No water chiller for Coco...

Because coco requires only few watering's now and the and the roots are not constantly sitting reservoir..
there shouldn't be necessity for water chiller .....(I did use water chillers before..notice plural ,because several tanks)...but can't be bothered having them screaming day and night this time for summer heats ...
I am using Wilma system so the waste run will be used again from tank...I think if I change reservoir 1 time per week it shoul be ok + use bubblers and maybe some water pump at the bottom of reservoir to move the water
around to prevent alga ...
The main Question for this topic is what do you think of using aquarium UV sterilizing light system to prevent bacteria grow....I am anyway planing to use kelp and humic acid products among others, would UV sterilizing destroy
nutritional values from these...or is it just a bad idea to even consider not to use water chillers..

Three things in my research for my DWC setup. You cannot have a steril and a live environment at the same time. You need to chose one. This is to be able to run high water tempature without issues. Bubbles bubbles bubbles and oxygen! I have been changing my res every 2 weeks roughly using hydrogen peroxide.

-Hydrogen peroxide add 2oz of it every day or every other day, it's all gone after 4 days, this will keep you in what they call a steril environment in your resivors. The hydrogen peroxide breaks down in the water and during this chemical process it's converted into oxygen which is then dissolved in the water to offset DO from tempature.

-Hydroguard, I just bought this, you add 2ml per gallon once a week. It degrades dead and parasitic tissue on the roots and dissolves it into neutrients via bacteria and other ingredients.

-Compost Tea, someone recommend Ancient Forest by general hydroponics, you mix this stuff up in a 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler in the bottom of it, leave it for a few days until the smell dies off and then you put a cup or so of it in your resivor and it does what Hydroguard does but naturally with the tea.

Hydrogen peroxide is what I have used for 6 weeks with tempature a seeing 62* F all the way to 76* F and my roots are pretty and so are my plants. Hydrogen peroxide won't eliminate slime issues though 100% that's why I am moving to Hydroguard. Plus I don't want my garage to smell like poop.

Hi, yep I have the Hydroguard ,great stuff I love it...but the hydrogen peroxide road I am not going to take anymore ,tried it once
and I ended up killing all my plants....did get all the right measurements etc. how to use it ,did cross-checking from different sources of the correct doses and timing but all died...it was when I had a beginning of a root rot in one plant and after the peroxide it weakened the other plants and killed the beneficial bacterias what protected the plants so they all died...
end of the day if I am not going to use chillers, I might be throwing away quite a lot of feeding water...

Hydroguard is the way to go. I am all about better safe than sorry so I run a chiller too. My DIY Chiller is super easy and can be find in my thread. Good lunk

AKGrowAreo said:

Hydroguard is the way to go. I am all about better safe than sorry so I run a chiller too. My DIY Chiller is super easy and can be find in my thread. Good lunk

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Did you make one out of a mini fridge? I have a cold water machine, trying to figure out how rip it apart for the coils.

It all comes down to get one rather stealthy grow before summer..water chillers running day and night gives me the creeps...
even my chillers are the most quiet ones,,,I realized that at night the house is super quiet ,no trafick sounds no nothing,,the walls and the ceilings are super thick and the house is like the best sound isolated building I ever experienced..but I am a careful person who likes to do everything with the maximum precision,,,so the lesser hum and sound the better,,,I was close to start using soil but I changed my mind ,,I rather get bigger yields than soil can offer,,,I used coco/perlite before and that's the bomb ,,plants grow like crazy and tolerate higher heath during summer temps,,,
It might be anyway the only solution to use my chillers to keep the nutes nice and fresh for at least 3 weeks, my 2 tanks are like 48 gallons a piece, so of course I can try to fill only like 8 gallons in each and after a week throw the nutes from reservoir away...this way I could avoid the chiller usage,,,,since the plants don't really care about the water temps ,,after watering the pots warms up to the same temps as the rest anyways ,,,, ,,feel free to give opinions about which way you would do it..

That's a big setup. A guy on here named TSW does something called ebb and grow buckets. He claims water temps aren't a big deal with it and he only changes his resivor twice during the whole grow. That's a lot of nutes to toss out. I haven't done the ebb buckets but sounds like a fix to your issue.

These systems what I have are sweet and brand new, perfect shape and space between the bushes and uses out every inch of the grow room,,
so no need for changing, the only change was what I was considering to do was a soil grow and use those Root Pouch pots, so for summer heat they would breath easier ,,,but somebody convinced me that coco will give better yields than soil ,so I am going to use my system which is suitable for all variations of hydroponics...no more buying,,,I am not going to go thru how much I have spend on all the equipments so far but a lot...

Phytium hater said:

These systems what I have are sweet and brand new, perfect shape and space between the bushes and uses out every inch of the grow room,,
so no need for changing, the only change was what I was considering to do was a soil grow and use those Root Pouch pots, so for summer heat they would breath easier ,,,but somebody convinced me that coco will give better yields than soil ,so I am going to use my system which is suitable for all variations of hydroponics...no more buying,,,I am not going to go thru how much I have spend on all the equipments so far but a lot...

Click to expand...

I just started hydro, only have a few outdoor organic grows under my belt. I see how it's really easy to get carried away with all the hydro do-dads. So many variables it's a dream. I work on computers so I like how technical hydro is, it keeps my head busy when things are quite.

NVGrower said:

Did you make one out of a mini fridge? I have a cold water machine, trying to figure out how rip it apart for the coils.

Click to expand...

If you have a drain in your grow area, or access to your washer machine drain, and access to fresh cold water, you can run my chiller with out needing to use an extra pumps, res', or need a electric powered chiller at all for that matter. I could make my res 50 degrees if I wanted to. It works amazing. Ill paste my instructions below. Hit me up if you have more qs.

I have access to a fresh cold water faucet in my grow area and a drain. If you have these in your area try this out. It works absolutely great.
This was my #1 concern, keeping my reservoirs cool. I researched, then researched, then researched some more.

The idea of a traditional chiller was too expensive and pretty inefficient, and pumping my nute solution to a remote chiller seems fucking retarded (how to keep the lines from getting dirty, potential for flooding, extra reservoirs, fuck that business). Peltier Thermoelectric chillers simply would not do good enough, they are expensive to buy, annoying to make, and quick to fail. So what were my other options? I was stumped!

I went back to the drawing board and designed my own reservoir chilling system. Full disclosure, I am positive that other growers have developed the same chilling system as I did, but I could not find shit about it on the web so I designed this one all on my own. I am not claiming to have invented style of chiller, but I am fucking stoked on it and would love to hear from anyone who has done anything similar. My first designs were very similar to other DIY chillers out there and there was nothing special about it really. My first plan was to put put a coil of hose in a fridge and pump my nute solution through it using a timer. It would have worked, but also would have used unnecessary electricity and added extra headaches.

Frustrated, I then remembered that I had used a little thingy called a wort chiller when brewing beer in the past. Basically this is a immersion chiller that consists of a coil of metal tubing (usually copper, but you want a stainless steel one to prevent any leaching from the copper caused by the nute solution). What a great way to go! This meant I wouldn't have to keep any extra pumps in my res and I never have to move the nute solution out of the res to chill it! Duh, tons of people are using these so I don't know how I missed it!

I set out to put a really big res filled with potable RV/marine antifreeze into a freezer, then put a pump in the res connected to a hose that pumps the antifreeze through the wort chillers that sit in my reservoirs. The pump would be turned on and off by the another one of these $38 Inkbird thermostats with sensor and outlets built in.

Right when I was about to buy a fridge I had little light bulb go off in my head! Why the fuck should I wast time, power, and money on a fridge when my tap water is 43 degrees once it runs for a minute or two? I was stoked! I had finally figured it out!!! I am lucky enough to have a drain in the floor of my grow area and I plumbed cold water faucet to the area as well. Without both of these, you will not be able to run this chiller, sorry.

I turned my attention from fridges to sprinkler valve electronic relays. They are cheap and they last forever! Here is how it ended up working out. Don't buy cheap hose parts though because THEY WILL LEAK! I was able to build my chiller for my 2 flower room reservoirs for about $210 and its really easy to build. Shit is extra expensive where I live, so you can probably do better. I will do a detailed thread with pics and instructions on how to build this chiller as soon as I have some down time, but here are the basics.

These items work for my set up. You may need slightly different lengths of tubing, hose and more or less of some items. Measure and plan before you buy!

Supplies For 2 Reservoirs:

1 cold water hose faucet (sink will work but you'll need a garden hose adapter)
1 drain
2 - Super Efficient 3/8" x 25' Stainless Steel Wort Chiller = $40 each (brew shop or Amazon)
1 - Inkbird Itc-308 Digital Temperature Controller Outlet Thermostat, 2-stage = $38 (Amazon
1 - Orbit 57100 3/4-Inch Female Pipe Threaded Auto Inline Sprinkler Valve = $12 (Amazon)
1 - Orbit Sprinkler System Power Source Transformer 57040 = $13 (Amazon)
1 - box of miscellaneous wire connectors = $5
2 - male 3/4 threaded to male garden hose adapters = $5 each (Lowe’s)
2 - 2 Way Solid Y Valve Garden Hose Connector Splitter Adapter = $13 each (Lowe’s)
1 - PTFE Pipe Thread Seal Tape = $2 (Lowe’s)
1 - 50’ length of garden hose = $13 (Lowe’s)
6 male and 6 female (this should be enough to have extras) hose repair pieces = $5 each (Lowe’s)
1 - 20’ length of 3/8” vinyl tubing = $10 (Lowe’s)
1 - 3/8” vinyl tubing T = $3 (Lowe’s)

Instructions For One Reservoir: (If only chilling one res you will only need 1 wort chiller and you wont need the vinyl tubing T.)

1. Connect 2 Way Y Valve Garden Hose Adapter to water faucet.
2. Connect one side to the new garden hose and the other side to your old garden hose (if you have one).
3. Run the hose close to your flower room and cut it to an appropriate length (pvc pipe cutters work great for this).
4. Connect female hose repair piece to the end of the hose where you just cut it.
5. Connect the 2 male 3/4 threaded to male garden hose adapters to the Orbit 57100 3/4-Inch Female Pipe Threaded Auto Inline Sprinkler Valve using PTFE Pipe Thread Seal Tape and be sure to tighten well using crescent wrench.
6. Connect the hose to the Orbit 57100 and tighten well. Be sure to find the arrow to ensure the water goes in the correct hole and out her other.
7. Connect Orbit Sprinkler System Power Source Transformer 57040 to Orbit 57100 using wire crimpers and connectors.
8. Connect another female hose repair piece to the other cut off end of the hose.
9. Connect the hose to the out end of the Orbit 57100 and tighten well.
10. Clean the wort chiller using dish soap to remove any machining oils and rinse well.
11. Insert wort chiller into reservoir.
12. Connect wort chiller to the garden hose.
13. Connect vinyl tubing to other end of the wort chiller.
14. Run vinyl tubing to drain.
15. Connect Power Source Transformer to the cooling outlet on the Inkbird Itc-308 Digital Temperature Controller Outlet Thermostat.
16. Put temp sensor in the reservoir.
17. Plug thermostat into outlet and set desired temp, dead band, alarms, etc. Calibrate the unit if necessary.

Instructions For Two Reservoirs:

1. Follow instructions 1 through 9 from above then the following
2. Run the garden hose to a central location between the two res and cut.
3. Connect male hose repair piece to the newly cut end.
4. Clean the wort chillers using dish soap to remove any machining oils and rinse well.
5. Insert wort chillers into reservoirs.
6. Connect vinyl tubing to the supplied garden hose adapter.
7. Run tubing to the wort chiller and cut to appropriate length.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 to the other wort chiller.
9. Connect vinyl tubing to both wort chillers using supplied clamps.
10. Connect separate vinyl tubing pieces to the other end of each wort chiller.
11. Run the end of the tubing to a point where you can connect them to the vinyl tubing T.
12. Connect another piece of tubing to the other end of the T and run the tubing to the drain.

I set my res temp to 67 degrees with a 1 degree dead band so that the second the res it gets above 68 degrees the sprinkler relay is activated and cold water starts flowing through my wort chillers and thus chilling my nute solution. As soon as the temp goes below 67 degrees the water ceases to flow. I keep my sensor in my warmer of the two reservoirs and they stay within 1 degree of each other. I could adjust the flow to each res using the valves on the y adapter to get the temps exactly the same if I wanted, but I just keep the valves wide open cause I am not worried about the 1 degree difference. Make sure to secure the vinyl tubing into the drain in some way. If you don't the line has a tendency to pop out of the drain and start spraying water everywhere.

Inkbird Thermostat

Orbit 57100 3/4-Inch Female Pipe Threaded Auto Inline Sprinkler Valve (sprinkler relay)

I have it housed in a bucket just so its out of the way and doesn't get kicked accidentally.

I don't have any pics of the wort chillers, but they are pretty straight forward. Let me know what you think about this and would love to hear about other's experience with similar set ups.

NVGrower said:

That's a big setup. A guy on here named TSW does something called ebb and grow buckets. He claims water temps aren't a big deal with it and he only changes his resivor twice during the whole grow. That's a lot of nutes to toss out. I haven't done the ebb buckets but sounds like a fix to your issue.

Click to expand...

If you want to stop waisting money on nutes run aero cause its way more efficient. I change nutes every 2 weeks and cost is not really that bad at all. Tasty nutes grow tasty buds. In my experience you can get away without a chiller if you run your res outside your grow area and if you run your timers on a 80 sec on 8 min of down to a 60 sec on 4 min off cycle. Trying to keep your nutes below 68 is all that matters and that can be accomplished many ways.

Seems like an interesting solution and works well in your grow space . My grow room does not have any change of constant water in and out let,,,absolutely impossible in my case, so I have to use the chillers,,but yep they would work way better if they could be taken a part and dumped in reservoir without the covers and somehow get to work inside the tanks ,that way the coils would have a constant connection with the water ,rather than pumped out to a chiller what seems to be quite ineffective way to cool large amounts of water,,,,I totally agree that chillers should be constantly in the reservoir to reach the maximum effect...
there is a innovation for somebody to commercialize ...lets say in my case the the Wilma 8 XL-wide System should be all ready have in built cooling coil system what would be in the walls of the tanks.. (and necessary electronics and hard wear on the side)
that would be so much more effective to keep the reservoir temps in check...when the cooling aid would circulate around the tank in the coils rather than water pumped out to meet the coils in a small box for few seconds...this new system would use much less power and be so much more effective than external chiller....

Phytium hater said:

Seems like an interesting solution and works well in your grow space . My grow room does not have any change of constant water in and out let,,,absolutely impossible in my case, so I have to use the chillers,,but yep they would work way better if they could be taken a part and dumped in reservoir without the covers and somehow get to work inside the tanks ,that way the coils would have a constant connection with the water ,rather than pumped out to a chiller what seems to be quite ineffective way to cool large amounts of water,,,,I totally agree that chillers should be constantly in the reservoir to reach the maximum effect...
there is a innovation for somebody to commercialize ...lets say in my case the the Wilma 8 XL-wide System should be all ready have in built cooling coil system what would be in the walls of the tanks.. (and necessary electronics and hard wear on the side)
that would be so much more effective to keep the reservoir temps in check...when the cooling aid would circulate around the tank in the coils rather than water pumped out to meet the coils in a small box for few seconds...this new system would use much less power and be so much more effective than external chiller....

Click to expand...

Totally bro! I will eventually just buy a full size fridge and put a tub of potable RV/Marine antifreeze in it, then stick a pump inside that and run that to my wort chillers. Ill use the same thermostat and everything. Itd still be cheaper that the off the shelf chillers.