Cooling devices for tank?
- Thread starter mangane
- Start date
chillers , made for aquariums will do the trick but are very expensive others might know some tricks
you may also want to look into some computer overclocking radiators that might do the trick for no more than you need to lower it. basically its a small radiator with a fan attached will bring water down to around ambient temps.
rmccinc719
Member
stick some frozen water bottles in your rez. change them out when they thaw. bingo cheap easy way to drop a few degrees.
cygnus
Member
The frozen bottle dance may be performed for a time, but really, there is no substitute for a chiller.
Yes. I know they are expensive. In many cases they are the single most expensive element of your hydro gear setup you will purchase.
You didn't mention how big your rez is. That will impact on how powerful (and how expensive) a chiller you will require.
Please do be sure to check CL and Kijiji for used chillers. That is usually your best bet for a good deal.
Sorry that the response back is something you don't want to hear. I truly do understand. Still, that doesn't change the answer.
Yes. I know they are expensive. In many cases they are the single most expensive element of your hydro gear setup you will purchase.
You didn't mention how big your rez is. That will impact on how powerful (and how expensive) a chiller you will require.
Please do be sure to check CL and Kijiji for used chillers. That is usually your best bet for a good deal.
Sorry that the response back is something you don't want to hear. I truly do understand. Still, that doesn't change the answer.
hi, mangane!
the first thing that comes to mind is res volume. the larger the res the less it reacts.
if you have concrete or tile floors put your res, which should have a flat bottom to maximize contact, right down on the floor. giant heat sink.
put a fan on the res as albireo suggest. make sure that the fan is on the intake side so it's not pulling water into itself.
i know someone who ran their entire home cold water supply through coils in the res. he used plastic coils. most places the cold water is 55-60f. everytime you wash, wash clothes, dishes, etc, or flush you will be removing heat.
lastly, and i have done this myself, you can take your ro water filter bypass water and run it through coils.
examine your lights on schedule to see if you can run during a cooler time of the day.
hope this helps.
the first thing that comes to mind is res volume. the larger the res the less it reacts.
if you have concrete or tile floors put your res, which should have a flat bottom to maximize contact, right down on the floor. giant heat sink.
put a fan on the res as albireo suggest. make sure that the fan is on the intake side so it's not pulling water into itself.
i know someone who ran their entire home cold water supply through coils in the res. he used plastic coils. most places the cold water is 55-60f. everytime you wash, wash clothes, dishes, etc, or flush you will be removing heat.
lastly, and i have done this myself, you can take your ro water filter bypass water and run it through coils.
examine your lights on schedule to see if you can run during a cooler time of the day.
hope this helps.
This is the best solution. Before buying a chiller, I did the frozen water bottle thing and wired a pc fan to blow right on the res. First, you'd think frozen waterbottles would take a while to thaw- negative, Ghost Rider. Me & my partner were putting a new frozen 2 liters filled w/ water in the res every 2 hours or so- and that was during the plants' night time. If we didn't, the res temps would soar into the 70s and our res would get nasty. Second, the fan helped, but it got caked with salt residue. Also, I'm convinced that the light that seeped into the rez by having it exposed so the fan could cool it contributed to algae- which would flourish when the res temps got above 70.
Long story short: we bought a chiller and never had these problems again. At the time, we bought a brand new one for $500 out the door. Since then, I was able to find a slightly used chiller for $150 on craigslist. Works like a charm to cool my rainforest unit , which has a 17 gallon res. It could easily cool more than that. A tip for picking out a chiller- go a bit bigger than necessary. If your res is 10 gallons, get a chiller that can cool 25 or 30 gallons by 20 deg F. Just my 2 cents.
I expect that the OP, using what he describes as an NFT hydro system under only 400watts, has relatively modest cooling needs. A 1/12 or 1/10 HP unit should do it with a little power to spare.
There are three chiller options available at the lower end of the scale.
1) There is the IceProbe. While the company than manufactured the IceProbe is out of business, there are still new units for sale. The probe is drilled into the side of the rez and screwed into place like a bulkhead fitting. The probe on the inside, the thermo block and fan on the outside. Think of it as something that looks like an oversized CPU heat sink and fan with a bulkhead plastic filter fitting on top of it and you won't be far off. The downside is that the IceProbe is a Peltier (thermo-electric) cooling device, not very strong at all and extremely energy inefficient. I would not go this direction -- but it is an option.
2) Peltier In line Cooler. You could get what appears to be a traditional chiller, but which is simply another thermo-electric not much different than the IceProbe in operating principle. The Imperial Garden CL85, say, would fit that description. I would caution against getting a thermo-electric, but given the size of his rez, this would probably work. The up front cost will be offset over the course of time (and not all that long) by the significantly increased energy bill though - so there is a hidden gotcha at work here. Resale value on these units is low and they do wear out much faster than a traditional freon gas chiller.
3) Traditional Chiller. The best bet is to get a traditional freon and titanium tubing based chiller, say 1/12 or 1/10 HP in size. They can be purchased new for about $300, should last as long as your typical fridge (read - a hella long time) and are as energy efficient as it gets when it comes to active cooling. They are relatively silent and rock-solid reliable. Should the OP wish to sell it at some point, it has a reasonably decent resale value among saltwater aquarium hobbyists and - of course - hydro growers. If the OP has any thoughts of increasing the size of his grow (or changing hydro methods) in the next 24 months, I'd consider getting a slightly larger chiller than he actually needs right now so that he has the capacity to expand.
Brass tacks: $300-$400 should cover the cost of a new small traditional chiller unit, plus pump (almost all of them require a separate inline pump to function -- not included in the price), large pump filter bag, pipe and fittings. Used, you can save 50% of that cost, but people tend to acquire a chiller only when they need it right now, so they usually don't have the luxury of waiting for a used one of the right size to come up for sale in their area.
Shipping costs on traditional chillers tends to be higher as they are relatively heavy pieces of equipment. It's essentially rapid cooling fridge technolgy, after all. Do wach out for that as a potential gotcha when ordering online and shop around for an all inclusive UPS shipping cost you can live with.
There are three chiller options available at the lower end of the scale.
1) There is the IceProbe. While the company than manufactured the IceProbe is out of business, there are still new units for sale. The probe is drilled into the side of the rez and screwed into place like a bulkhead fitting. The probe on the inside, the thermo block and fan on the outside. Think of it as something that looks like an oversized CPU heat sink and fan with a bulkhead plastic filter fitting on top of it and you won't be far off. The downside is that the IceProbe is a Peltier (thermo-electric) cooling device, not very strong at all and extremely energy inefficient. I would not go this direction -- but it is an option.
2) Peltier In line Cooler. You could get what appears to be a traditional chiller, but which is simply another thermo-electric not much different than the IceProbe in operating principle. The Imperial Garden CL85, say, would fit that description. I would caution against getting a thermo-electric, but given the size of his rez, this would probably work. The up front cost will be offset over the course of time (and not all that long) by the significantly increased energy bill though - so there is a hidden gotcha at work here. Resale value on these units is low and they do wear out much faster than a traditional freon gas chiller.
3) Traditional Chiller. The best bet is to get a traditional freon and titanium tubing based chiller, say 1/12 or 1/10 HP in size. They can be purchased new for about $300, should last as long as your typical fridge (read - a hella long time) and are as energy efficient as it gets when it comes to active cooling. They are relatively silent and rock-solid reliable. Should the OP wish to sell it at some point, it has a reasonably decent resale value among saltwater aquarium hobbyists and - of course - hydro growers. If the OP has any thoughts of increasing the size of his grow (or changing hydro methods) in the next 24 months, I'd consider getting a slightly larger chiller than he actually needs right now so that he has the capacity to expand.
Brass tacks: $300-$400 should cover the cost of a new small traditional chiller unit, plus pump (almost all of them require a separate inline pump to function -- not included in the price), large pump filter bag, pipe and fittings. Used, you can save 50% of that cost, but people tend to acquire a chiller only when they need it right now, so they usually don't have the luxury of waiting for a used one of the right size to come up for sale in their area.
Shipping costs on traditional chillers tends to be higher as they are relatively heavy pieces of equipment. It's essentially rapid cooling fridge technolgy, after all. Do wach out for that as a potential gotcha when ordering online and shop around for an all inclusive UPS shipping cost you can live with.
I've posted a couple of times suggesting peeps try using an operating fridge for their chiller. Remove all the shelves, drill 2 holes for piping in and out, set the fridge's thermostat and that's it. I don't do hydro, so I haven't needed to build one, but I'll bet it would work great. A good used fridge will run you about $200. What do you guys think??
This approach has been tried on multiple occasions using a dorm style fridge. It does not work well enough to bother.
If you placed enough tubing inside of a dorm style fridge, preferably so that it was in contact with liquid to conduct instead of air, say - immersed in a bath of chilled water inside the fridge - this would work. Problem is, the cost of the titanium tubing quickly renders this solution uneconomical and copper pipe is a no go when used for a hydroponic application. The reports of those who have tried it with garden hose or plastic piping colied in air within the bar fridge is that it does not work to lower the temps more than a couple of degrees.
If you have access to a large used fridge, you could put your entire rez inside the fridge. This will work if you can manage to keep the temps high enough (they can get too cold keeping the whole rez in the fridge), but for the most part, it just isn't practical for most growers.
If you are looking for a cheap-ass solution, you can purchase a plug-in radiator style water cooler off of Craigslist (traditional 5 gallon jug in top), take it apart, and dangle the chiller probe into the rez. This will work for 30-40 gallon or so, provided the ambient temp is not too high and you are only looking to lower the temps by 5-7 degrees. Problem with this is that the whole thing is being repurposed with lines under pressure that can easily be damaged as you move your gear around to simply change the rez water, it's ugly as sin, not very stealthy, and the length of the lines is such that you're inevitably placing your radiator within a few feet of your rez. Noise can become an issue if stealth is a concern. YMMV.
If you can find a recirculating chiller used in the bar trade to to chill beer before it hits the tap - those will work fine in a small rez. The Maxicool brand works reasonably well according to some growers (and aquarists). But they are loud, energy inefficient and expensive enough that an aquarium chiller is a much better bet unless you find your draft beer chiller used.
At the end of the day, if you want a chiller? You need to buy a chiller. I know it sucks - a lot - and it's a price a lot of people would like to avoid. For all that, the answer doesn't change just because we don't like the cost of it. For trouble free hydroponic growing, that's pretty much the way it is - unless your growing environment provides a natural heat sink such as a very cool bare concrete basement floor which effectively does your chilling for you. In some cases, your basement situation may be such that you could choose to dig a hole in your concrete floor and sink the rez right into the ground, too, using the ground as a natural heat sink. Given the potential impact on the resale value of your home, I wouldn't do this, personally, but that's me. YMMV.
Longhair
Member
Or just get one with the fan already to go.
Hello,
Where Did You Find This One?
Thank You
Longhair
Thank you very much for all your words, it helps me a lot to find an happy ending....
My growroom is an entire room with temp between 80 to 90 deg f under the ligthbulb(room is about 10ftx10ft), my res tank is a 17 galons at 80deg f
The point is that i`m not in the us, so i would have to ship the chiller by air and the cost will be amazing... i could spend a 200 or 300 undreds for a chiller but not much then that!!!
So i was reconsidering about few way out: 1.having the water tank in a small fridge
or 2. climing the room with air/co (will be enought to cool down my tank?)
one or the other of those points will cheaper then freigthing a chiller....
read you boys, and thank you very much again for your help
:::::::
THE U
:::::::
My growroom is an entire room with temp between 80 to 90 deg f under the ligthbulb(room is about 10ftx10ft), my res tank is a 17 galons at 80deg f
The point is that i`m not in the us, so i would have to ship the chiller by air and the cost will be amazing... i could spend a 200 or 300 undreds for a chiller but not much then that!!!
So i was reconsidering about few way out: 1.having the water tank in a small fridge
or 2. climing the room with air/co (will be enought to cool down my tank?)
one or the other of those points will cheaper then freigthing a chiller....
read you boys, and thank you very much again for your help
:::::::
THE U
:::::::
cygnus
Member
Jegs.com
ItsAllOver
Devil's Advocate
