Cool water with air pump?

I'm designing my DWC system and have been thinking about the water temp. Since the air pump will be constantly pumping in to the water, then wouldn't it help to maintain temps if the air pump was pumping in "cold" air??

I would think it would have to help, maybe in some cases handle it completely.

What do you think? Assuming 5 gallons of water per plant, 3 plants, insulated RES, an airstone under each of the plants, and a pretty powerful air pump. Could the air from the pump alone if it is pulling cold air, maintain water temp in the RES? All 3 plants share the same RES so I guess 15 gallons total.

Edit: air pump is 80 gallons per hour.

air loses temps relatively quickly compared to water, water is one of the best heat regulating elements on earth, so i think that it will not be effective, maybe it will help lower temps one degree or so, but i doubt it will really lower temps, but hey, i haven't tried it so it's just my personal opinion!

I get where you're coming from ZEM, but in water that is already at, or close, to the right temp. It is in an insulated tank, I wouldn't think that it would take that much to keep it at the right temp. All I'm doing is guessing here.

Something along these lines just seems like it would be better than freezing some bottles and tossing them in the res. It just seems like that is begging for water contamination to happen. I'm obviously not a pro, not even out of noob phase, but I am trying LOL!

I guess I also have the stuff to make a radiant element type of thing to put in the RES, I was just hoping for "air cooled" I guess. Word

Air pumping through the water will cool the water. It is a very similar principle to a cooling tower for a A/C in a large building. They blow air past water drops to cool it off. You ratio of water to air is opposite but that just reduces efficiency.

Will it be enough to maintain the res temps? No way to tell without trying it. With my T5 lights my res temp stays cool with just the air pump, no ice packs.

Kobalt said:

I get where you're coming from ZEM, but in water that is already at, or close, to the right temp. It is in an insulated tank, I wouldn't think that it would take that much to keep it at the right temp. All I'm doing is guessing here.

Something along these lines just seems like it would be better than freezing some bottles and tossing them in the res. It just seems like that is begging for water contamination to happen. I'm obviously not a pro, not even out of noob phase, but I am trying LOL!

I guess I also have the stuff to make a radiant element type of thing to put in the RES, I was just hoping for "air cooled" I guess. Word

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Kobalt, in this case, it could help maintain water temps at their level. as i said i'm not sure, but i would guess that if it worked in LOWERING temps, then we would all have a nice cheap chiller alternative. i know that if you blow a fan over the water level under your lid, it will help because it will evaporate more water and evaporation lowers temps. maybe a combbination of two things, cold airpumping and fan would lower temps well. i gave up on trying to lower temps, never even considered using ice bottles LMAO i'm not the type who would do such a thing, carrying bottles in and out all day haha i ended up doing DWC in winter and mild weather and switch to flood/drain in hot summers

Well, I thought about flood and drain, but DWC just seems like something I can really go all OCD over LOL. I'm using google sketchup and I am designing the grow cabinet in it before I start building it. I want to try and get it as tweaked as possible in the design stage, before I build and then go from there. I'll be building everthing so I was just tossing idea's of how to maintain water temp without frozen bottles in the water.

But this also makes me wonder, can the air coming up to the roots be "too cold"? Is there a point that the air gets so cold it shocks the plant from the roots?

Kobalt said:

But this also makes me wonder, can the air coming up to the roots be "too cold"? Is there a point that the air gets so cold it shocks the plant from the roots?

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I've heard anything lower than 60F could stunt growth. But that is water temp. I would think that if your water is 65F and your air is 50F then you should be fine. The air will warm up very quickly when it gets in the water.

sccerfrk26 said:

I've heard anything lower than 60F could stunt growth. But that is water temp. I would think that if your water is 65F and your air is 50F then you should be fine. The air will warm up very quickly when it gets in the water.

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Well maybe that changes things then... I was planning on the air being a LOT COLDER than 50F. Maybe, if it worked, it wouldn't need to be that cold though if the water was already close to the right temp. I'll be making an insulated res and the light will only be a 250w. So I figure with good air extraction, and insulated res, it shouldn't take much between res changes to hold the temp.

Maybe if it wasn't insulated and the ambient temp was up it wouldn't be enough, but I'm hoping on the fact that since it is only 15 gallons, insulated, and already at or close to the right temp, then it should be able to maintain that water temp fairly easily since it is getting changed out every so often anyway.

If you can't tell... I REALLY WANT THIS TO WORK !!!! LOL I appreciate the input guys, +rep.

ummm... dude, the air will be sucked from where? a freezer? even then, it will be awesome if it has ability to lower your temps from 80 to 70F. as i said, it's not easy to lower water temps just by pumping cold air in, so your idea of pumping very cold air in sure has better chance than pumping just cool air. dont worry about it being too cold, the above poster was referring to water temps, the air will even up with water temp very quickly... you see??? you see why i gave up DWC in summer?? LMAO it requires A/C but i ran 400-800watts and my summers are HOT! could work for you, cant wait to see

Well, I'll give it a try when I build I guess and see what happens on a dry run. In the mean time I am designing a radiant cooler system in case the air cool thing doesn't work.

Then again, the more I think about it the more a radiant system design sounds like a lot of fun. Word

Kobalt said:

Well, I'll give it a try when I build I guess and see what happens on a dry run. In the mean time I am designing a radiant cooler system in case the air cool thing doesn't work.

Then again, the more I think about it the more a radiant system design sounds like a lot of fun. Word

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aand wtf is radiant cooler system??? the RCS is it??? lmao

Sure, you put something in the res to act as a radiator and then pump cold water through it. Air pump keeps the water churning, so it helps to cool it down. You can control how cold they get. If I wasn't so bombed right now I would put up a link to one. LOL

Aquarium chillers, is what they are called. http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/cat/info/23005/category.web. Check that link.

No, wait, aquarium chillers are not quite the same thing. LOL. Uh, I will not be making an aquarium chiller LMAO I might BUY one of those aquarium chillers.

yes your so called R.C.S. is a chiller itself LMAO could i once again suggest the simpler cheaper flood/drain? you dont love DWC more than me trust me but i keep getting this thought, that in your case, maybe it's better to flood/drain since temps are a problem