Water cooling using aquaponics tank

mahiluana · Apr 1, 2017

Ken Beck said:
Also getting a heat exchanger to put in the tank to keep the cooling loop separate and clean.

Make shure not to mix up aluminium and copper in your cooling loop.
You can buy aluminium - or - copper radiators. Chose the same material you find in your heat sink.
I think its a good idea to give your heat exchanger a layer of electrically insulating -
before you hang it into the tank.
A cheap idea is to hang the heat exchanger into a thin watertight plastic bag filled with water - before hanging it into the tank.
These heat exchangers for aquarium are normally made out of titanium or stainless steel
to have no +metall-ions in the pond water. Just ask your talipia :mrgreen:

Ken Beck · Apr 1, 2017

mahiluana said:
Make shure not to mix up aluminium and copper in your cooling loop.
You can buy aluminium - or - copper radiators. Chose the same material you find in your heat sink.
I think its a good idea to give your heat exchanger a layer of electrically insulating -
before you hang it into the tank.
A cheap idea is to hang the heat exchanger into a thin watertight plastic bag filled with water - before hanging it into the tank.
These heat exchangers for aquarium are normally made out of titanium or stainless steel
to have no +metall-ions in the pond water. Just ask your talipia

Luckily everything will be aluminum and the pump only has plastic in contact with the water so no worries there with different metals. Pretty much everything is made for computer cooling use so they are all either stainless steel, copper, or aluminum. Aluminum is the cheaper and more common for all the parts so i went with aluminum. The tilapia would probably be ok but I definitely wouldnt eat them if they did have that lol.

ttystikk · Apr 1, 2017

Ken Beck said:
I would say its good but it could always be better. This project has more hours invested than money lol. I wanted to make this system completely automated as well. That board mounted above the water in the tank used to have equipment but now will have an automatic fish feeder dispensing food to the fish on timed intervals and the light and again a separate pump for the cooling loop have their own timer set up now. Once the rest of the project is completed and im satisfied with its performance and reliability, i will duplicate it as i already have another ibc tote i can use. If i can get the cheap version right now perfected, i will definitely be building more for ppl to use. $80 for led related equipment and cooling, $40 for ibc tote, $46 in fish ($2 each), and $50 in hydroton. Total cost=$216 for entire system setup. Idk what its performance would be for weed but for other flowering plants it works great. Veg growth is very good and surprisingly the flowering started as soon as the plants were mature. Nitrates are still well above 160ppm with a bed that has 2 cherry tomato plants, a jalapeno plant, 5 romaine lettuce plants, banana pepper plant, cucumber plant, rhubarb plant, and 3 strawberry plants. All are producing very well and still arent consuming all of the nutrients and i have no room left to plant anything else. Should i do a parts list and step by step build with pictures for the next build for the people who arent familiar with this?

Holy cow that's cheap!

I'm interested in all the info you can stand to type.

Do you deliver? Lol

ttystikk · Apr 1, 2017

Ken Beck said:
Luckily everything will be aluminum and the pump only has plastic in contact with the water so no worries there with different metals. Pretty much everything is made for computer cooling use so they are all either stainless steel, copper, or aluminum. Aluminum is the cheaper and more common for all the parts so i went with aluminum. The tilapia would probably be ok but I definitely wouldnt eat them if they did have that lol.

Her suggestion for encasing the heat exchanger core in a plastic bag is a good one; cheap n effective, just like the rest of your setup.

Brilliant!

Ken Beck · Apr 2, 2017

ttystikk said:
Holy cow that's cheap!

I'm interested in all the info you can stand to type.

Do you deliver? Lol

Cheap is what i was going for, then automation, now efficiency. But i can break down the pricing of equipment and where to acquire them in good detail. I'll start building the next grow bed within a week or 2 so i can have a bunch of pictures. Hardest part is initial setup but now it is pretty easy to take care of. The price didnt include the automatic fish feeder ($51) or the digital timer ($13). Add those 2 for automated feeding and auto lights/cooling pump on and off. That brings the cost to $280 total. I wish i could get that price down even further but i dont think i can without sacrificing some kind of functionality. Everything except the ibc tote is all brand new parts so if anything can be found used maybe it could be cheaper.

mahiluana · Apr 2, 2017

ttystikk said:
Her suggestion

"she" wraps just all and everything in plastic or latex - to make you pregnant.

"Her" avatar shows clearly, that "she" is the easter bunny on "her" easter walk.

Please make shure to use colored plastic bags and condoms.

ttystikk · Apr 2, 2017

mahiluana said:
"she" wraps just all and everything in plastic or latex - to make you pregnant.
"Her" avatar shows clearly, that "she" is the easter bunny on "her" easter walk.

Please make shure to use colored plastic bags and condoms.

Can I have some of whatever it is you're smoking? :bigjoint:

ttystikk · Apr 2, 2017

mahiluana said:
"she" wraps just all and everything in plastic or latex - to make you pregnant.
"Her" avatar shows clearly, that "she" is the easter bunny on "her" easter walk.

Please make shure to use colored plastic bags and condoms.

I apologize for thinking you were female.

mahiluana · Apr 2, 2017

ttystikk said:
Can I have some of whatever it is you're smoking?

have you ever smoked a carrot ?

Cut a carrot on the length in 2 pieces -
pull out the string of the center !
Now put it together again and you got something like an indian chillum.
The combination of a good hash or weed with beta carotene help your eyes
to see - specially in the darkness.

You can try the same with apples and potatoes

Ken Beck · Apr 4, 2017

I have now added the radiator. The fish really like the heat coming off of it lol. I highly recommend this as a way to put the heat into the water without worrying about clogging up the cooling loop. The water in the coolant loop is neutral ph water so the aluminum cooling block and aluminum radiator dont corrode. I may still add propylene glycol do the mix anyways after checking to see if the water stays ok in the loop in a week or so.

ttystikk · Apr 4, 2017

Ken Beck said:
I have now added the radiator. The fish really like the heat coming off of it lol. I highly recommend this as a way to put the heat into the water without worrying about clogging up the cooling loop. The water in the coolant loop is neutral ph water so the aluminum cooling block and aluminum radiator dont corrode. I may still add propylene glycol do the mix anyways after checking to see if the water stays ok in the loop in a week or so.

I don't think you need to worry about aluminum be aluminum. It's dissimilar metals that cause problems.

Use of propylene glycol is good because it's not toxic. Better yet, don't bother and just use water. I seriously doubt you'll have problems. I've been running straight water for years, no problems.

Ken Beck · Apr 5, 2017

ttystikk said:
I don't think you need to worry about aluminum be aluminum. It's dissimilar metals that cause problems.

Use of propylene glycol is good because it's not toxic. Better yet, don't bother and just use water. I seriously doubt you'll have problems. I've been running straight water for years, no problems.

From what ive heard from computer water cooling apparently the aluminum still suffers from corrosion with water i cant seem to find the rate that it corrodes or much info to prevent it other than mixing things such as antifreeze like propylene glycol which ironically i already have to make eliquid for ecigs. I'll check on the water in that cooling loop in a week or 2 and see. Next im thinking about making the light adjustable and removable by using aluminum and making an adjustable arm that is mounted to the tank. Then i can just have the heatsink with the cobs mounted be held up by velcro straps for easy swapping and make the positive and negative lines into plugs so i can have it all be plug and play. If i feel like testing a certain cob i could have it running in minutes instead of an hour or so. Easy height adjustment is a definite plus too.

mahiluana · Apr 5, 2017

Ken Beck said:
or much info to prevent it other than mixing things such as antifreeze like propylene glycol

Have a look to this product ! 20 years of anti-corrosion protection / ecological and cheap.

greetings to your tilapias

Ken Beck · Apr 11, 2017

Finally i've got some better cobs. 4000k gen 5 citi cobs. 3 of them mounted to an aluminum heatsink. This time no epoxy lol. The heavy thick chinese cobs needed a lot to hold them up good to the aluminum. These are so light and thin that it just took a tiny bit of super glue to hold it up. Running at 38.5v 352w draw from the wall. The cobs are running at practically max power..why? Because i can lol.

You can see the second picture i was checking the cobs before putting it up. Same type of setup, all parallel to a 36v power supply. The cobs have so much spread though that i need some kind of reflector to keep the light in a bit more. I'll figure out something. This was kind of a rush job because i had no light running for a couple days....i got a little too ahead of myself and took everything down way before the cobs were even going to arrive. Luckily the plants survived....somewhat. it'll take them awhile to recover but they will be happy with the spectrum of these cobs.

ttystikk · Apr 11, 2017

Ken Beck said:
Finally i've got some better cobs. 4000k gen 5 citi cobs. 3 of them mounted to an aluminum heatsink. This time no epoxy lol. The heavy thick chinese cobs needed a lot to hold them up good to the aluminum. These are so light and thin that it just took a tiny bit of super glue to hold it up. Running at 38.5v 352w draw from the wall. The cobs are running at practically max power..why? Because i can lol.View attachment 3923096 View attachment 3923097
You can see the second picture i was checking the cobs before putting it up. Same type of setup, all parallel to a 36v power supply. The cobs have so much spread though that i need some kind of reflector to keep the light in a bit more. I'll figure out something. This was kind of a rush job because i had no light running for a couple days....i got a little too ahead of myself and took everything down way before the cobs were even going to arrive. Luckily the plants survived....somewhat. it'll take them awhile to recover but they will be happy with the spectrum of these cobs.

Consider lenses. I've found them to be effective and efficient.

SSGrower · Apr 11, 2017

Ken Beck said:
Cheap is what i was going for, then automation, now efficiency. But i can break down the pricing of equipment and where to acquire them in good detail. I'll start building the next grow bed within a week or 2 so i can have a bunch of pictures. Hardest part is initial setup but now it is pretty easy to take care of. The price didnt include the automatic fish feeder ($51) or the digital timer ($13). Add those 2 for automated feeding and auto lights/cooling pump on and off. That brings the cost to $280 total. I wish i could get that price down even further but i dont think i can without sacrificing some kind of functionality. Everything except the ibc tote is all brand new parts so if anything can be found used maybe it could be cheaper.

Arduino uno r3 15 bucks, 8 relay block for 10-240v 10 or 12 bucks, a power strip, equals cheap automation. Forgot the clock, another 10 bucks or so.

mahiluana · Apr 12, 2017

Ken Beck said:
why?

Because your chips run at low Tj.
---> Vf is rising with low Tj.

When i drive a 50W cob with 50W driver(1,5A @33,3V) on an aircooled heatsink,
my powermeter shows ~50W.

If i mount the same led and driver on a coolmac-system with direct contact to the (15°C) water -
my powermeter shows ~55W. (+10%)

The difference of Tj in my different cooling methods must be ~60-70°C
(eg. aircooled Tj=85°C coolmac Tj=20°C).

http://electronicdesign.com/lighting/use-forward-voltage-drop-measure-junction-temperature

Ken Beck · Apr 12, 2017

mahiluana said:
Because your chips run at low Tj.
---> Vf is rising with low Tj.

When i drive a 50W cob with 50W driver(1,5A @33,3V) on an aircooled heatsink,
my powermeter shows ~50W.

If i mount the same led and driver on a coolmac-system with direct contact to the (15°C) water -
my powermeter shows ~55W. (+10%)

The difference of Tj in my different cooling methods must be ~60-70°C
(eg. aircooled Tj=85°C coolmac Tj=20°C).

http://electronicdesign.com/lighting/use-forward-voltage-drop-measure-junction-temperature

Yea i noticed how much the voltage was higher when cooled with water compared to just sitting on the aluminum block. Its huge. Like 10% higher voltage. And very good light coming from them. I didnt do much other than different loads on the cobs. Haven't even checked the amount of light coming from them yet...

Ken Beck · Apr 12, 2017

SSGrower said:
Arduino uno r3 15 bucks, 8 relay block for 10-240v 10 or 12 bucks, a power strip, equals cheap automation. Forgot the clock, another 10 bucks or so.

It doesnt need to be that sophisticated. I only need 1 timer to run both the cooling loop and lights ~$12. The pump for the aquaponics system runs 24/7. The automatic food dispenser should be in this week. $48 for that. It can give measured amounts at set times and has about a gallon container for fish food. Thats it for automation

Ken Beck · Apr 12, 2017

ttystikk said:
Consider lenses. I've found them to be effective and efficient.

I considered it but after having an easy time mounting the cobs, idk if i want to put lenses on anymore. The mounting equipment for those style cobs usually uses drilled in holes which i cant do in the cooling block..so glue or epoxy again. Now if there is a decent reflector hood i could use i would jump at those in a heartbeat.

Water cooling using aquaponics tank

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