Thanks for the reply mate. It was too cold here so I had to order a fan controller to turn the exhaust down to keep temps up a bit.
Minimum DWC Res Temps?
- Thread starter karmeron
- Start date
How badly slowed down is the growth?
I know whats ideal, im just trying to find out what happens if temps are below that. Like how slow it makes the growth etc
BeaverHuntr
Well-Known Member
Try not to get too low 58 isnt exactly ideal but if it gets that low you have nothing to worry about ... Try and keep them at 65-68 degrees. You will definitely stunt/shock them if you go lower than 55 ...
but how bad is the stunted growth?
In the summer I had the opposite problem we both have now. At least cold temps don't do as much bad stuff as hot temps do (root rot, algae, etc.).
My clones have been really slow to dip their roots into 58* water. But again it's just slow. I ended up redirecting heat from the lamp back into the cab and now my water temps have reached 65* and now roots are flying down into the water!
I know I used frozen bottles of water to lower temps. Have you tried putting in water bottles filled with heated water? I'd say adding in bottles of 75* or 80* into your res will keep them closer to the sweet spot of 68*.
The Waiter
Active Member
What kind of reservoir are you using? You could throw a submersible water pump in your res to heat things up a bit. Plus a little bit of extra circulation can never hurt anything
Would you say it was as bad as 50% slowdown in the cold?
Adding bottles is a good cheap idea, i might give that a go
It is 6x containers, each about 15 gallon size, (10 gallons of water in each), so I'd need 6x water pumps, not really a cheap fix, also extra electricity usage, But it would be a great idea if i had a RDWC or only 1 or 2 containers. Thanks for the input.
Worse than 50%. But not only were the res temps too cool, so were the air temps. And air temps will affect your water temps unless you insulate your water tanks and even then it only slows it down. Once I raised the air temps up to 70*, my water temps stabilized at around 65*. I think if you get your air temps right at about 70* and insulate the grow space including the water you should find things equalizing. One thing I did that really helped me was to slow down my exhaust fans, which raised my air temps leading to raising water temps.Would you say it was as bad as 50% slowdown in the cold?
Adding bottles is a good cheap idea, i might give that a go
It is 6x containers, each about 15 gallon size, (10 gallons of water in each), so I'd need 6x water pumps, not really a cheap fix, also extra electricity usage, But it would be a great idea if i had a RDWC or only 1 or 2 containers. Thanks for the input.
What are your grow space temps as well as ambient temps outside of the space? Do you have the ability of affecting these temps or insulating from them?
The Waiter
Active Member
Ya that would be a little excessive buying six water pumps just to up ur temps by a few degrees lol. You could try breathing hot air on the reservoirs all day hahaha
Well im waiting on a fan controller right now as my exhaust is running too fast and causing low temps also even with lights on. Lights on air temp is about 63F in the grow room, lights off it goes down to about 57F. So I can probably get away with the daytime temps with a fan controller, and lights off I have a heater for that which brings air temps to 63F (same as if the lights were on) . Also I am not pulling the air for the airstones from the grow room, it is from another room beside that, which is slightly colder than the growroom (59F day, 55-58 night). So do you mean the lights will heat up the water even if it is drawing air from elsewhere? Or where you more talking about air temps in the growroom?
Haha, yeh that would be the cheapest option alright
If the power goes out I'll have to do that to keep them alive LOL
The Waiter
Active Member
Have u tried puttin a few cfls around ur res? Not only could they bring some light to the lower fluffy buds but it might heat ur res up too. Just another thought.
Its a good idea, but i wouldnt be able to afford anymore wattage on the electricity bill. And to have cfls around 6x res's, thats a lot of bulbs to be bought and wired up
The Waiter
Active Member
3 cords 3 splitters and 6 bulbs=maybe $15-20 plus $2 a month(if that much)
Just try unplugging the exhaust to see what happens. The light heats the air and then the air heats every thing else. Try and realize that all temps are trying to reach equilibrium and are trading cooling/heating to get there. If the water continues to give away heat to the air and then the air gets drawn out being replaced by cooler outside air, see what happens?
It sounds like you need to be a bit ghetto so start looking at what things naturally generate heat in, around or nearby your grow space and try to capture and contain it. Bring the air pump inside the space, insulate the space to keep the heat from the lights inside.
Experiment!
Trust me, i have. I have a pc exhausting near the airpump intake
but it still doesnt raise the temps enough.The problem is, im going to have the opposite temp problems in a few months where i will be trying to cool it down. Its only really going to be this cold 2months or less out of the year. So i dont want to go too crazy in warming things up. With the fan controller I will be able to raise temps a bit in the grow space. Then maybe il just have to get a tiny heater for the air pump to run while its too cold. I cant really see another solution... well apart from just running the setup cold
It wouldnt be that cheap in my country Maybe $30-40 and more expensive running costs here too. Not everyones in the US
Also I dont have 3 spare sockets anywhere near the grow
