Planning my first rdwc system. Have two 2x2 tents that I planned on utilizing. I was going to use one for the grow pot and the other to house the reservoir and all pumps etc. I am in arizona and obviously summers get hot and I am thinking of ideas to get the res temps down. Given this is a small home grow I didn’t want to shell out the $300+ for a proper water chiller.
So while thinking of ideas I wanted to throw this out there as I have no idea if it will work. I have an unused mini fridge, would it move the needle on temps if I put the air pump inside the cold mini fridge and pumped cold air to the air stones in the tanks? Again no idea if this would work but throwing it out to get opinions.
Yea read the same. Looking for a bit more stable solution. Water bottles would seem to be high maintenance, fluctuating water temps and brings the possibility of water contaminates.
Wouldn’t hurt but I doubt you would notice the difference. Will the grow be in an air conditioned space? I blocked off a corner of a shed, insulated it and got a portable air conditioner to keep the summer heat out of a 60 SQ FT area. I quickly found that a tent just holds the heat in (good in winter, bad in summer) The water will be close to room air temp. The A/C keeps it below 80 F on the hottest days in the deep south. I use aquarium heaters in cold weather.
If your going to grow sterile, i assume your inside and will have the A/C on. That should be ok with good ventilation as long as you stay sterile “or try”. Your biggest challenge without a chiller is going to be stuff growing in the pots you dont want, and its harder to control without one. Brown algae that doest need light, loves nutes, oxygen, and sticks to everything was my nemesis. Clings to roots and suffocates them. Them the cyanobacteria starts. Covers your airstones and basically everything where nutes are. I went overkill, but i dont have time to switch the resivor once a week or every 4 days + argueably the nutes cost more than the chiller. Example is i dont need to change mine unless there is a problem @ 110 gallons i dump about $200 plus in the tank every res change with most food at 8 ml per gallon, i use almost a liter. With the chiller, and good filtration you can replace lost water with weaker plant food mix and not change it untill you have replaced the entire volume. So for me i would have to add another 110 gallons of 1/2 strength food mix before a change, or the food mix changes with the plant phases. Cut plant food waste WAY WAY down.
@Ricochet im following, i think that your on the right track, what if you had an old motor cycle radiator around or chep from junk yard. Pumping water through that inside mini fridge may give you the surface area you need to cool the water, or a hella lot of copper or other highly condutive metal. Whatever works, the amount of total water your keeping cool and how insulated said container is will dictate the efficency and size of the cooling system… i insulated mine with water heater insulation with glue…
I have an ice probe… it keeps my 12 gal water temp at 69 degrees… That’s when my room is at 77… If it gets hotter in there (which from time to time it does due to me being in an old house and having poor insulation) it will climb a little higher… I also use hydroguard for those times…
A little probe with its own cooling unit on it lol… You can Google it… it’s called ice probe… works great… there are times in the summer when it gets pretty warm in there that I will add frozen milk jug… but for most of the time it works great
Your original idea of the refrigerator would work. But instead of running air through it, use the liquid from the reservoir. Put a 25-50 foot roll of vinyl tubing in the ref, connect a pump in reservoir to one end of the loop of tubing, and connect the other end so that it runs directly back into the reservoir. You can probably regulate the temperature by increasing or decreasing the amount of tubing in the ref. You can keep your beer cold at the same time. A win win!
