Help! Just Wasted Money on a Chiller for Nothing!

[dromanchronic]

I have a waterfarm 8 pack with recirc kit(air pump that recircs the soltion every 4 hours)but the flow is wayyy too slow for my chiller to cool down the actual pots. I keep the control res at 65 but by the time the SLOW ASS PIECE OF SHIT waterfarm(can you tell i have had MANY problems with this set up?) gets the cold water to the last of the pots, its warm already from sitting in the light so much. I have panda film covering tops of each pot with a slit for the stem (white side up) but still nothing. what can i do???

 

[BendBrewer]

4 hours to recirc? I built my 8 bucket system and it recircs in about 30 minutes. I run a 600+ GPH pump to top feed. Would a larger pump help? They aren't expensive.

 

[dromanchronic]

what size piping did you use for the 8 bucket system? these ones are i think 1/2" and if i were to drain one bucket it would take nearly 4 minutes to fill back up(waterfarms use gravity to fill up) how do you have yours set up?

 

[suTraGrow]

i been running it 24/7 for bout 5 years now

 

[dromanchronic]

how do you run a 600gph pump without over flowing your buckets??

 

[dromanchronic]

sutra, what have u been running for years now? that didnt really anwer anything? lol

 

[toastycookies]

how is the chiller setup in the system? is it on the same circuit as the nutes or a different system?

 

[heathaa]

yes you obviously got the wrong equipment. 4 hours is barely circulating the nutes...if it even is. im not sure but almost everyon with set up circulates every 15 20 mins. go to walmart and buy a timer switch and a bilge pump its like maybe 30 dollars. rewire the bilge pump to a 110 outlet plugged through the timer and make it turn on every 15-20 minutes. make sure you find the right timer that your going to need for 15 minute intervals.

 

[BendBrewer]

how do you run a 600gph pump without over flowing your buckets??

Gravity runs at a pretty good rate too. I have 1" hose draining my buckets back to the res. with a float valve in the res. that is fed by another bucket.

 

[dromanchronic]

well it came this way from GH heatha. it is an airpump(came witha tiny one) that uses air pressure to pull water from the last ucket and throw it into controller. i but a pump five times bigger then that(since they say every 4 hours with normal pump, im assuming mine is faster) how do i use a bilge pump? what is a bilge pump? the reason im not using water pump to recirc nutes is because my buckets will over flow in uner a minute if left alone and this is the weakest pwater pump i found (185 gph)

also toasy cookies : i have the chiller in the controller bucket, but by the time the chilled water hits the end of the circuit, its already warm.

 

[dromanchronic]

also it is circulating hte nutes because if i use ph down or add more nutes it evens out pretty quickly, but NOT quickly enough for the hps to NOT warm up the water

 

[dromanchronic]

so bend brewer, you are saying you have 1" pipes. mine are 1/2" could this be why i cant use a water pump? also if i upgrade my pipes to 1" then use a water pump from the last bucket to the res(as it is today) will that be enough to recirc the nutes? that way i can use a water pump?

 

[BendBrewer]

I use the water pump to top feed the plants. I even use those WaterFarm hoops. They have good flow through them. The water is constantly entering from the top and gravity pulls the water back to the res. I can get a lot more flow going back to my res with a 1" hose than I can get to the buckets through my 1/2" feeding hose. My water level doesn't fluctuate at all.

 

[dromanchronic]

so how do you say that you have recirc every 30 min dude? what kinda pump are you using to recirc the solution?

 

[BendBrewer]

so how do you say that you have recirc every 30 min dude? what kinda pump are you using to recirc the solution?

I have a 600+ GPH pump that feeds the top feeders. The holes in the feeder rings restrict the flow so I don't get 600 gph through it but I do get about 100-150 gph through it. (I can adjust and run the pump at about 75%) I have about 40 gallons in my system. So every hour, that 40 gallons gets recirculated 2-3 times. I am just going on the time it takes my ph and PPM stabilize after adding stuff to my res. After 20-30 minutes, I get the same reading in my res as I do in my far buckets.

I also have a pump in my res that just pumps back into the res to help reciruclate the solution in there. Not sure if needed with all the airstones but I leave it.

 

[dromanchronic]

oh so you use a water pump from the controller to pump to each of the water rings? so you tee it off to 6 rings from a water pump?

 

[two2brains]

Im on my second grow with a single waterfarm and i've never even checked the temp. I just leave my pump on 24/7. No problems as of yet.

I dunno about the 8 pack or whatever that uses the rez but my single will run dry in 2 days

 

[BendBrewer]

oh so you use a water pump from the controller to pump to each of the water rings? so you tee it off to 6 rings from a water pump?

6 or 8 yeah. You can see the water system in those pictures. I just potted a 9 plant run in my veg room. It should give you more perspective. The res in at the lower right, you can just see the corner of the top. Those buckets are hooked up in (3) series-chains left to right. As the water enters the top, it has no place to go but back into the res.

 

[BendBrewer]

A couple of more shots.

 

[dromanchronic]

how did you connect the drip rings to the 1/2" tubing? i can see how what u r saying would work. water comes from controller bucket to each of the rings, rings drip , therefor recirculating the water, right now my drip rings pull from the bottom of its own res.