DWC water chiller

Alright so it's my first grow with a single plant, Big Bomb from Bomb Seeds off of Attitude. I have the bitch in a single 5 gallon bucket with two 4" round airstones pushed from a 60ph pump with black airlines. My tent is in a very cold part of the house so I put a heater in that bird to keep it 70 degrees F exactly, at all times (Might go down to like 68 because of my 6" exhaust fan coming on every 30 minutes but thats minimum temp). My res temps vary from like 70-74 sometimes because water is always above ambient. So since the air outside the tent is like 37 degrees F I have a good idea here. I'll take a stainless steel wort chiller (copper leaches mineral) and put a pump on one end and pump cold ass water in a tote through the coil in the 5 gallon res back to the tote. Or should I put a pump in the 5gal bucket pumping the water+nutes through the stainless steel coil outside the tent (Sitting in 37 degree water) and back to the 5gal bucket?

logocss said:

Alright so it's my first grow with a single plant, Big Bomb from Bomb Seeds off of Attitude. I have the bitch in a single 5 gallon bucket with two 4" round airstones pushed from a 60ph pump with black airlines. My tent is in a very cold part of the house so I put a heater in that bird to keep it 70 degrees F exactly, at all times (Might go down to like 68 because of my 6" exhaust fan coming on every 30 minutes but thats minimum temp). My res temps vary from like 70-74 sometimes because water is always above ambient. So since the air outside the tent is like 37 degrees F I have a good idea here. I'll take a stainless steel wort chiller (copper leaches mineral) and put a pump on one end and pump cold ass water in a tote through the coil in the 5 gallon res back to the tote. Or should I put a pump in the 5gal bucket pumping the water+nutes through the stainless steel coil outside the tent (Sitting in 37 degree water) and back to the 5gal bucket?

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This is what the chiller looks like

Put wort in bucket and pump cold water through it.

Alright so Ill set the pump inside the cold water tote that pumps through tubing into the coil in the res and back to the cold tote. Im guessing the chilled coil won't affect the roots?

No.many people just add frozen water bottles with no root issues.

superstoner1 said:

No.many people just add frozen water bottles with no root issues.

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Ugh, I just can't force myself to put ice bombs in my 5 gallon reservoir filled with roots. Maybe it's just me, which I'm pretty sure it is, but it sounds like common sense to me, but again maybe not even close.

even easier way...

Go buy a long hose. attach both ends to the res and bury the middle outside under the earth. Pump your nutes through the hose,, out into the coiled up, dug into the earth.

Enjoy your cheap assed effective natural chiller. It works well, Google, done many times, well documented.

Much easier said than done. do you realize how far down you actually have to dig to take advantage of ground cooling? And then you need more than a hose because they do not promote transfer of heat very well at all, not to mention the crushing weight of earth on top of it. I know it works but it's not that simple.

Agree on the hose bit. There is little thermal transfer through porous non-conductive materials. A copper coil - or stainless steel - would be needed for ground cooling. Chillers for fish tanks work well and aren't so drastic as digging holes and building cooling coils.

I know - it ain't cheap but the ability to actually control your temp and do it quickly . . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Apex-10-Horsepower-Titanium-Chiller/dp/B009Z08F7Q/ref=sr_1_13?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1360660208&sr=1-13&keywords=chiller

It's easier to dig a deep hole and bury the lines! Lol

Dude, I do the same exact thing. Place cooler outside and add a little antifreeze to it. Pump that water through a hose then the coil and back to the cooler. It works perfectly! In the summer I have the same setup but I use a dehumidifier to cool the water in the cooler.

Couple things...

You need a GOOD pump. The cheap ass Eco whatever pumps barely pump water through the coil.

You will need to use a timer and monkey around with it or your nutrient solution will get too cold. I currently cool 120 gallons of nutes that feed 14 buckets using this method. Works great! And it cost like what? 30 cents a month in electricity?

legallyflying said:

It's easier to dig a deep hole and bury the lines! Lol

Dude, I do the same exact thing. Place cooler outside and add a little antifreeze to it. Pump that water through a hose then the coil and back to the cooler. It works perfectly! In the summer I have the same setup but I use a dehumidifier to cool the water in the cooler.

Couple things...

You need a GOOD pump. The cheap ass Eco whatever pumps barely pump water through the coil.

You will need to use a timer and monkey around with it or your nutrient solution will get too cold. I currently cool 120 gallons of nutes that feed 14 buckets using this method. Works great! And it cost like what? 30 cents a month in electricity?

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Alright, well I only have 5 gallons to cool. Does it really get that cold? How big of a pump? Like 500gph EcoPlus or a big sump pump

Dude, don't make any harder than it needs to be. K.I.S.S. 5 gallons isn't worth running a chiller. Just get some 20-24 ounce soda bottles and fill with water and freeze. I wouldn't even think about a chiller for that.

superstoner1 said:

Dude, don't make any harder than it needs to be. K.I.S.S. 5 gallons isn't worth running a chiller. Just get some 20-24 ounce soda bottles and fill with water and freeze. I wouldn't even think about a chiller for that.

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The problem is my temp is heated to 74. So every time I place a frozen watter bottle in there in the morning, when I get home from school it's melted and the temps like 74+ in that res. I need constant chilling where I don't have to worry about so since I already have the wort chiller I'm just going to buy a pump so push cold water through it because i'll use it in future grows anyways

I found that just breaking the hot cycle is just as good. As long as there isn't an extended warm period they are fine. I don't even worry about it anymore.

There is something about not worrying about it. 5 gallons is a very small Rez anyways. Like uber small. I like to mix up between 10-12 gallons of nutes per plant. ...but those are big plants

You will not need a big pump, try a cheap one and see if it works. YES the Rez will get ice cold!!! I'm thinking 5 gallons would reach the temperature of your outside water in about an hour.

legallyflying said:

There is something about not worrying about it. 5 gallons is a very small Rez anyways. Like uber small. I like to mix up between 10-12 gallons of nutes per plant. ...but those are big plants

You will not need a big pump, try a cheap one and see if it works. YES the Rez will get ice cold!!! I'm thinking 5 gallons would reach the temperature of your outside water in about an hour.

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Lol good stuff, that's what I need

Just my 2cents.
I too had the same predicament when it came to water temps. I was on the verge of getting a chiller, when i came to the conclusion that one bucket just isn't enough to spend $500 to cool water without at least trying other venues. FIRST, Try moving the air pump outside of the grow room so it's bringing in cooler air. Before I continue I would like to say that the water bottles (although tedious) did work well at cooling water, but you have to keep up on it and i was looking for a more permanent/ controlable method. Anyways, next I bought an extra 5 gallon bucket that was also black and wrapped it with foil. By placing the first bucket with the plant inside of the second bucket i utilized the same technology that the chill/heated thermal cups use to keep ice water cold and warm water heated. To prove my results i had another bucket just by itself, this could have been coincidence, but the temps in the first bucket stayed in the low to mid 70's while the one alone crept to 79 and over at times. Also the root growth was amazingly more and white with the cooler bucket.. As for the comment about water being higher than ambient, its actually the opposite.

With multiple plants i'd reccomend a chiller as well and be done with it, but with just one plant like this, it is an effective method.
-pac

It was a bitch but got the chiller installed, doesn't even get in the way of roots and keeps water 65F DDDDDDDDDD God I'm so happy, hopefully we'll see some growth soon. It's at 300 ppm which is low for the size but hey I'd rather be safe than sorry.

ALWAYS better to run them lean and then boost it up when deficiencies show. Especially in early veg when root mass is minimal

logocss said:

It was a bitch but got the chiller installed, doesn't even get in the way of roots and keeps water 65F DDDDDDDDDD God I'm so happy, hopefully we'll see some growth soon. It's at 300 ppm which is low for the size but hey I'd rather be safe than sorry.

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what system (chiller & pump) are you running for your res? I did some research; your constantly pumping cold water through the wort to keep 1 res cool? if i misunderstood please inform me.