Easiest way to chill multiple res

Been using the frozen bottle method.
Is there anything better that doesnt involve $4-500

Get a bigger res. More water to act as a thermal buffer.

This won't work unless there's an actual thermal sink, or someplace for all that heat to go to.

For small heat loads, blow air across the surface of a tub full of the cooling water.

For bigger loads, well, thank your lucky stars it's wintertime out. Grab a radiator and a box fan, suck cold winter air thru radiator full of moving water (use a good pump, bigger than you think you'll need) and you've just harvested mother nature to chill your op. You're welcome for the inside scoop on how to utilise this completely renewable resource, lol

Now as for the issue of multiple reservoirs, you need to use a manifold, so as to apportion the water flow and thus the cooling evenly.

I've seen people use the small dorm fridges; they drill two holes in it and then coil up copper line inside then pump the water through it. I think on ICMAG years ago they decided that coiling up the copper line inside a 5gal bucket and then filling that up with water and placing it inside the fridge helped. I'll probably do something like this as in the summer it's 100+. But for right now I'm thinking of getting a ice probe..they say it can drop 10-15 gallons 10F below room temp.

http://www.amazon.com/IceProbe-Thermoelectric-Aquarium-Chiller-Works/dp/B001JSVLBO

water chiller will be the most efficient fix for this problem.

I second the dorm fridge idea. Cuts do not have ro be perfect. The longer the hoes inside the fridge the cooler, increase total gal decrease fluctuation in temp. Most ppl have one laying around. If not a cooler chiller replacement works pretty good too, like a swamp fan setup.

Yep, you can find them all day long on craigs list for pretty cheap. And, if you can wait until summer and school lets out you can find them on CL for 30-50 dollars as all the college kids graduate and get rid of them. I've not done it personally but seen lots who have and it seem very economical and a good reuse. Also, it has a thermostat already built in so it does not require any additional parts other than the copper tubing. You can also store your nutes, gels, powers ..cuttings etc in there door shelves. The copper piping is going to be the most expensive piece. If you need more power for like a larger grow maybe a chest freezer, the home brewing guys use them to store kegs of beer instead of bottling them and thy put a external thermostat on it so it does not freeze the beer.

https://www.google.com/search?q=chest+freezer+kegerator&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=591&tbm=isch&imgil=sooT0pAKL5ofyM%3A%3Bkei0pbl5JU64eM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.homebrewtalk.com%252Fshowthread.php%253Ft%25253D162225&source=iu&pf=m&fir=sooT0pAKL5ofyM%3A%2Ckei0pbl5JU64eM%2C_&usg=__a6GkIphLnK1KqIp0do2onQy6-Dc=&ved=0ahUKEwj5t63T27bKAhVHmoMKHaqhBpAQyjcIJQ&ei=sJyeVvmfO8e0jgSqw5qACQ#imgrc=sooT0pAKL5ofyM:&usg=__a6GkIphLnK1KqIp0do2onQy6-Dc=

After doing a little more research it seems that it maybe better to just get a chiller unless your cooling a very small amount of water, it may work for me as I'll have about 15/20 gallons to chill and that's it. The main issue seem with the inability of the fridge to remove add heat quickly.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/chillers/dormfridge/

ExChedda said:

I second the dorm fridge idea. Cuts do not have ro be perfect. The longer the hoes inside the fridge the cooler, increase total gal decrease fluctuation in temp. Most ppl have one laying around. If not a cooler chiller replacement works pretty good too, like a swamp fan setup.

Click to expand...

Shit i have one not in use now.

taproot said:

I've seen people use the small dorm fridges; they drill two holes in it and then coil up copper line inside then pump the water through it. I think on ICMAG years ago they decided that coiling up the copper line inside a 5gal bucket and then filling that up with water and placing it inside the fridge helped. I'll probably do something like this as in the summer it's 100+. But for right now I'm thinking of getting a ice probe..they say it can drop 10-15 gallons 10F below room temp.

http://www.amazon.com/IceProbe-Thermoelectric-Aquarium-Chiller-Works/dp/B001JSVLBO

Click to expand...

how would i use the dorm fridge, where do i drill the holes into to get the water to flow through the copper line?

The holes would be drilled into the fridge itself ..likely on the top or side. The thing is you have to make sure and not hit the refrigerant lines or the gas will all leak out and junk the fridge. I'm basing this on the beer fridges diy/s I've read, I think people smear a baking soda past on the outside and let it run and it turns the paste a different color where the gas lines are because they are hot. Maybe a magnet...not sure as I've yet to do one first hand. But, it seems like it's not very plausible for large volumes to water to chill.

I've been doing dwc for the first time and it's producing good growth but I'm hating all the ph/tds baby setting; then you have the air and temp to worry about. All in all it's going ok but is a no go in the summer. I have a few half and one gallon hempys beside the dwc and they are not far behind at all, and I don't really check ph / tds as I just mix to what the dynagro nute says on the back for the different stage and water. They look just as healthy as the dwc plants and I just don't do shit except mix the nute/s water when needed..no air/tmp/ph/tds worry at all. Since I don't smoke that much at least I don't think so ( a quarter pound would last me a year or more ) I think I'll just use hempys from now on for it's simplicity and kiss nature. The only reason I even tried dwc is I got really tired of dealing with all the perlite but so far , for me atleast, the dwc has been much more of a pain then throwing away some medium. Next run I might use some hydroton or something so I can wash and reuse and not have to throw it away. Have you looked at hempys as a method for you friend?

taproot said:

I've been doing dwc for the first time and it's producing good growth but I'm hating all the ph/tds baby setting; then you have the air and temp to worry about. All in all it's going ok but is a no go in the summer. I have a few half and one gallon hempys beside the dwc and they are not far behind at all, and I don't really check ph / tds as I just mix to what the dynagro nute says on the back for the different stage and water. They look just as healthy as the dwc plants and I just don't do shit except mix the nute/s water when needed..no air/tmp/ph/tds worry at all. Since I don't smoke that much at least I don't think so ( a quarter pound would last me a year or more ) I think I'll just use hempys from now on for it's simplicity and kiss nature. The only reason I even tried dwc is I got really tired of dealing with all the perlite but so far , for me atleast, the dwc has been much more of a pain then throwing away some medium. Next run I might use some hydroton or something so I can wash and reuse and not have to throw it away. Have you looked at hempys as a method for you friend?

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Hopefully you dont take this as a stab but i would think usong the most productive method of growing would be ideal regardless of your consumption. LED/DWC, low energy use, less heat, high light penetration. Might need to find a less finicky strain if easy of growth is a major selling point. Your thought on a mostly indica strain harvested at 50% or less milky?

taproot said:

The holes would be drilled into the fridge itself ..likely on the top or side. The thing is you have to make sure and not hit the refrigerant lines or the gas will all leak out and junk the fridge. I'm basing this on the beer fridges diy/s I've read, I think people smear a baking soda past on the outside and let it run and it turns the paste a different color where the gas lines are because they are hot. Maybe a magnet...not sure as I've yet to do one first hand. But, it seems like it's not very plausible for large volumes to water to chill.

Click to expand...

Think of it as you only need to remove a slight amount of heat to lower water temp to less then ambient air. You need to trick the plant into forgetting about the 150* bulb. Water at 60-73 is easy with a fridge thats capable of chilling to 30*. Set to low, ambient should be no more then 80. Soil temp 72. Add this diy method and should bring your water temps to about 63. If too cold circulate the water faster, or less restrictive material in fridge. Bigger pipe faster pump. Too warm, just the opposite.

When ph is fluctuating with feedings my experience, may be small, has shown that medium should be flushed. To stabalize for 3-5 and beyond days, look at the water temp. You will often find evaporation problems, tap water(hard?), light leaks etc. Fix those and observe for 5 days and fill us in.

Sorry if i got carried away or made no sense. Let me know

No stab, I value others opinions. The fridge might work as I've seen other have success but I also don't know where they kept there AC at nor remember the volume being chilled. But as I stated, after more research, it seems the fridge is not that plausible especially if your ambient air is fairly hot. Where I live it's hot in the summer and electricity is expensive; I keep my place at 80F mostly in the summer when not at home at about 76F when at the house because it's expensive to run the AC all the time. So, there's more to factor then just the bulbs being used. Last summer I ran a 250 HPS and I ran the 12/12 after the sun when down until early morning. My room temp was at 80F with two 2/12 gal hempys and I got about three Zips. Not too bad but also it was my first grown in 10yrs so I made mistakes etc. but the thing is I can't afford to run a AC to keep it at 70 ish and I found out I didn't really need to with the hempys. Right now my dwc is really doing awesome but it's winter.....the hempys are doing awesome to and only behind a little bit and not even enough to really get anal about. I wanted to try something different but it seem like the hempys will allow me to go hydro for all it's advantages and still be able to grown in the summer without running the AC and having a water chiller and meters for all the crap I'm hating checking now. It's pretty cool to just mix nutes, water and walk away. With no pumps and chillers etc. I save on electric and don't worry about failure of equipment. I will be going led in a year or two with the vero29 or cree line. Since I don't sell I'm not going to worry about the best method and fastest turn around. Like I said I still very new to all this but I'm learning, for at lest myself, It's what works for you that is important and to keep it as simple as possible. You can grow a little plant that yields a oz or two like I did or a monster with hempys so I say it's a good method of hydro for some of us. As I fine tune things and purge the excess of shit I've bought my goal is to have one jug of grow, one jug of bloom and a jug of silica along with ph up and down although I'd probably never use the up/down unless I questioned my water at that time... so 3 or 5 bottles for everything with no meters, pumps or tricks needed.

I also think using a good brand of nutes is very very helpful. I wish I would have been on the kiss bandwagon before I started and bought several lines of high dollar nutes. Check out dynagro FP/Bloom and protekt. It kicks the shit out of everything I used up to now, it's ph stable with superior buffers and also very concentrated and affordable. They have been in the hydro business since the 70's with a high rep. After conversing with a few growers here and other places I'm using straight FP with a touch of protekt in veg and in bloom a 25% FP / 75% bloom with a touch of protekt when needed. I tried a scoop of maxibloom to a gal of tap and it also kicks ass but the dynogro just look so much more healthy. FYI..I'm not saying all this to dishearten anybody from trying different things I'm just saying I'd like to help somebody have another method that they may find themselves needing for whatever reason, and I'd like to help people stay away from all the high dollar expensive water the're buying because somebody in marketing is telling them it grows the biggest and best weed when it just a bunch of bullshit. So far for me dynagro is great but if I'd not found it I would have went with Jacks.

I have been having this problem with 4 7.5gal totes.

I went to Walmart and bought a cooler. Went to the home goods area and bought a tray with legs that fits in the small cooler. I then bought a 140 gal air pump at pet smart that has 4 outlets. I bought 4 thick 10" air stones and the system loads up the bubbles. I then took 6 big frozen freezer packs and put them in the cooler under the tray. Drilled 6 holes in the back and ran my air lines through them and left two holes open for air flow.

Now cold air gets pumped in through the air stones. I'm about to upgrade to air injectors instead of air stones and that'll makes this system work great. My temps are under 70* F

Those fridges dont work. Youre transferring cold air to metal to water.

They make drop ins with multiple probes. Very expensive though. But what are we growing here? Certainly not $1/lb apples.

Stainless steel chilling worts used in home brewing beer is what you need.

Or go with the hempy's lol. I'm running into the same issues or was until I installed the same kinda thing tty had mentioned. Yes coco hempy looks like a great option for getting away from chilled water but I like to play with controls so it's kinda fun lol. FYI once you do, if you do chill the Res your growth with explode, well mine did lol.