Best/easiest way imo to keep temps down

You CAN get away with slightly higher res temps if you introduce the right beneficial bacteria to the res.
I run a small, 8 gallon total system, RDWC.
My res temps are good (70) and mostly I add the beneficial bacteria and fungi for their symbiotic relationship with the plant, specifically the ROOTS !!!
I brew an EWC tea and add several cups every 3 days, makes the roots and the foliage explode with growth.

Johnny-mariseed said:

How big of a space will this unit cool and can you wire it to a thermostat some how? Do they sell bigger units for more calling?

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This post is all about cooling down single DWC 5 gallon coolers. The ice probe only lowers the temperature of the water in the cooler it does nothing else. Why would you be concerned about the temp of your rez?= If your temps reach at or above 80F and sometimes even at a slightly lower temp it will loose dissolved oxygen which will starve the roots of oxygen in the system and more likely than not your water will also become stagnant aka "dark slime". It is very important to keep those temps down. Wiring up a thermostat is a must, otherwise your temps will become too low and end up slowing your growth rate. "Do they sell bigger units" no but you can make your own. They make peltier modules up to 500 watts the ice probe is rated at 50 watts which is more than enough to cool a 5 gallon cooler. It is very important your hydro system is insulated. However fishdeth has a point, but if you only use chem fertilizers and water you must keep those temps down.

Diy system

Hey, great DIY vid, thanks !
Which direction is the fan blowing?
Assuming away from the chip?

Very cool... pardon the pun...

I know that 12vdc beer coolers are available on the market. Beer coolers can make good res's for small hydro units.

bird mcbride said:

I know that 12vdc beer coolers are available on the market. Beer coolers can make good res's for small hydro units.

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Nah, tried it in my second run.
The peltier unit on it was on top trying to chill the air.
Condensation was a bitch, eventually ditched it and piped up a small (10,000BTU) portable A/C unit to my box and forced the air to surround and chill the res areas on it's way to chilling the flower room.
Thermostatically controlled and actually pretty efficient.
Res is 70
Flower room 84 max... AND bennies... near perfection !

You know those single bottle electric wine chillers? I see them quite often for $12 used at the Goodwill store. Has anyone ever dabbled with those?

I just grow in the cooler. A marine cooler has a 5 day ice rating, maintains temps on it's own. Adding a few extra air stones will also help with temps.

Why go through all of this trouble when you are growing in the winter? The simplest thing to do is to run your air line to an outside source of air and let the cold winter from nature supply you with the cold temps that you run straight into your DWC. You then just use a simple aquarium heater to keep the temps at 68 degrees by default with its built in thermostat, otherwise the cold arctic air will plummet your temps to low. Simple solution to a known problem. You shouldn't be growing in the summer anyways with DWC as to hard to manage unless you have unlimited budget for air conditioning.