Water Chilling

dankhoe417 said:

Looked it up. Appears there might be an issue with it bonding to the inside of the copper tubing without sufficient heat to dissipate the water molecules. Could be wrong. Although, you might be able to loosly plug both ends of the filled coil and heat in an oven at a reasonable temperature to facilitate the silicate bonding.
AlB....Panhead...any feedback here?

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A hair dryer or heat gun will work to help with the bonding. I lined the walls of a small up right freezer with copper tubeing so I could still use the freezer for food, after it was installed I found out about the liquid galss. It is also sold by Car Quest for car finishes but I dont know if that stuff would be the same or if it even to be heated. Heat would speed up the bounding prosess.

My main concern was the Nitrogen eating the silicate off. I have no way of knowing except to keep an eye on the plants and fingers crossed but, so far no signs of any problem.

I could see (possibly) running this in a 5 gallon igloo sports drink cooler filled with ice, run maybe 2 or 3 reservoirs to it via T'd lines and getting down around 60 degrees easily with a weekly addition of ice.

Maybe even fill with water, drop in a milk jug of ice or a few 20 oz. bottles to chill the water. If you start this with cold bath water and don't allow the water to get to 80+ degrees the ice should last a fair amound of time. Long enough to freeze a back up/replacement anyways.

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Efficient-Stainless-Steel-Chiller/dp/B004D4QPQW

My first chiller was and is set up that way, not as nice as the one you posted but the same idea. Cooling eight 5 gal. water farms aprox. 16 to 18 gal. I pump my nutes through the chiller to a holding tank, when the pump shuts off it back siphons through the chiller and into the eight units. I'm useing it now as we speak.

I got a 1/2 horse chiller chilling 55 gallons, overkill I know but when buying a chiller always go bigger than you THINK you need. I went to buy one at the hydro store and dude tells me you can't bring this item back if it doesn't work for you, meaning there are many many variables that will determine what size chiller you really need. If its just a 5 gallon bucket I've been interested in trying one of those ice probes , they're made for aquariums I think but can be implemented in anything that needs water cooled . Ice probe are peltier coolers , you drill a hole in the container and screw this thing in , theres a cold side and a hot side, the bad news is that you'll have to get rid of a little extra heat in the air since the ice probe uses a heatsink and pc cooling fan it will radiate some heat I'm sure but then thats what exhaust fans are for.

sonofdust said:

My first chiller was and is set up that way, not as nice as the one you posted but the same idea. Cooling eight 5 gal. water farms aprox. 16 to 18 gal. I pump my nutes through the chiller to a holding tank, when the pump shuts off it back siphons through the chiller and into the eight units. I'm useing it now as we speak.

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this is interesting to me, I just set my ebb monster up as rdwc and am wondering if I went about it right, I'd like to see some pictures of your system if you would be so kind.
here you go btw..............http://www.amazon.com/IceProbe-Thermoelectric-Aquarium-Chiller/dp/B0006JKO6U/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=miscellaneous&ie=UTF8&qid=1317695798&sr=1-2-catcorr

dbkick said:

this is interesting to me, I just set my ebb monster up as rdwc and am wondering if I went about it right, I'd like to see some pictures of your system if you would be so kind.
here you go btw..............http://www.amazon.com/IceProbe-Thermoelectric-Aquarium-Chiller/dp/B0006JKO6U/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=miscellaneous&ie=UTF8&qid=1317695798&sr=1-2-catcorr

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dbkick, That ice probe looks like something to check into, thanks. I dont know if this will work or not but I was thinking along the line of a sending unit off a car AC. It 12v but nothing a wall wort couldnt take care of. A cooling thermo couppler in one unit and a pump hooked to my cooler would give me better control then the timer. I'm running CO2 and higher temp in the grow room so keeping my girls feet at a constant 64 is one of my bigest problem. My chiller is hooked up to the cloner now. dbkick, let me see what I can do on the pic. If they come out so you can see whats going on but I'll warn ya its crowded in the controll room.

sonofdust said:

dbkick, That ice probe looks like something to check into, thanks. I dont know if this will work or not but I was thinking along the line of a sending unit off a car AC. It 12v but nothing a wall wort couldnt take care of. A cooling thermo couppler in one unit and a pump hooked to my cooler would give me better control then the timer. I'm running CO2 and higher temp in the grow room so keeping my girls feet at a constant 64 is one of my bigest problem. My chiller is hooked up to the cloner now. dbkick, let me see what I can do on the pic. If they come out so you can see whats going on but I'll warn ya its crowded in the controll room.

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eh? chilling a cloner? kinky, I thought cloning called for 75-85 degree temps :/
Crowded? man I certainly know crowded, I need more space.Insulated grow chambers! igloo rules!

Once again thanks everyone for all these responses, it is definitely a good reference for anyone who may need a chiller.
But I sorta realized with only a 3 gallon res and the 14" airstone I got with an airpump made for 35 gallon hydro system, I think even if my water is really warm at times there is enough oxygen for the roots to be happy

TheWinner said:

Once again thanks everyone for all these responses, it is definitely a good reference for anyone who may need a chiller.
But I sorta realized with only a 3 gallon res and the 14" airstone I got with an airpump made for 35 gallon hydro system, I think even if my water is really warm at times there is enough oxygen for the roots to be happy

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only if you run beneficial bacteria or keep a sterile res.

That ice probe would work well for you I'm thinking, you'd need the temp controller too since the res is so small, would get too cold on all the time.

The Winner.
High water temp will hold less oxygen. I seen a chart somewhere, if I can find it I'll post it for ya.
If you dont mind, I'll try to post a pic of my simple chiller. Didnt want to trash your thread with out asking first.

In my cloner I run a cool mist fogger and it runs the temp up a little higher then I'm comfortable with. I run Bio Bugs in my units and a tea for my cloner.
If you get a chance there is a fella here, "Heizenberg" who does up a energy drink for the girls. Very good reading, check him out.
I believe it may help The Winner with the small res. and prevent slime due to a higher temp.

sonofdust said:

In my cloner I run a cool mist fogger and it runs the temp up a little higher then I'm comfortable with. I run Bio Bugs in my units and a tea for my cloner.
If you get a chance there is a fella here, "Heizenberg" who does up a energy drink for the girls. Very good reading, check him out.
I believe it may help The Winner with the small res. and prevent slime due to a higher temp.

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heisenberg I added as my first friend here! his tea brewing process has changed I think, from what I hear, but I think Op is better off going sterile myself. But back to the microbes, a ready made product is best for most, dudes res is 3 gallon so he's def not gonna wanna brew anything.great white or voodoo juice is good stuff though, but I say sterile res, much easier, an insulated res(igloo cooler ) even better, I keep my veg cooler down to about 65 with an ice pack per day and its got a 400 gph water pump spraying root that creates heat(although I have that pumped cycled)

dose warm water in the rez cause's White Slime ??

hey weedss, it certainly can. This is why people that can't control their water temps use beneficial bacteria, it displaces bad bacteria, gives it no place to live while providing benefits such as optimum nutrient uptake and shit, personally I've got my water temps handled nicely but still run a sterile res/system by adding h2o2 every now and then and doing regular res changes.

ok thanks. I solved this problem !