2 reservoirs, 1 water chiller

SOGfarmer

Well-Known Member
One water chiller and two reservoirs, 45 gallons each, they are DWC rubbermaid bins. How do you chill both rez's with one water chiller without having to connect the two rubbermaid rez's together? :wall:
 

SOGfarmer

Well-Known Member
I have heard of the wort chiller idea before but how is this done when I have two rubbermaid bins, each acting as its own rez/grow medium. The grow is sog style, with two 2x4 ft bins in a 4x4ft tent. Each bin would have 15 plants sitting on top of the lid of course with the roots dangling down into the water, but I do not have a third bin that solely acts as a reservoir. Each bin is seperately maintained and acting as it's own reservoir for the plants to grow their roots down in to. Do i need a third bin acting as a reservoir feeding the other two bins for this to work??? I'm not sure why but I am having trouble understanding how to pull this off without just adding a third 45 gallon rubbermaid bin with no plants in it. I feel like then I would have to make this an under water recirculating dwc system, with the two rubbermaids with the plants in them connected together and then connected to a third bin acting as a seperate reservoir feeding the chilled water to the two bins inside of the tent. Am I wrong? Id like to not have to add a third bin, which would have to be outside of the tent, to feed the chilled water in through the two rubbermaid dwc bins and back out of the tent into the rez with the chiller again. Maybe I'm just dumb but is this the only option? Adding a third bin as a reservoir outsideof the tent and turning this into a recirculating system seems like the only option. Help me out here am I wrong?
 

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
The chiller only chills the res with no nutes in it! The other two res tanks are chill from pumps feeding cool water from
the chill res through the wort chiller coils that are in your rubbermaid bins
 

SOGfarmer

Well-Known Member
ooo000OOO000ooo I get it... so the wort chiller is not actually tranfering any water solution into th other reservoirs feding the plants, it's just cooling down the temperature of the nutrient solution through contact with the cold copper tubing. Right? I think I got it now!!! lol
 

superstoner1

Well-Known Member
make sure not to use copper, ss only. you can run them inline( one feed line and one return line) or make a simple manifold from pvc or barbed connectors to feed each wort seperately. manifold will give more uniform temperature.
 

SOGfarmer

Well-Known Member
Right on you guys are being a big help. So I think I will have two wort chillers, one in each nutrient solution rez with the plants in them, and will pump the chilled water from the "chill rez" located outside of the tent into and through the first wort chiller in the first nutrient solution dwc bin, and then into and through the second wort chiller in the second nutrient solution dwc bin, and then back into the original "chill rez" outside of the tent. And then the water will just keep circulating through the two stainless steel wort chillers and back into the original chilled rez, and so on. Good idea? Well not really my idea but I think this will work perfectly!?
 

superstoner1

Well-Known Member
yeah the insulated coolers for the res work great. i got the 150qt coolers at sams club for $69 and it helps a lot.
 

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
Right on you guys are being a big help. So I think I will have two wort chillers, one in each nutrient solution rez with the plants in them, and will pump the chilled water from the "chill rez" located outside of the tent into and through the first wort chiller in the first nutrient solution dwc bin, and then into and through the second wort chiller in the second nutrient solution dwc bin, and then back into the original "chill rez" outside of the tent. And then the water will just keep circulating through the two stainless steel wort chillers and back into the original chilled rez, and so on. Good idea? Well not really my idea but I think this will work perfectly!?
You got the right idea sog :)
 
I have been considering this same setups (single chiller, multiple wort coils). Anyone have any input on how much of a chiller you would need to cool 100-120 gal total this way?
 

superstoner1

Well-Known Member
i have a very good 1/2hp chiller that keeps 30gal res very cold. i use this to cool 3 50gal flower res's, 1 30gal veg res, and an ice box. it keeps res's at 65-67 and cools air 12-15* with no problems
 

SOGfarmer

Well-Known Member
Great info here, i will definately be using an insulated cooler as the chill rez, and i'm sure a 1/4hp chiller will be capable of chilling about 100 gallons right? I was thinking maybe I could even go a little smaller on the chiller and use a 1/10hp chiller what you think? for 100 gallons? Or is that pushing it...
 
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