grrrrr.. my bucket temps are pissin me off !!

[researchOnly]

maybe its the cheap aquarium thermometer which reads about 80 degrees in a 5 gallon bucket.... I've seen many bucket:tub grows without A chiller ... is this temp normal for bubbler buckets? will my roots die at this temp or will they just stress?

 

[rule35sub1]

shoot for 68F or at least low 70's if you can.

 

[Guest]

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=33123

try this

 

[Guest]

im no pro but thinking of doing this myself

 

[Grownz]

Yea that DIY cooler is a good idea.
I always use black tape on my tubs, then black spray paint, then i put white plastic or some type of paper on the lid and sometimes the whole tub. If your tubs are black this will attract more heat again.

 

[x24]

i use black buckets for my DWC. i found that cutting panda plastic (white plastic) in the shape of the bucket lids with a hole for the stem works more than you may think.
once the canopy fills in you shouldnt have much heat issues at all. cover your buckets in something white.

 

[researchOnly]

I got some spare mylar around.... will this do the same as I guess the idea is to reflex light from the bucket???????

 

[Haps]

Take a look at my gallery, I loaded some insulated bucket pics to do a thread here, might give ya some ideas.
H

 

[researchOnly]

everybody thanks for the advice .

haps you will be doing a lot of us a favor by creating such a thread.. I always believed in would rise the temps, but aparentlly that's not the case. good man.

 

[icough2getoff]

small PC fans blowing on the top of the water can drop your temps a lot. It dropped the temp in my dwc tubs about 8°F and cost me just a few dollars. If you have all your buckets plumbed together and recirculating you can just use a few fans blowing on your res.

Here's a link with a picture of one that Tokinsmokin did
http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=60169&sort=1&cat=500&page=2

how to power 12v PC fans
http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/1506.htm

 

[tokinsmokin]

small PC fans blowing on the top of the water can drop your temps a lot. It dropped the temp in my dwc tubs about 8°F and cost me just a few dollars. If you have all your buckets plumbed together and recirculating you can just use a few fans blowing on your res.

Here's a link with a picture of one that Tokinsmokin did
http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=60169&sort=1&cat=500&page=2

how to power 12v PC fans
http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/1506.htm

Very Smart man right here ^!!!! This is what I do, and it'll save your crop.

 

[Carp]

I'm thinking of making my own coil cooler, A friend suggested a pond pump, hose, and another 5 gallon pail. The Pond pump, sends it out to another 5 gall pail, with the hose coiled around as many times as I can then the return line to the bucket. Of course I would have ice in the second bucket. Anyone try this?? Does it sound like a good idea?? Any thoughts??

 

[Guest]

Very Smart man right here ^!!!! This is what I do, and it'll save your crop.

Yea, until ya realize that the reason the fans are cooling the rez is due to evaporation. Ya think water loss from a heat stressed plant is bad - I tried running multi-fans over my rez as described and when I came back following my usual routine, water was seriously seriously low.

My advice - if you are running an A/C unit then hang your air pumps where the air is blown out. This will give your rez nice cool air blowing inside cooling things down. Then add the water heater insulation and you'll be in serious business!

 

[tokinsmokin]

Yea, until ya realize that the reason the fans are cooling the rez is due to evaporation. Ya think water loss from a heat stressed plant is bad - I tried running multi-fans over my rez as described and when I came back following my usual routine, water was seriously seriously low.

My advice - if you are running an A/C unit then hang your air pumps where the air is blown out. This will give your rez nice cool air blowing inside cooling things down. Then add the water heater insulation and you'll be in serious business!

Yeah you do lose water, but then again you don't have a big enough res if you are losing that much water. This was never an issue for me! Its much easier to put water back into a res than it is to cool down a res. I'll opt to put in water any day over having high res temps or spending a few hundred dollars for a water chiller.

Edit: The amount that it lowered my res temps was unbelievable, I had 60 or so gallons of water and 3 PC fans ($15) cooled my res 8 degrees and saved my crop. I don't think you can lower temps by that much without anything other than a water chiller given the amount of water I had. You may be able to cool a lot smaller res that much by the way your saying but not 60 gallons of water.

Evaporative Cooling is truly a blessing!