Cooling reservoir water....

[Furbrain]

Greetings.

I have a Wilma 4 pot hydro system!. There are pros and cons. One 'con' is that the reservoir water will stay at the same temp as the tent temperature or maybe a touch lower. Reservoir water stays around 24-25° which I think is too warm.....................?. The tank has to stay in tent so I wonder about ways of keeping tank temps down WITHOUT having to purchase a super dooper water chiller ?. I read somewhere that there are additives you can use in the water that stop any unwanted microbes (that thrive) in warm water messing with the plants.

Any ideas or should I move to Iceland ?.

 

[DesignatedDave]

1 hour ago, Furbrain said:

Greetings.

I have a Wilma 4 pot hydro system!. There are pros and cons. One 'con' is that the reservoir water will stay at the same temp as the tent temperature or maybe a touch lower. Reservoir water stays around 24-25° which I think is too warm.....................?. The tank has to stay in tent so I wonder about ways of keeping tank temps down WITHOUT having to purchase a super dooper water chiller ?. I read somewhere that there are additives you can use in the water that stop any unwanted microbes (that thrive) in warm water messing with the plants.

Any ideas or should I move to Iceland ?.

 

So this is something people tend to forget about when they try and do full hydroponics with stuff sitting in water. Yes 24° is too high, you need to bring that down to about 20°.

The proper solution to the problem is a water chiller, however...

500ml or 1L coke bottles filled with water and put in the freezer also works.
You do a bunch of them and keep them in your freezer, then just drop 1 or 2 into the reservoir and it will bring down the temps, they will last most of the day and you can just cycle them.

Edited November 24, 2022 by DesignatedDave

[Prom]

17 hours ago, DesignatedDave said:

So this is something people tend to forget about when they try and do full hydroponics with stuff sitting in water. Yes 24° is too high, you need to bring that down to about 20°.

The proper solution to the problem is a water chiller, however...

500ml or 1L coke bottles filled with water and put in the freezer also works.
You do a bunch of them and keep them in your freezer, then just drop 1 or 2 into the reservoir and it will bring down the temps, they will last most of the day and you can just cycle them.

Poor home growers use frozen bottles... proper setups run automatically  Hydro has the smallest amount of work to maintain. if setup correct.

[DesignatedDave]

4 hours ago, Prom said:

Poor home growers use frozen bottles... proper setups run automatically  Hydro has the smallest amount of work to maintain. if setup correct.

Yeah, it's pretty automated and plug `n play with chillers in the flow path. 

I been looking into Deep Water Culture and realize that you absolutely need to have a water chiller.

I been looking at bringing in these 60L 200W Aquarium Water Chillers which cost around R2800 including shipping. So far this is the best I've found.

 

[Ill_Evan]

When I used DWC, I would use modified cooler boxes and swap out frozen water bottles. The temperature would be less affected by the environment due to the insulation of the cooler box. 

At the moment while using autopots, I haven't done anything to cool my reservoir and so far so good after multiple successful harvests. 

In the Wilma 4 pot hydro system the roots are not directly exposed to the reservoir water like in DWC so I wouldn't be too concerned about your roots being as affected due to temperatures of around 24C. I think you'd get away without changing anything. 

[420SA]

Got a small bar fridge or chest freezer sitting anywhere? Pumping cool liquid through a copper or stainless coil submersed in your reservoir water would chill it nicely. To get that liquid cool you basically hold a 15-20L bucket of water in a fridge with a pump inside the bucket circulating the water from the bucket through the coil in the reservoir and back out into the bucket. You'd obviously need to drill holes in the fridge door or whatever. You may hit a refrigerant line if you drill in the side of the fridge so be mindful of that.

You'd need a temp controller like a STC-1000 to maintain the reservoir temp by switching the pump in the fridge on and off. 

Sounds a bit overkill but it will work and a fairly straight forward project if you don't mind a bit of DIY. Another very effective option is converting a 2nd hand portable AC into a water chiller, also controlled by a temp controller. Something I have done with good success but that seems a bit overkill when you only need to chill to 20 C. 

I'm in a line of work that involves a lot of liquid chilling and temp control so more than happy to elaborate on anything further for you

 

[Furbrain]

1 hour ago, 420SA said:

Got a small bar fridge or chest freezer sitting anywhere? Pumping cool liquid through a copper or stainless coil submersed in your reservoir water would chill it nicely. To get that liquid cool you basically hold a 15-20L bucket of water in a fridge with a pump inside the bucket circulating the water from the bucket through the coil in the reservoir and back out into the bucket. You'd obviously need to drill holes in the fridge door or whatever. You may hit a refrigerant line if you drill in the side of the fridge so be mindful of that.

You'd need a temp controller like a STC-1000 to maintain the reservoir temp by switching the pump in the fridge on and off. 

Sounds a bit overkill but it will work and a fairly straight forward project if you don't mind a bit of DIY. Another very effective option is converting a 2nd hand portable AC into a water chiller, also controlled by a temp controller. Something I have done with good success but that seems a bit overkill when you only need to chill to 20 C. 

I'm in a line of work that involves a lot of liquid chilling and temp control so more than happy to elaborate on anything further for you

 

Very interesting indeed!. The idea is soundand makes sense.

I'm running my whole system on solar so every extra watt needs to be considered!. I will keep an eye out for a small bar fridge or freezer that might be suitable.

In the meantime I'll be a 'poor grower' and try some frozen water bottles!.

Many thanks for your great idea.

 

[DesignatedDave]

19 hours ago, 420SA said:

Got a small bar fridge or chest freezer sitting anywhere? Pumping cool liquid through a copper or stainless coil submersed in your reservoir water would chill it nicely. To get that liquid cool you basically hold a 15-20L bucket of water in a fridge with a pump inside the bucket circulating the water from the bucket through the coil in the reservoir and back out into the bucket. You'd obviously need to drill holes in the fridge door or whatever. You may hit a refrigerant line if you drill in the side of the fridge so be mindful of that.

You'd need a temp controller like a STC-1000 to maintain the reservoir temp by switching the pump in the fridge on and off. 

Sounds a bit overkill but it will work and a fairly straight forward project if you don't mind a bit of DIY. Another very effective option is converting a 2nd hand portable AC into a water chiller, also controlled by a temp controller. Something I have done with good success but that seems a bit overkill when you only need to chill to 20 C. 

I'm in a line of work that involves a lot of liquid chilling and temp control so more than happy to elaborate on anything further for you

 

Man... You just gave me the answer to my last issue I had with my 4 DWC units, which was cooling them effectively.

I have a Small chest freezer, I could run 4 copper lines through there and just a small 2nd pump for each DWC that will circulate the water from the reservoir through the freezer and back into the reservoir.
Then as you say, put these pumps on temp controllers monitoring the reservoir temp.

Thank you for that.

[Furbrain]

On 11/24/2022 at 3:12 PM, DesignatedDave said:

So this is something people tend to forget about when they try and do full hydroponics with stuff sitting in water. Yes 24° is too high, you need to bring that down to about 20°.

The proper solution to the problem is a water chiller, however...

500ml or 1L coke bottles filled with water and put in the freezer also works.
You do a bunch of them and keep them in your freezer, then just drop 1 or 2 into the reservoir and it will bring down the temps, they will last most of the day and you can just cycle them.

Just started trying the 'frozen bottle' suggestion!. 3 500ml bottles have brought the temperature down to 20.8° from 23.5°!. Will monitor and update but working well.

[Furbrain]

On 11/25/2022 at 8:23 AM, Prom said:

Poor home growers use frozen bottles... proper setups run automatically  Hydro has the smallest amount of work to maintain. if setup correct.

Hi Prom. Totally agree with you and IF I continue with hydro I will invest in a water chiller.

It's very possible that I may go the organic soil way next grow inside!.

Apart from the usual rigmarole of nursing young plants........when older they will only need water at possibly only every 36-48hrs. That means (as I see it) keeping water in tank at a good  temperature for this amount of time is a fairly pointless exercise as I can easily 'prepare' water for individual feeds ie; every 36-48 hrs.

I'm only growing 4 plants at any given time so would only have to prepare around 10 LTRs at each event.

Let's see how this existing grow works out and before I decide what the next grow will be I will 'wing' the Nute temp with frozen bottles before investing in something (chiller) for a hydro future.

Have a lekker day......