Cheap water cooler
- Thread starter Demask
- Start date
Keesje
Well-Known Member
Wow, I always showed respect to you and admired your points of view about the fact that you hardly ever need any cooling.
So I don't get where this is coming from.
I guess talking is over then. All the best.
Budley Doright
Well-Known Member
Could you provide information on these hydroponic DWC commercial green houses that do not use chillers for the water solution? I would be curious to see how they do it. Have you done any calculations re heat removal from the res using waterfall versus other types of circulation?
Axion42
Well-Known Member
I'm running waterfalls in a RDWC system with no chiller. Ambient air temps are in mid 80s, water temps are close to 80. I'm running a sterile res using HTH pool shock and I'm getting explosive growth. Veg on 7th week and gonna flip to flower next weekend, wanted to see if no chiller was gonna work for me, so far it is and my girls are happy.
Budley Doright
Well-Known Member
How much and how often for the shock?
If your running sterile there is not much if a benefit to a chiller unless your temps are to high. The whole point of a chiller is to slow the bacterial reproduction rates. I mean it's a small added safety precaution in sterile but if you are truely running a sterile system that you keep on top of you will benefit more from the slightly higher temps. But if you slack you could see a very fast turnaround to having issues.
Budley Doright
Well-Known Member
I’ve ran waterfalls and spray nozzles for a few years with out chillers and added H2O2 without a lot of issues but I seemingly was always on the verge of losing it. I started running a chiller (built myself) and things seemed much more stable with my setup. I’ve actually stopped growing indoors
Axion42
Well-Known Member
What did you build it from?
Budley Doright
Well-Known Member
Window shaker, removed evap coil and replaced with water coil, added TXV, worked well. Not a basic diy project though lol.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
There are not many commercial greenhouses that will use DWC as the peeps on this forum do.
But I visit a lot of hydroponic commercial growers where I live.
Their hydroponics is most of the time a huge bassin with 1, 1.5 or 2 ft of water. The plants float on styrofoam.
Every hour or 30 minutes they run a pump. Sometimes with a venturi.
Other ones use those long narrow tubes where they run water through.
They all do not use coolers or chillers or blowers on the surface.
Now I do have to say that it never really gets warm here. 86 Fahrenheit at the most.
But even in longer periods of plus 80 degrees they do not use chillers.
They are also not really carefull I witnessed. With their rubberboots they just step into the bassin.
Also sunlight penetrates the water.
They don't care. The plants do look really healthy. The roots as well. Just stained from the nutrients.
5BY5LEC
Well-Known Member
Do you ever measure your free and total chlorine?
Axion42
Well-Known Member
How often are you adding nutes? I have no set schedule but it's about once a week, I'm going off my ppm readings. Add pool shock after nutes have recirculated for a bit then I adjust pH if necessary. I recently bought a chiller, came yesterday. It's scary having such high water temps and relying entirely on pool shock to keep it safe. With the chiller I'll still run a sterile res.
Edit: I do believe the water fall sprayers on my system have played a big part of keeping my 80 degree water temps relatively safe
Edit: I do believe the water fall sprayers on my system have played a big part of keeping my 80 degree water temps relatively safe
5BY5LEC
Well-Known Member
When I initially mix my res, for now. I have been adding shock/uc roots first. I will have a cc/fc of around 3 ppm or so, but as soon as I add nutes the strips read 0 for both. Its just interesting.
I am starting to think the biggest benefit of using sprayers is not so much the D.O. but the lack of shit in the air getting pumped in to the water. All things the same, sprayers would introduce far less contaminants to the system.
I am starting to think the biggest benefit of using sprayers is not so much the D.O. but the lack of shit in the air getting pumped in to the water. All things the same, sprayers would introduce far less contaminants to the system.
5BY5LEC
Well-Known Member
Nah. Try it. Mix up some fresh water in a bucket and add your choice of chlorine product until you reach 3ppm. Add some nutes and then test again. You total chlorine will be near 0 and your free chlorine will always be 0
I am using GH 3 part and as soon as the micro hits the water the chlorine is bound up, seems like.
I am assuming this is happening because the chlorine is getting bound up with the ammoniacal nitrogen, but I am no chemist and could be totally wrong.
I am using GH 3 part and as soon as the micro hits the water the chlorine is bound up, seems like.
I am assuming this is happening because the chlorine is getting bound up with the ammoniacal nitrogen, but I am no chemist and could be totally wrong.