I read a week or two back about a guy who let his res temp get to mid 80s

and it is no problem when running hiesenburg tea consistently. Any insight on this? Anyone else agree?

With teas I wouldn't let it go above mid 70s and without 68-70 just my take.

test it and let us know, i would like to know if ive been doing it wrong all these years.

My temperature has gotten well into the mid 80's in my RDWC units= and I do not use Heisenberg Tea.

IF you have enough dissolved oxygen being pumped into them, no light leaks, and good water movement, then algae will not be able to survive. You should always aim to keep reservoir temperature as low as possible, but if you can't, for whatever reason, it is cheaper to buy another high output air pump and fountain pump so as to eliminate algae growth, rather than buy a $400-500 aquarium chiller.

I use 45LPM for my 15 gal reservoirs, BUT I only fill them to around 7 or 8 gallons - and I have a 120 GPH water pump recirculating at the bottom of each res.

that pump is why you have warm res temps. enough air is enough circulation

Microbe tea can help guard against temporarily high res temps, but shouldn't be used as a patch to fix constant high temps. The tea may save you from root disease in these conditions, but your plant will still not be getting what it needs, especially if it is in high production. Anything over 80f does not leave much room for DO, and microbes themselves place an even bigger demand on DO. Also, I wonder how high the room temp is to heat the res to 80+, and if the room isn't hot then the res is getting heat from elsewhere.

You know how I solved my temp problems? I just don't check them and I use Aqua Shield as directed.

I found that a high amount of heat comes from the air pump itself. I have one of the commercial ones. I forget exact size but I could run 16 buckets with no problem except for the heat that it put in the water. stopped using it and got a few cheap pumps from the pet store. They run much cooler and are only about $15 a pop.

faller200 said:

I found that a high amount of heat comes from the air pump itself. I have one of the commercial ones. I forget exact size but I could run 16 buckets with no problem except for the heat that it put in the water. stopped using it and got a few cheap pumps from the pet store. They run much cooler and are only about $15 a pop.

Click to expand...

I noticed this too.. I used to keep my air-pumps high near ceiling but they were so hot, even to touch. I then suspended them with yoyo hangers and dropped them too the floor in front of my fans or air movers and they are cool to touch now and my buckets dropped a few degrees as well. I have the yoyo hangers attached to ceiling then pumps are attached to bungee cords to dampen vibration works like a champ, and the pumps now will probably last year or two longer then being burning hot all the time. Simple thinking like this separates the non-problem good growers from the ones who never think "what if.."

BigBuddahCheese said:

I noticed this too.. I used to keep my air-pumps high near ceiling but they were so hot, even to touch. I then suspended them with yoyo hangers and dropped them too the floor in front of my fans or air movers and they are cool to touch now and my buckets dropped a few degrees as well. I have the yoyo hangers attached to ceiling then pumps are attached to bungee cords to dampen vibration works like a champ, and the pumps now will probably last year or two longer then being burning hot all the time. Simple thinking like this separates the non-problem good growers from the ones who never think "what if.."

Click to expand...

Thats how I do my air pump also. Makes it a lot quieter also..I hear people talking about not liking the yoyo,s . I use them and really like them.

commercial air pumps, especially HO, do have some heat to them; and yes, a water pump recirculating at the bottom of the reservoir does affect the temperatures by +2-3 degrees F,
but I KNOW that my nutrient solutions are being circulated evenly and further oxygenating the res, and above all else - I have shrubs 25-27 inches tall after 35 days of veg

My buckets float from 65-75 throughout the 12 hour period between swapping ice bottles and I have nothing going on in my res running just aquashield. Sometimes I get lazy/busy/forgetful and skip an ice bottle rotation with no problems. However, I've been changing my buckets once every week - week and a half lately.

That said, I would like to pick up some more rubbermaid/igloo coolers to stabilize my temps more. I have a 3 gallon rubbermaid cooler and it keeps my nutes 65-70 for 12+ hours.