the temperature will go down slightly and the exchange of heat air to water will make the temperature even again, and so on.
For sure in our growing rooms there are too many circumstances that influence the temperature.
To begin with we start with colder water and it takes some time to heat up the water. The bigger the mass, the longer it takes.
How we aerate our water also has to do with it, but aerate with a pump, will always heat up the water somehow. With sprayers, with DWC, with waterfalls. The heat of the pump will be asorbed for a big part by the water. Aerating itself will never cool your water (or you must do it with cold air from outside)
Purpsmagurps
Well-Known Member
lol just buy a friggin chiller they are 300 bucks. and last a long time. ive seen people buy a bunch of z7 without and do okay but hydroguard and a chiller works so fuckin well you shouldnt be trying without. for real.
Much agreed and again I say the biggest influence allowing higher temps is a healthy colony of beneficial bacteria. Not so much the aeration method usedYou are right, but still it has nothing to do with the way you are aerating your water.
A concrete floor is an external factor that actively cools your reservoir (or could warm it up when the room under your concrete floor is warmer then your growing room
Cooling by evaporation will only work till a certain point. At a certain moment the temperature of the air and the temperature of the water are even. Then some water will evaporate and the temperature will go down slightly and the exchange of heat air to water will make the temperature even again, and so on.
For sure in our growing rooms there are too many circumstances that influence the temperature.
To begin with we start with colder water and it takes some time to heat up the water. The bigger the mass, the longer it takes.
How we aerate our water also has to do with it, but aerate with a pump, will always heat up the water somehow. With sprayers, with DWC, with waterfalls. The heat of the pump will be asorbed for a big part by the water. Aerating itself will never cool your water (or you must do it with cold air from outside)
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Find an old but working water cooler for cheap. Mine was gifted to me so as cheap as you can get.
Put a small fountain or pond pump in the rez and run 3/8" tubing into the cooling tank with about 15' coiled up inside. I filled my cooling tank with automotive anti-freeze as the water was freezing up. At first I had the pump on a timer as my tub was getting too cool but the nutes froze in the tubing at the bottom of the cooler tank so switched it to the cooler itself. A bit of experimenting over a couple days to get it right but has worked great and cost me all of $14 for the pump and $5 for half a jug of anti-freeze. I already had the tubing so factor in the cosr of about 20' of 3/8" plastic tubing. Mine was clear food grade so any exposed tubing needs to be wrapped with electrical or duct tape etc to block the light.
Window screen hot-glued over the pump vents to keep roots out.
The insides. Had to take some plastic bits out first.
Packed some insulation around the tank tho it probably wasn't needed. May want insulation around your rez and/or buckets in a RDWC system. I have the adjustment screw on the back of the cooler turned down as far as it will go and at that it could do 2-50L tubs easily I'm sure or even a larger rez before needing to turn it higher.
Hard at work helping my girls stay safe from root rot and grow healthy if not a little wild.
Put a small fountain or pond pump in the rez and run 3/8" tubing into the cooling tank with about 15' coiled up inside. I filled my cooling tank with automotive anti-freeze as the water was freezing up. At first I had the pump on a timer as my tub was getting too cool but the nutes froze in the tubing at the bottom of the cooler tank so switched it to the cooler itself. A bit of experimenting over a couple days to get it right but has worked great and cost me all of $14 for the pump and $5 for half a jug of anti-freeze. I already had the tubing so factor in the cosr of about 20' of 3/8" plastic tubing. Mine was clear food grade so any exposed tubing needs to be wrapped with electrical or duct tape etc to block the light.
Window screen hot-glued over the pump vents to keep roots out.
The insides. Had to take some plastic bits out first.
Packed some insulation around the tank tho it probably wasn't needed. May want insulation around your rez and/or buckets in a RDWC system. I have the adjustment screw on the back of the cooler turned down as far as it will go and at that it could do 2-50L tubs easily I'm sure or even a larger rez before needing to turn it higher.
Hard at work helping my girls stay safe from root rot and grow healthy if not a little wild.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
Really like what you build, @OldMedUser
Don't totally understand it.
Especially this part
Don't totally understand it.
Especially this part
What is the difference between the cooler tank and the cooler itself?
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
The cooler tank is the tank on top of the cooler that you would normally upend a bottle of RO water into. The little pump sits in the rez or in my case tub of nutes and circulates them up to the tank and back to the rez. I also wrapped a blanket of that white insulation around the tub held on with baling wire. Kept the tub at 65F no problem. The timer I put on the cooler only ran 15 on 15 off while the lights were on then 15 out of each hour with lights off.
Ghetto for sure but worked great.
Could probably add a temp controller if you wanted to get fancy with it too?