Chilling several rez

I run titan flow and gro setups. I usually have 4 systems in flower, another in veg and a flood and drain table for early clones. So thats 6 50 gallon rez. I'm seeing water temps up at 78f lately. I started dropping old PH jugs of frozen water in them for now but thats not doing a whole lot and I have to change them every 8 hours to do much of anything. So it looks like I need to buy a chiller.

I will soon be moving the setup to the basement so the rez and buckets will be on the concrete foundation, that should help some. Still I have some questions.

First, what brand is a decent chiller? Should I combine my rez for the systems into one big rez? Or perhaps combine two of the flower rez so I only have two in there instead of four? Buying 6 chillers is going to be a huge expense so I'm trying to find out if there is any way to save some money here but not risk my grow.

Honestly the Active Aqua brand you see on Amazon is a very good and reliable chiller. Up to 30gals is 1/10HP. If you're going to 50-80gallons, you're going to need the 1/4 HP.

Aren't you a lucky son of a bitch?

https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-AACH25-Active-Aqua-Chiller/dp/B008HV7VKG?th=1&psc=1

If you click that link and go to "see other buying options" or may be labeled "Used or new", there is an AMAZON WAREHOUSE DEAL which means the packaging has damage. It comes in all original sealed packaging though, for an incredible $318. I would snatch that shit up ASAP. That is a straight up BARGAIN. The damned things even Prime and is CHEAPER than the fucking 1/10HP!!!! If there was EVER a time to buy a chiller for 50+ gallons, it's right, smack dab, there.

Think about buying just one bigger chiller and then running a separate coming circuit to each res that needs cooling.

Cheaper, more efficient, less to break.

ttystikk said:

Think about buying just one bigger chiller and then running a separate coming circuit to each res that needs cooling.

Cheaper, more efficient, less to break.

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That's impossible. You'd have to have timers set on each pump from each res coming on all on their own schedule, NEVER to cross and be on simultaneously.

those AA ones are nice.
I managed to score a lightly used 1/4 hp one with pump and tubing and all the original packaging for $170 semi-local.

ttystikk said:

Think about buying just one bigger chiller and then running a separate coming circuit to each res that needs cooling.

Cheaper, more efficient, less to break.

Click to expand...

Airwalker16 said:

That's impossible. You'd have to have timers set on each pump from each res coming on all on their own schedule, NEVER to cross and be on simultaneously.

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You could potentially use 1 big chiller if your were to run like cooling coil lines from each system all in to one big tank and chill that tanks water as low as you need to. I had a system like this for a laser cutter that worked pretty well on extended cuts.

Airwalker16 said:

That's impossible. You'd have to have timers set on each pump from each res coming on all on their own schedule, NEVER to cross and be on simultaneously.

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Huh? Why would you need any of that?

Just set the chiller to operate whenever the water in the system is warmer than the setpoint. You do NOT use the nutrient water, instead use cold coils in each different system. That way the system never mixes nutrients it gets clogged with crud.

fragileassassin said:

You could potentially use 1 big chiller if your were to run like cooling coil lines from each system all in to one big tank and chill that tanks water as low as you need to. I had a system like this for a laser cutter that worked pretty well on extended cuts.

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Exactly.

Peeps who grow don't always know all the tricks.

ttystikk said:

Huh? Why would you need any of that?

Just set the chiller to operate whenever the water in the system is warmer than the setpoint. You do NOT use the nutrient water, instead use cold coils in each different system. That way the system never mixes nutrients it gets clogged with crud.

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Because if you use chillers like these, their built to pump nutrient water through them. And even so if you did attempt your way, all the reservoirs would be series tubed together on the one chiller, and if one got too hot, the chiller would turn on and possibly chill the others to lower than needed.

fragileassassin said:

You could potentially use 1 big chiller if your were to run like cooling coil lines from each system all in to one big tank and chill that tanks water as low as you need to. I had a system like this for a laser cutter that worked pretty well on extended cuts.

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Ah this is something I didn't think of. Very elaborate.

Airwalker16 said:

Because if you use chillers like these, their built to pump nutrient water through them. And even so if you did attempt your way, all the reservoirs would be series tubed together on the one chiller, and if one got too hot, the chiller would turn on and possibly chill the others to lower than needed.

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No no no.

Chiller should not use nutrient water, no matter what the mfr says.

There should be a separate circuit and insulated reservoir that is pumped through the chiller and then sent to a manifold and then on to heat exchange coils in each system to be cooled. The returns should be kept separate for low back pressure and should all dump back into the reservoir. The circulation pump would run constantly. It should not be a large pump, just reliable. 1/4 hp for up to 6 different circuits, 1/2 hp pump for up to a dozen.

I've done a lot of work with water cooled systems. Following my advice will save you big money at purchase, operational performance and efficiency, maintenance costs- while optimising results.

You said you had lots of separate systems you wanted to keep cool, this is how the pros do it.

Airwalker16 said:

Ah this is something I didn't think of. Very elaborate.

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A single big chiller will be both less expensive and far more efficient than a bunch of little ones.

Have a schematic or pics of a set up like this? I'm wanting to chill 2 55 gallon res. with same 1/4 chiller.

WaterDog said:

Have a schematic or pics of a set up like this? I'm wanting to chill 2 55 gallon res. with same 1/4 chiller.

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Res above pump to keep it primed, pump through chiller, split into two lines, feed a heat transfer coil in each res, send returns back to chiller res separately.

Add a valve upstream of each of your systems to control cooling water flow or to shut it off for maintenance and repairs.

What would you use to pump through the chiller? What sits in the water? I've always just pumped nutrients through it. Just like you'd pump saltwater from a fish tank through it.

you could keep a closed loop on the chiller and it just chills the same water over and over feeding back into itself, same effect as using frozen bottles. you run a long hose full of water through all of your different nutrient res. You would coil it up some in the res and add more coils inside each res to better control the temp. The more surface area of cold tube in the res the better. Youd split the output from the chiller into equal legs for each res like ttystikk said. You could do this with or without an external res on the loop.
This is kinda the opposite of what I said earlier.

The way I said earlier you'd pump your nutrient solution through a coiled hose loop and back into the res it came from. I feel this solution could be easier to set up if you are running a bunch res. It would be a lot of tubing, but you could just have a bunch of different coils soaking in one main chilled res. With no splitters or anything.
See crudely drawn paint diagram.

Don't pump nutrient solution through your chiller.

I used a 10' x 3/8” I.D. length of coiled copper HVAC line as the heat exchange core in each system.

ttystikk said:

Don't pump nutrient solution through your chiller.

I used a 10' x 3/8” I.D. length of coiled copper HVAC line as the heat exchange core in each system.

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I'm bot dipping copper tubing into nutrient solution. Its Caustic.

what i used:
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Efficient-Stainless-Steel-Chiller/dp/B013S1TBIO

rkymtnman said:

what i used:
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Efficient-Stainless-Steel-Chiller/dp/B013S1TBIO

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One of these in each system needing chilling...all those coils on a closed loop system returning to the chiller...the chiller feeds chilled water to an insulated res from which cool water is pumped to the coils.