Idea on cooling my res temps, what do you think.

I check my res temps today and it is a little high, 75-80. Being the cheap ass that I am I thought about how I could lower the temps without buying a chiller or running a mini frig.
I came up with this, let me know what you think.
I am using a air pump to keep the nutes well mixed and though about putting the pump on my window a/c unit vent so that it is sucking in the cold air from the a/c and making cold bubbles in the res which if my thought prosses is correct it should lower the water temps as the cold bubbles pass through from the bottom on the way to the surface.

if you got a little submersible water pump, run a piece of copper from the res. past the evaporator coil on a/c and back to res. you got your own chiller. the more times you can pass the copper in front of the a/c, the better it will work.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS384US384&q=submersible+water+pump&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=13825955584492274205&ei=HUcvTL7YD8XdnAfe-6XfAw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ8wIwAA#

mydixiewrecked said:

if you got a little submersible water pump, run a piece of copper from the res. past the evaporator coil on a/c and back to res. you got your own chiller. the more times you can pass the copper in front of the a/c, the better it will work.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS384US384&q=submersible+water+pump&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=13825955584492274205&ei=HUcvTL7YD8XdnAfe-6XfAw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ8wIwAA#

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I like it and I was thinking about that. The only problem is copper is not cheap.
I mean evenually I will buy a chiller but as of right now im having a hard time paying my bills with the economy we are in.

Hi Fubar

A quick , Easy Cheap, Ghetto solution is to drop a 2 ltr bottle of frozen water in your res ... might mean changing it out a few times but people seem to get by with it :0

Hope that helps a little

V

Vento said:

Hi Fubar

A quick , Easy Cheap, Ghetto solution is to drop a 2 ltr bottle of frozen water in your res ... might mean changing it out a few times but people seem to get by with it :0

Hope that helps a little

V

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. How long do you think that will last staying cold. You think I would have to change once a day or maybe two times? I guess I need to start collecting bottles.

I agree frozen water bottles is easiest budget solution . Just freeze a few and time how long they take to melt as to how often u need to add a fresh one . should get u through the hot spell.

Frozen bottles work..."been there done that"..
However the costant fluctuation in temperature can result in oxygen degradation in your res.....ie;breaking down nutrients and ph
Meaning a water change every few days to stablize nutrients and the ph....
Which in return results in poor plant growth...
Sometimes it's best to suck it up and buy a chiller...I did
NO more problems ,you'll be glad you did in the end!

he can't even afford a piece of copper,let alone a chiller.

try using an ice chest,a cooler whatever you want to call it.it should keep your nutes cool longer and frozen water bottles will last longer to. good luck

snocat said:

try using an ice chest,a cooler whatever you want to call it.it should keep your nutes cool longer and frozen water bottles will last longer to. good luck

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I like that, thanks for the reply.

Find the cheapest heater core for a car you can. Mount up a fan to it. Get a pump. Make sure the heatercore is new and doesn't have anti freeze in it. Or get one of those Water cooling systems for computers CPU's and make something out of that.

Your submersed pump is probably actually heating the water, not to mention if that system is going to see light you are going to introduce bad things into your water supply.

1 or 2 liter bottles of water frozen and swapped out a couple times each day is your most effective and cheap option. Make sure they are clean.

Yeah what type of pump are you running in your res? If its a giant one thats way over rated for what your using then swap it out. How many watts is it using? Thats your best bet that will get yout 2-3 degree's right off the back. Get a pump maybe pushing 40-50 gph depending on what your using it for in your res. If you can go smaller do it!

i was goona chime in with the frozen water bottle.. got beat to it appearantly.

i always keep 3 2-liter bottles on rotation in and out of my freezer and res.

unfortunately, a chiller is the way to go. otherwise think of the money you'll be spending on meds if your crop fails. I have lost three plants in the last 2 weeks, and having to cut them down was not a fun experience...basically 3 grand down the drain.

snocat said:

try using an ice chest,a cooler whatever you want to call it.it should keep your nutes cool longer and frozen water bottles will last longer to. good luck

Click to expand...

That's what I did after trying DWC with a rubbermaid tote and seeing how quick the temp rises.
Scrapped the DWC and built a ebb & flow that uses a big ass ice chest as a res and no more problems...