sahdgrower
Member
Browsing through your post again and I noticed your cooling coil in your RDWC is copper. As I understand it, copper submerged in an RDWC is a no no. No issues for you?
Inside Out Trees, Silo Op, custom RDWC, water cooled
- Thread starter Thread starter Ttystikk
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Greetings, and welcome!
not through pump, on outlet side of uv, simple venture affect drags air down hose with the returning water and bubbles up . it's only for water barrel, not grow buckets.
Aha! Basically an antisiphon hole at the top? That would do fine, as would one of the more purpose built venturi injectors. This would indeed increase aeration. I wonder if adding one to my outlet/waterfall manifold just downstream of my recirculation pump would help my girls out. Only one way to find out, right?!
I like you guys. You give me ideas...
I just hung my radiator from the ceiling with a 20" round circulation fan (type you get at Wal-Mart, home depot, etc for ~40 bucks.) hung right behind so it pushes air through the radiator. No fancy sheet metal needed, though I love me some over kill
Well the way you describe it, it can't be that hard to cobble together! Thanks for the idea, I can just haunt a junkyard for radiators, or maybe my old buddy down at the radiator shop.
There you went and gave me another idea, brother. Who better to build me cores for shit like this than the guy who does it for a living?!
The sheetmetal ducting is there to allow me to tilt the radiator and thus have moisture run off the edge where it's much easier to capture.
Also, I want to build a box atop the unit to draw air through ducts from the top of each silo... thus cooling the room by capturing the heat from the source before it has a chance to escape and build up anywhere. Combined with a fan placed underneath and blowing up at the plants (bulb needs to remain hit for proper operation), this will easily handle the heat buildup from 2kW in one silo.
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noyd666
motor cycle radiators are the bomb these day's, smaller might be better fit, I've
got one and will have a go myself with this idea. they already have unit's out with rads fitted to them , pretty big though.
got one and will have a go myself with this idea. they already have unit's out with rads fitted to them , pretty big though.
If I follow this correctly, I think that if you've pumped your water 4' up, you should just use that as the head for waterfalls in each growing site. The control bucket doesn't need it. Waterfalls are much more effective at getting dissolved oxygen into water than airstones.
I have seen the waterfall create its own hole in the middle of a thatch of roots so it will keep circulating. Now that you've mentioned this, I'll keep an eye on it going forward.
I think it's a bit of an old wive's tale, with some exceptions. One, don't let your EC climb too high, it let your pH drop too low- and definitely not both at once. Basic plant mgmt, nothing new here.
When the coil is in the control bucket, everything is happy. When the coil is in the bucket with plant's roots, it doesn't work out well for either the plant or for water temps in the system.
At first blush it seems like I would be splitting the difference and not gaining anything by the compromise. What's the gain over a bigger car radiator?
I'm looking to shed 3-4 Tons of heat, so I'm thinking that the bigger cross section of an auto radiator will work to my advantage. I want large surface area to slow the airflow down and cause it to drop as much moisture as possible. Right now, my biggest problem is not temperature management, it's the humidity!
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noyd666
It's very easy to put together, I'll try and remember to snap a pic of my setup next time I'm out that way. The radiator I have would easily cool 8k + equipment, possibly more without issue (so long as you can feed it cold water anyway). As for collecting the condensation I just hung my rad at a slight angle, and rigged a vinyl gutter (kind you find on your house) up under the rad to collect the water, and deposit it into my reservoir. Many ways to skin a cat though.
That's awfully familiar wood paneling in there with a suspiciously familiar looking radiator... You wouldn't happen to know a Woodsman, eh?
This is more or less the rig I'm after, except for ducting to control airflow and contain moisture.
I like. I especially like the gutter on one side idea, as long as it captures all the runoff... does it? I run my RH higher than most, so I get some rain... I want my treated air to flow down to the floor, where it will be pulled into the silos from beneath.
sahdgrower
Member
Yes you follow correctly, I am pumping 4' up. However I am only doing this to the control bucket. For two reasons, first because I am running a scrog and the canopy would not allow for this and second because I was concerned that with the amount of velocity generated by this method there is quite a bit of turbulence in the bucket. I was concerned that this would be damaging to the roots. I have no experience though just paranoia.
The only modification that I want to do is to remove the airstones and replace with a 1/2" feed line into the top of each planter bucket creating a much smaller waterfall in each one than I have in my control. Just not confident this will be enough DO. What do you think? Oh and my water temps hover around 70F and I prevent problems at this temp with bleach.
I believe you'll be fine, in fact I think your plants are likely to show improvement. A fair amount of turbulence in the bucket is desirable, not only for aeration but also to keep washing the roots with fresh solution.
Yup the gutter is ~4" wide will the radiator is only ~3" thick so any water that drips off just collects in the gutter and runs to wherever it's directed to go
I've always assumed that the best thing to do with this water is to put it back in the RDWC. What's considered best practice?
Assuming your radiator is new (i.e not covered in anything toxic to plants) I just allow mine to top off the reservoir. It's essentially distilled/RO water. If your rad isn't new or can't be trusted for whatever reason, drain to waste.
I want to cool 8kW of bare bulbs in one space. How many Tons of cooling do I need? My guess is just under three, but I want to make sure it's up to the job of dehuey as well. Dues that mean extra capacity? I don't care if the setup ends up tall, but it must have a small footprint, like six ft² or less.
