Recommendations on chillers?

[natureschild]

I have a hydroponic setup with 5 reservoirs, each holding 25 gallons when full. I keep temps in my room at 85F with co2, which causes the reservoirs to run warm as well. They are usually in the low to mid 80s F. I have a powerful aerator powering all 5 reservoirs. Each reservoir also has its own pump with a filter recirculating the water, I clean the filters daily to remove algae from the res.

Even with the filters, my res's still have a lot of funky stuff (algae I'm guessing) floating around, and I have to drain them all the way down and scrub the shit out of them at least once a month.

Would a chiller in each reservoir prevent this algae? If so, what size chiller do I need to cool 25 gallons from 84 degrees down to 70 degrees? Does anybody have some specific models that they really like?

Do I even need to keep the water cooled since I am aerating the water anyway? I think the ladies could look better and might like it if there wasn't so much algae in their food.

 

[natureschild]

Additionally:

I've tried using H2O2 in the past to remove the algae. I haven't had much luck with this. I usually add 2 capfulls of H2O2 every other day.

 

[bigganjabud]

You do cover your resivoirs dont you?

From what i know about nutes and water they really dont like light and that will promote green/slimey algi growth

Your res shouldnt be higher than around 21 degrees celcius

Also airation is brilliant but maybe try a fluming pump aswell as the higher the res temp the lower the disolved oxygen mate

Hope that helps

Jta im debating a chiller at the moment aswell im looking at the helia models

 

[natureschild]

One more thing:

Each reservoir has a top on it and I have blocked out as much light as possible within reason.

 

[natureschild]

I'm reading more about algae and everyone keeps referring to it as "green algae." The stuff I'm seeing in my tanks is more of a yellow/brownish color, and swirls around the reservoirs in semi solid chunks.

^^ In response to bigganjabud, the way I have my recirculating pumps set up in the res it shoots water up toward the surface, so they act as both filters and flooms.

 

[bigganjabud]

Ok well are you using chem feeds and organic addys? Or vice versa?

What root stim are you usin? Hygrozyme?

 

[natureschild]

All chem no organics. No root stim either, this issue is only in flowering not in veg.

I'm pretty set on getting a chiller as I've already tried a lot of other things to get around the same issues I keep running into (ph swings, algae, could have healthier fan leaves, not the whitest roots 2 weeks into flower).

Would a 1/10th horsepower chiller give me a 15 F temp drop in a 25 gallon res? Or do I need something stronger?

 

[bigganjabud]

Im baffled

Whats your whole nutrients schedual?

I really suggest a root enzyme if you aint got one

 

[timmur]

All chem no organics. No root stim either, this issue is only in flowering not in veg.

I'm pretty set on getting a chiller as I've already tried a lot of other things to get around the same issues I keep running into (ph swings, algae, could have healthier fan leaves, not the whitest roots 2 weeks into flower).

Would a 1/10th horsepower chiller give me a 15 F temp drop in a 25 gallon res? Or do I need something stronger?

Are you planning on 1/10 th hp for all of the reservoirs? If so you need more like 1/2 hp or so. You could use cooling coils into each res with one larger chiller.

 

[natureschild]

Are you planning on 1/10 th hp for all of the reservoirs? If so you need more like 1/2 hp or so. You could use cooling coils into each res with one larger chiller.

I was originally thinking a 1/10 hp for each res, but I really like the idea of having one big chiller to cool all 5 reservoirs.

Would I need to fill the coil with a coolant such as freon? Or would water be sufficient?

What would be the best material to use for constructing the coil? Copper pops up in my head first, but I'm not sure if the nutrients would cause it to corrode. What material do you typically use for a coil?

Lastly, I know that the bigger I make a coil inside of a reservoir, the most efficient it will be at cooling. But how long of a coil would be "too long?" Since I would be running it through 5 reservoirs, I want to make sure it is still cooling by the time it gets to the last reservoir.

Thanks a lot for the help this post just really opened my eyes and could save me a ton of money!

 

[dubberz]

Sorry, I can't help you with dimensioning a chiller - or its coil, but one idea pops up in my mind:

Someone on this forum posted a success story about simply attaching an aquarium filter to the (aquarium) pump in his reservoir; maybe this is a quick (and rather cheap) fix for you?

 

[timmur]

I was originally thinking a 1/10 hp for each res, but I really like the idea of having one big chiller to cool all 5 reservoirs.

Would I need to fill the coil with a coolant such as freon? Or would water be sufficient?

What would be the best material to use for constructing the coil? Copper pops up in my head first, but I'm not sure if the nutrients would cause it to corrode. What material do you typically use for a coil?

Lastly, I know that the bigger I make a coil inside of a reservoir, the most efficient it will be at cooling. But how long of a coil would be "too long?" Since I would be running it through 5 reservoirs, I want to make sure it is still cooling by the time it gets to the last reservoir.

Thanks a lot for the help this post just really opened my eyes and could save me a ton of money!

Copper will leech into the water and will not be good for the plants. The stainless coil is best. You need a water res, pump, and coils. The chiller cools the water res and the pump pushes chilled water through the coil which is immersed into hydro res. In your case you'd need five coils. Not sure how big the coils need to be. Give Hydro Innovations a call and they will square you away.

 

[queequeg152]

plants will be fine with elevated copper. its fish that cannot tolerate even low PPM levels.

you can check my facts... but i understand that plants tolerate divalent copper up to like 50 ppm or mg/l?

unless the water is super corrosive ( basic and low LSI index) it will never reach such levels of copper. that being said, copper for an expansion coil meant for full immersion is still a bad idea. i doubt that they even offer copper expansion coils.

you really dont need a chiller to kill the algea. just use some chlorine. I highly reccomend the FAS DPD titration chlorine tester made by taylor.

its like 30 bucks... spendy for a chlorine test kit, but its top notch. Fas DPD is titration test with the equivelance point being clear... meaning its VERY easy to get accurate readings without comparing color charts etc.

calcium hypo or sodium hypo work fine. though it sounds like you have a rather severe bloom of algea... id suggest scrubbing out what you can get to... changing the water and trying to hold 5ish ppm free chlorine for several hours.

it you cannot hold that chlorine level at all... the algea bloom is likely so large that it will require super chlorination which you may or may not be comfortable with.

dropping water temps to fight algae is silly. will it work? yea, but its not necessary at all.

 

[natureschild]

dropping water temps to fight algae is silly. will it work? yea, but its not necessary at all.

Thanks for the response, very helpful. However I don't want to drop the temp just for the algae, I'm also trying to get more oxygen into the roots. My understanding is that 65 degree water will hold a much higher oxygen level than 85 degree water, which is my current temp.

A few of my friends have also told me that my high water temps are just bad for the plants anyway. I haven't found much proof online to back this up, but if anybody has facts or opinions to weigh in on the matter I'm all ears.

 

[queequeg152]

Thanks for the response, very helpful. However I don't want to drop the temp just for the algae, I'm also trying to get more oxygen into the roots. My understanding is that 65 degree water will hold a much higher oxygen level than 85 degree water, which is my current temp.

A few of my friends have also told me that my high water temps are just bad for the plants anyway. I haven't found much proof online to back this up, but if anybody has facts or opinions to weigh in on the matter I'm all ears.

its true that colder water holds more oxygen.

its just not that much more. certainly not enough to warrant spending a shit load on chillers.

dissolved oxygen is usually not even the limiting factor in plant growth regardless.

cant post pictures with

 

[timmur]

Dissolved O2 has a pretty significant impact on yield particularly when other factors are optimized. Whether it is "worth it" or not is a simple ROI calculation. Follow the link for some relevant research.

 

[natureschild]

One last thing I failed to mention earlier, ph swings. I can usually only get to my grow every other day - I set ph to 5.7 every time I leave, when I come back 2 days later it has risen to anywhere between 6.1 and 6.4.

A major factor in why I want to add the chiller(s) is to keep ph more constant at 5.8. By the time I reach week 3 or 5 many of the plants have a yellowing throughout major fan leaves. I've chased phantom deficiencies for a couple years and the only thing I haven't tried at this point is keeping the ph more stable.

I've read that cooler water does not swing the ph as fast as warm water will. I'm hoping there is fact behind this??

 

[queequeg152]

its your money obviously. if you are running a dwc system... perhaps the small additional increase in dissolved oxygen could help to some extent. though its my understanding that its not the liimiting factor.
plants can take up oxygen in areas other than the roots. roots not submerged also move oxygen... in most dwc systems there is a lovely little area around the surface where bubbles poping create an almost aeroponic like environment where fine root hairs thrive...

regading water ph and oxygen.

i dont see how oxygen alone would prevent ph swings.

its true that micro organisms can swing ph, and its true that lower temps will retard microb growth for the most part... but thats about the only connection i can draw between the two.

if your ph is constantly rising... consider adding more ammonium to the mix, as the uptake of ammonium results in the expulsion of a hydronium(acid). its a very common technique used in recirculating systems.