Cheap Chiller Alternatives & Res Temps

[PetFlora]

DO dissipates in warm water much faster than cool water. What we want is to increase the DO in the rez water to prevent root/stem rot issues, which is why we use air pumps/stones. BUT, they draw in unfiltered ambient air, which in addition to being warm, could contain germs, viruses, pathogens... , and it injects CO2 from the ambient air 24/7, which affects pH.

Waterfalls are a significant improvement, but the pump (which is in the rez) needs to be on a timer to prevent overheating. Mine are on a timer running 3 minutes/60. However, this frequency is a guess. To determine how much DO is in the water one needs a DO meter which is $500+. Im a small personal se grower, so no bueno

How much DO do air stones.waterfalls add? According to O2Grow (they make a nanobubble DO emitter) who demos with a DO meter, the max with air stones is ~ 8% DO. "I" assume waterfalls are similar

And while I have vg roots, I can't help but think that a 50% increase to 12% using a O2Grow DO nanobubble emitter (according to O2Grow) will pay dividends, WHILE, eliminating the need for a chiller.

Why? Again, according to O2Grow (and other studies I have read plus videos I have watched promoting nanoDO) nanobubbles are the key. Presumably, when left undisturbed in the rez water, DO stays in suspension for > 12 hours, which is more than enough for simple F & D systems, and may well supercharge them

I have yet to find a grower using it, but tests restoring polluted and stagnant lakes, tributaries, etc. to good health have intrigued me to get one to see If this works as advertised

The O2Grow 2020 (good for 20 gallon rez) is $300, which is less than a 20 g chiller.

I will be reporting on it in my next grow thread Thinking Outside the Box, but won't start up for a a couple months, though I will use nanowater to start seedlings

 

[BigHornBuds]

You can build a chiller from a pump n a bar fridge .

 

[dstroy]

what we want is to increase the DO in the rez water to prevent root/stem rot issues, which is why we use air pumps/stones. BUT, they draw in unfiltered ambient air, which in addition to being warm, could contain germs, viruses, pathogens... , and it injects CO2 from the ambient air 24/7, which affects pH. further DO dissipates in warm water much faster than cool water

Waterfalls are a significant improvement, but the pump (which is in the rez) needs to be on a timer to prevent overheating. Mine are on a timer running 3 minutes/60. However, this is a guess. To determine how much DO is in the water one needs a DO meter which is $500+

Now, the questions for me are

How much DO do air stones add? According to O2Grow (they make a nanobubble DO emitter) who demos with a DO meter, the max with air stones is ~ 8% DO

And while I have vg roots, I can't help but think that a 50% increase to 12% using a O2Grow DO nanobubble emitter (according to O2Grow) will pay dividends, AND, eliminate the need for a chiller.

Why? Again, according to O2Grow (and other studies I have read and videos I have watched promoting nanoDO)
nanobubbles are the key. Presumably, when left undisturbed in the rez water, DO stays in suspension for ~ 12 hours, which is more than enough for simple F & D systems, and may well supercharge them

I have yet to find a grower using it, but tests restoring polluted and stagnant lakes, tributaries, etc. to good health have intrigued me to get one to see If this works as advertised

The O2Grow 2020 (good for 20 gallon rez) is $300, which is less than a 20 g chiller.

This is ridiculous stuff that sounds sciency but isn't, and you implying things that you don't personally know to be true as fact.

I can get a 1/10hp chiller for $333, only $33 more than your magic box.

Seriously, buy one of these and try it out. If you can't that's fine, but you know stop talking about it like it fixes everything.

There things fundamentally wrong with how you grow that you need to address before trying to give anyone any advice about anything related to growing.

Especially since you don't own, and have never seen operating other than in videos, this piece of equipment.

So you really can't speak on its' efficacy, which you are trying to hard sell with zero third-party evidence.

 

[PetFlora]

This is ridiculous stuff that sounds sciency but isn't, and you implying things that you don't personally know to be true as fact.

I can get a 1/10hp chiller for $333, only $33 more than your magic box.

Seriously, buy one of these and try it out. If you can't that's fine, but you know stop talking about it like it fixes everything.

There things fundamentally wrong with how you grow that you need to address before trying to give anyone any advice about anything related to growing.

Especially since you don't own, and have never seen operating other than in videos, this piece of equipment.

So you really can't speak on its' efficacy, which you are trying to hard sell with zero third-party evidence.

I have no idea how many gallons a 1/10hp chiller will chill, but it still requires adding DO in some way, no? , and from what I have read, they are very inefficient= uses a lot of electricity

Was it Einstein who said Things should be as simple as possible and no simpler

I thought I made it quite clear that the information was a bit of a leap for growrs, but I am going to get the 2020 for my next grow

 

[Kretzlord]

I, for one, am glad to see people willing to experiment. Back to the OP though, the cheapest chiller is a frozen bottle of water, at least from what I've seen here. There are Peltier units to play around with but heat dissipation becomes a problem in those systems if you have a lot to cool.

 

[Dabhead710]

Why hasn't anyone suggested something as cheap and simple as possible.....Get a fan blow it into ur res and have a hole for exhaust hook it up to a temp controller like a inkbird pid and problem solved...This will only work for personal grows of course....I'm going to build one for my bloom setup which is a 8x4 rdwc with 27gal totes x4 well 5 with the res so I have about 80-85gal total..I'm thinking about getting a aquarium fan that I can mount easily And u can point them anyway you want so I'm going to try that out not sure how it will work with my 80gal but I imagine it will be just fine and then I can get rid of this power whore of a water chiller I have which is a 1/4hp eco plus that they say does 360w and 3a but they are liars as it does 425w and 4.6amps!!!! Which the fan and controller will be under 50 and if u have a smaller system it could be like 35 only beat that for a cheap chiller and you don't have to have a mini fridge next to ur res or a dehuey Frankensteined coils into ur res w e ppl try and yet something as simple as a fan and a hole can do to cool water....Now I run 1300w of LEDs in my tent no ac at all just exhaust and temps are 80 w lights on and 75 lights off..Water temps on the chiller I run 69-72 might drop it down a lil more as I'm at week 6 of bloom now......

 

[myke]

Rez outside of room on cement floor,inline pump hanging above water.Air pump in a cold spot.Should be all you need.

 

[Dabhead710]

I have those things well Im in a basement and my rez is outside the tent but on carpet..my waterfall pumps is inline but they are on the floor as I have never heard of anyone putting a submersible pump above the water line and what difference that would have vs putting it on the ground....also what temps are you hoping to get with that...also keep in mind not everyone has the same setup and can do those things like where a said cold spot would be for that air pump.....

 

[myke]

My pump feeds lines to the tops of ea pail,in my rez is a manifold where said feed lines and pump attach.Pump has a 14" hose on the intake so pump hangs above water level by a couple inches.Any leaks will drip back into rez then.
Flow should be minimal,the idea is to keep the water in the cooler rez for as long as you can before it gets pumped around.DO comes via airstones.The pump is just to slowly mix the solution.
Many ways to skin a cat,this is what I do to avoid using a chiller.

 

[MikeTheMith]

I've been looking at the same thing man, bought some components and going to giv it a try with a 5gallon res

 

[MikeTheMith]

I actually bought a deep freezer that was four foot wide and 4ft tall. I cut an acess hole in the back the back of the freezer filled it with water. Then I bought a electric thermostat off of amazon plugged freezer into thermostat. Put a pump in freezer pumping into reservoir. Then a pump in reservoir back to freezer...