Cheap Chiller Alternatives & Res Temps

Hi all, I just wanted to share this. I'm sure the link has been found before. But I am going to stitch one of these up as my new reservoir chiller and will share results along the way here.my goal here is to build a cheap water "heatsink" with environmentally sealed electronics and high portability. The plan is to have the heatsink set on top of the res to keep the copper waterblock out of the water this will only run during the lights on cycle to reduce on power consumption and I am hoping that it will be rather self-maintaining and not result in large temperature fluctuations within the system.
Anyways, here's the meat and potatoes and I want to give a shout out to Mike Walker for sharing this video (I know that it's not an original idea, but this guy is the truth if you need help troubleshooting your system, subscribe and shoot him a message!)

I've been looking at the same thing man, bought some components and going to giv it a try with a 5gallon res

it is really worth it to just bite the bullet and get a good chiller
https://www.amazon.com/Active-Aqua-Chiller-10-HP/dp/B0048IVBT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483681466&sr=8-1&keywords=Active+Aqua+Chiller,+1/10+HP

or i take the cold fresh air from outside. pull in with a 6 inch fan witch ducting and have blow over water pump and it works great. but in summer this will not work.

I use frozen water bottles. Clean the outside of the bottle first of course. I run a every 12 hours for each plant so 2 a day per plant.

zabster151 said:

it is really worth it to just bite the bullet and get a good chiller
https://www.amazon.com/Active-Aqua-Chiller-10-HP/dp/B0048IVBT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483681466&sr=8-1&keywords=Active+Aqua+Chiller,+1/10+HP

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I would agree that in hydro water temp and level are the two most critical factors, but I also think that the commercially available chillers are a little bit bulky for what I would like to do. If the peltier coolers prove successful I would kinda like to integrate it with a nutrient doser and reservoir monitor that are hooked up with a RasPi and actuated with an IDE controller. It would make it really easy to feed away from home.
The only thing I'm worried about is I hear a lot of bad solenoid failure stories, so I might just ditch the doser, because the food used in my systems stays at a relatively good hydrogen potential... worst case is they don't get as many minerals pumped haha...

xitears said:

I use frozen water bottles. Clean the outside of the bottle first of course. I run a every 12 hours for each plant so 2 a day per plant.

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Simple and effective. My goal is to make a less hands on approach, but this method is tried and true. Do you notice any sort of temperature shock by using these? I suppose it would be hard to tell if you don't have a side by side comparison with plants on a chiller. I'm wondering how much temperature difference is TOO much?

johnsmithusername said:

I've been looking at the same thing man, bought some components and going to giv it a try with a 5gallon res

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Awesome, keep me posted and I'll do the same.. I just bought my parts and cannibalized a heatsink last night so mine should be ready within the next two weeks. I'm thinking to kick on the cooler an hour after the lights turn on and figure out a good even pattern for an on/off cycle. I'm also thinking I'll set it up in a small sealed Coleman cooler. I figure it'll help insulate the res a decent bit.

No I can happily say I see no change in the res temp. just have to stay on it. it gets easier to maintain during flowering.

zabster151 said:

it is really worth it to just bite the bullet and get a good chiller
https://www.amazon.com/Active-Aqua-Chiller-10-HP/dp/B0048IVBT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483681466&sr=8-1&keywords=Active+Aqua+Chiller,+1/10+HP

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Yes I agree, just buy a water chiller

There is a high likelihood this will not work. Wasting money imo. There are lots of threads on this topic. Most don't pan out.

Out of curiosity how much water will you be cooling and what kind of lights?

Shugglet said:

There is a high likelihood this will not work. Wasting money imo. There are lots of threads on this topic. Most don't pan out.

Out of curiosity how much water will you be cooling and what kind of lights?

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I plan to cool a recirulating dwc res with the brain tank outside tent wich consists of 25litres so like 6 gallons, 200w of cxb3590 @ 1400ma, in a 3x3

4x4 with a 315w CMH and 750W Blackdog Platinum. Custom vented hood for the LED and the CMH bare bulb. 10 gallon ice chest. system carries 8 gallons on a waterfall RDWC system. All the components will be hooked up on a 12V DC power supply outside of the res (including pump) to reduce heat in the res. 5v power supply for the microcontroller (sensor+relay)... I accidentally ordered 20 of these peltier plates x.x so I may wind up making a second if the draw is low enough. Everything wound up being about $18 USD because the heatsink's free and I've got 20 of these peltiers haha...

decided on a 12v 6A adapter to power the plate and fan, hooked up in parallel on a terminal board.

A few months ago, I fought and fought and fought to make this idea work. It's not gonna work. Sorry, Charlie.

JJ43 said:

A few months ago, I fought and fought and fought to make this idea work. It's not gonna work. Sorry, Charlie.

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So informative. Thanks.

I applaud your diy efforts, I am probably the poster boy for diy, however, in this case...

I run RDWC over 20 gallons and use no chiller, in fact I haven't checked temps in over a year. IMO the best and cheapest alternative to a water chiller is weekly reinoculation of the system with microbes (heisenberg style). Top fed systems help with this as the mirobes live mostly in the hydroten, and the nutrient solution gets constantly cleaned as it runs through it. The health of the plants and the growth rate is also much greater with this style, as opposed to running sterile.

Moishe said:

So informative. Thanks.

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Just trying to help you stop wasting your time and money. There is a reason that no one else runs this way, while the idea is nowhere near new.

Diy is cool, I diy a lot.
Peltier chip will not cool your reservoir sufficiently.

DrBlaze said:

I applaud your diy efforts, I am probably the poster boy for diy, however, in this case...

I run RDWC over 20 gallons and use no chiller, in fact I haven't checked temps in over a year. IMO the best and cheapest alternative to a water chiller is weekly reinoculation of the system with microbes (heisenberg style). Top fed systems help with this as the mirobes live mostly in the hydroten, and the nutrient solution gets constantly cleaned as it runs through it. The health of the plants and the growth rate is also much greater with this style, as opposed to running sterile.

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I don't have a sterile system. Sounds like this method is working for you, although this isn't just to deal with rot/anaerobic bacteria, I've had some pretty janky RDWC setups in the past and have done fine without managing reservoir temps. This is mostly just about stepping it up and getting more serious about it all, and my overall goals go beyond this device, I'd like to be able to manage as many aspects of growing remotely through a DIY system consisting of 2 micro-controllers, some sensors, solenoids, relays and a RaspberryPi. But we'll be taking this one step at a time.

I figure my system will be much more manageable with good root zone temps. I'm also hoping to see a difference due to dissolved oxygen content in the water. After all the rhizosphere will have an easier time with cellular activity in these conditions. The idea of better root zone temps is that more food will be available, plants will be able to eat more, and the whole system will just stay a little cleaner

I'm definitely not saying that no one should control water temps. If all other parameters were ideal, then perhaps one might get more performance from their system by fine-tuning the temps. I just don't think it matters as much as some people think. A lot of people think that there is a giant difference in the amount of dissolved oxygen say between 65 and 75 f (18-24 c), but its really not that much:

The difference between 30C and 19C is 15-20%... In a lab experiment, that is quite a big difference. I think that the effect of water temps is much greater than those who ignore them believe. If you get a chance, you should get or make a chiller and test against yourself, you may be surprised... or you may be correct. I'm not entirely certain.

hows it workin?