Idea for cooling res.

Hey all. I'm currently growing in soil but will be switching to hydro in a couple months. I plan to do DWC in a rubbermaid container. It will be in a cabinet in my basement. Im wondering if it would be worth it or even practical to keep my water temps down by running a water pump (in addition to an air pump) with 10-20' of hose running under the cab and along the cold concrete floor then back into the reservoir. I also thought of maybe doing the same thing and running everything past my air intakes instead...I live in Canada and I think the cold floor would be more effective but the air intakes would be easier because it would all be contained in the cab. I don't know if the heat from the pump would offset the whole effort or if it isn't practical to run that long of a hose on a small water pump. Anyone else ever thought of this or tried it?

It depends on how much you run the pump.

Just insulate the res except for the bottom and set it on the floor...sounds like that will work fine. Pumps add heat...but if your pumping into a heat exchanger then that's good.

I read a thread where someone said they put a frozen 2 liter in there res.

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Originally Posted by latewood

It depends on how much you run the pump.

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Hmm...do you have any suggestions? :) I can run it non stop if thats what needs to happen or I can buy a timer and set it to whatever would work best. I don't know though.

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Originally Posted by Cyclonite

Just insulate the res except for the bottom and set it on the floor...sounds like that will work fine. Pumps add heat...but if your pumping into a heat exchanger then that's good.

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Good idea to insulate the top! But it has to stay in my cabinet for stealth...drilling 2 holes and running tube along the bottom out of sight is one thing, but a huge reservoire sized hole is going to create a smell issue I think.

I'm just curious if anyone has tried anything similar or knows where I can find information about what sized pump I need for X length of tube. Also any thoughts about if it would be better on the cold floor or around the intake with constant air moving past?

:jointsmile:
-Doyu

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Originally Posted by socialistpete

I read a thread where someone said they put a frozen 2 liter in there res.

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Also not a bad idea...would it be ok if temps fluctuated? Like what if I didn't bother one day or went away for the weekend, would it stress the plants? I suppose temps in nature change all the time but I'm just learning hydro...not sure if it matters.

-Doyu
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Everything I say is a lie or copied from another source and is purely for entertainment.

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Originally Posted by Doyu

Also not a bad idea...would it be ok if temps fluctuated? Like what if I didn't bother one day or went away for the weekend, would it stress the plants? I suppose temps in nature change all the time but I'm just learning hydro...not sure if it matters.

-Doyu
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Everything I say is a lie or copied from another source and is purely for entertainment.

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No your plants would be fine. Yes it's best to be as consistent as you can of course but for weekend Iâ??m sure they would be fine.

In order to err on the safe side. I always cut the pumps 15 minutes after an hour...60 on 15 off. this allows the pump and rez to cool. On the other hand. If you find that the floor is too cold, you may want to leave pump running in order to keep you rez temps warm enough. what you need is to run the system and take rez temp measurements after pump runs for an hour.
if temps are above 70 degrees turn off 15 minutes check temps, and start pump again. monitor rez temps for another hour. If temps are not above 70 degrees. keep pump running and monitor hourly, until you determine stability. It is also a good idea to turn off pumpo every couple hours in order to let debris clear from pump inlets. goodluck, and I hope this helps.

If you cannot keep water up in the 60's, then build a 2" high plywood subfloor, the little bit of airspace between the warm rez and the cold floor will balance your rez temps somewhat

Start it off on the floor and see how the temps are then adjust as suggested above. Just go buy some insulation on a roll and duct tape it around your res. You will notice a huge difference in temp stability.

ahh it's good to see LW and Z posting ;-)

I have to agree with JW and CYC on the res temp solution the simpler the better

Yer in a canadian basement so even during the summer the slab shouldn't be gettin above 60 (maybe in a heat wave) so you'll be fine...my 250gph pump runs 24/7 and it barely raises the 10 gallon res 5 degrees

As for the stealth I'd just cut the bottom of the cab out and sit the res right on the floor, especially if yer insulating the res it shouldn't be leaking too much smell at all

Pumps are only seriously affected by 2 things (within reason...really complicated setups will have a ton of things to consider) but that being said ya should only have to worry about how many feet high the water will be pushed and how many turns it will make on the way there (with a bit of planning I'm sure you can avoid looking like the windows screen saver) so just make sure the pump has enough power to deal with the height

best of luck doyu let us know how it goes