hydro...hydro...its a heap-o-pot I'll grow

[Aaron385]

Yea but pulling that cooler part out of the back of the unit after chizzling out the insulation for an hour was like the best feeling.. almost as good as when i looked at my res thermometer about 10 min ago and saw 71F.. keep going little $54 dorm room fridge.. I have faith in you! haha

I have had much better luck with RO water than anything else.. but the water is very hard in my area.

[Jiminy]

You messy mofo!

That DI bit is news to me...gracias.

Tomorrow a bigger, better, badder water softner unit is arriving here. (thats more for household use, but will help with overall H2O quality before it hit the solution tank)

RO is next.
tds too.
oh, and calibration goo. I'll prolly do a goof thing like pH some jello on the super thin side for that!

Great thread for the hardware hackers out there.:thumbsup:

But just out of curiousity, a water softener uses salts to soften water correct?

I was always told dont let any plants be watered by any "softened" water, I would assume the water softener will increase the salts in the water while lowering the calcium and magnesium? I forget which elements determine the hardness of the water.

But maybe using the RO as the last leg of filtration will eliminate anything left in the water by the water softener?

I'm really curious about the progress of the cooling system, I was going to start looking into the myself but due to my limited space I was looking away from a pump driven system.

[slowthestone]

Great thread for the hardware hackers out there.:thumbsup:

But just out of curiousity, a water softener uses salts to soften water correct?

I was always told dont let any plants be watered by any "softened" water, I would assume the water softener will increase the salts in the water while lowering the calcium and magnesium? I forget which elements determine the hardness of the water.

But maybe using the RO as the last leg of filtration will eliminate anything left in the water by the water softener?

Good point to bring up.

Answered with, while softening does indeed remove Ca and Mg, it also removes the bulk of the reason why solubles don't dissolve as thoroughly when the positive charge of Ca and Mg are present. Like detergent for laundry...or nutrients for roots.

Its the the real first stage of what will be the final output of the RO process....Zero'd water.

From there, the nutrients I use, by measured amounts...I'll know approximately how much Ca and Mg (typical ingredients for better nutrient lines) has been put into the solution.

:thumbsup:

[slowthestone]

And at 32k gpg for the unit I chose...the life and the filters, as well as the intial investment of the RO system will be greatly extended.

[Aaron385]

res temp is now at 68 degrees F!!!! Holly cow that little fridge is kickin ass.. I dunno if it will pull it down lower but the lights are about to come on so we will see.. I currently have a fan pointed right at the fridge.. if temps going too low are an issue (that would be F'N SWEET) I will take the fan away and see if it reaches an acceptable equilibrium.. I honestly never thought that little $54 fridge could pull down a 35gal res from 86F to 68F.. its a little less than 35 gal right now.. maybe 27gal.. in need of a top off (tomorrow).. but still.. damn impressive.

[slowthestone]

That is big time good news to me eyes A.

Pat yourself one on the back...my next toke is to you.

~tokes~ :stoned:

Ok so...its been nearly 3 hours since your lights came on...still high 60's?

[slowthestone]

Is it the first thing you did when ya got out of bed this morn'n A?

Top 3 maybe?

[Aaron385]

I had to move the fan I was using to blow on the mini fridge when the lights came on due to room temps being paramount.. but I will get a dedicated fan for the fridge I think.. temps drifted up to about 79f overnight but that was in a 100F room.. with no fan blowing on the fridge.. Ive got the fan back on it now.. will see if it pulls temps back down.. oh and i will top off the res in a few hours too.

[Aaron385]

when i went to top off the res it was back at 68F! I put an extra fan blowing right on the fridge so we will see how it does this light cycle.