Keeping Res Cool

I've only been doing research for when I'm able to get it together. Since it will be a few months till then I thought I'd do some research. And this f'in site rocks man!! :thumbsup:

I'm leaning towards an ebb and flow system. I really wanna do everything proper and am learning all the little details here. From what I've read, one of the secrets to success with hydro seems to be keeping the res cool. Now, I realize there are long time growers here (I've read massive amounts of the info here) and I'd bet many people have had good results even when their res temp goes beyond ideal...but I want to maximize the chances a great first grow and eliminate as many potential problems as possible. Water chillers seem to be out of the question for a variety of reasons, cost being the first one. What else can one do in this situation?

I plan on either building a cabinet 2x4x4 or I might get a one of those portable canvas and metal tubing growrooms. Either way the inside temp will be controlled with a cool tube. I'll be using a 400 or 600 hps/mh with a cool tube setup and a fan and filter. Not sure about an intake or not. If this project is done during the fall/winter, which means I can control the outside room temp, what can I expect as far as res temps? One idea I have is to keep the whole res inside of a slightly larger container and add cool water and ice at regular intervals. Perhaps once a day. What do you all think? What do you all do? I don't want to keep the outside room temp lower than 68F.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Bubble cold air through it...you could take dry ice and put it in a Styrofoam cooler with a coil running through the cooler.....dont put the air pump in the cooler, CO2 makes carbonic acid I believe....hmm I wonder how effective that would be to supplement CO2 to your plants slowly.

Hey buddy,

This is probably what you're looking for. Good reviews on this idea:::
http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=51167

Thanks for the advice guys.

The cpu fan on the res sounds interesting. Is the fan basically just blowing air into the res? If that's the case then wouldn't the air stones be taking care of piping cool air in? Or am I not looking at it the right way here? Perhaps the fan would do a better job, as I'm sure multiple airstones has been tried.

Hmmmm.....another idea could possibly be to install small air duct tubing instead of the cpu fan and pipe that to a small intake fan that draws air from outside the cab. Although the cpu fan would certainly be cheaper. I just can't wait to get up to testing some ideas I have!

in a pinch if you have a basement your g rowing in i have gotten a spool of 1/2" BLACK tubing, and ran the res water through the coil layign on the basment floor, concrete stays cool and since the hose it laying directly on it it will cool the res temps for you....its not the greatest cooling method but will work.

I have a big heat problem here in my small closet and warm outside temps. If I dont do anything, res temps will hit 76-78 in the daytime. So...I literally drop bottles of frozen water in about every 3-5 hours. Temps are kept at about 68-70, sometimes traveling a little lower, sometimes getting back up to 72. Its annoying and not terribly convenient. But I found that if I leave for work at 10am and drop 2 20oz bottles of ice in each res, then it takes about 6 hours for the temp to get above 72 so they only get an hour or 2 of warm temps before I am home and drop in more ice.

I am saving up for an actual res cooler that sits in the res and has a coil with a compressor. They theoretically lower a 50 gallon res by 10 degrees easy. But people have got quite inventive. Obviously the more ventillation you have and more air moved around the res the better. The more space around it the better, setting your air pump in a cooler area (some people have set them in their freezers)...just use your head.

I have been experimenting with pumps inside and outside the room and the res with the outside pump stays about 2 degrees cooler constantly. And yes, I have left my plants for 4 days with res temps of constant 75. Yes, got some algae, but a res scrub and some H2O2 and some coaxing and takes care of it (although the plants still looked great, just a little leaf curl).

The water bottles seem like a nice solution. I don't see why that can't be used even more effectively by putting in bigger bottles. Couple of 2 litres might work nicely if there's enough circulation in the res....to make sure there's no cold spots.

Got this from a post on a thread used for fish tanks but will work for res tanks

there chillers http://www.aquastealth.com/index.asp...S&Category=243

Yup for small rez you can use 2 litter bottles filled 2/3 with frozen water and only change it out a few times a day to keep the temp down.

:pimp: So if you have a setup like me (16 gal rubbermaid) get the next size up and a couple cans of spray insulation. Put down a layer let dry, insert res and fill the space around it. Not a huge size increase but you could maintain temps much better

http://blujay.com/item/CoolWorks-Ice...160305-1353905

this looks cool also and not too expensive.

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Originally Posted by Cyclonite

:pimp: So if you have a setup like me (16 gal rubbermaid) get the next size up and a couple cans of spray insulation. Put down a layer let dry, insert res and fill the space around it. Not a huge size increase but you could maintain temps much better

http://blujay.com/item/CoolWorks-Ice...160305-1353905

this looks cool also and not too expensive.

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thanks for the link cyclonite................i guess i know where my next 100 bones are going