So i have 3 black bubble buckets in a 4x4 grow tent with a 600watt light and pretty good ventalation. but my water temp is around 83'f and the room temp is 80 ish lights on and 75 ish lights off. the water temp is what concerns me though. how do i lower it without spending a ton of money on a water chiller? and will this high water temp cause the leaves to droop? i found my plants all droopy this morning and assumed it was the water temp.. I dont know though. any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am running buckets at around the same temperature as you. My plants droop by the end of the 18 hour lights ON shift. I was told to get my temps lower to 70 - 75ish and that it would help. It also may be because i have just transplanted as well. I would also re cover your buckets with aluminum tape as black tends to absorb heat.
How do you transplant in bubble buckets.. lol. An easy way to chill the water (very bulky and not efficient though) is to get a mini-fridge, about 10-20 feet of flexible tubing and a water pump. Drill two holes slightly bigger than the flexible tubing diameter into the side of the mini-fridge. Coil the tubing up and put the coil inside the fridge with the ends running through the holes and out. So now hook the intake of the water pump up to the DRAIN on your bubble bucket, and the flow should go through the fridge/coil of tube and back into the bucket. Silicone seal the holes in the fridge to keep it tightly insulated.. This should keep your res nice and chilly
why does the res have to be so cold? another thing i saw was those refrigerated coolers that plug in. Just have that as an extra res plus cooling.
I don't chill my res at all, but I use CFLs and the room is pretty well ventilated so there is no heat issue..
Remember in Hydro we are trying to emulate "natural" conditions, and dirt keeps the roots; a) hidden from light b) just the right temp (aka colder in the day, and warmer in the night). When the temps in the root zone get too high, or too low the plant can't take up nutrients as well or at all in some cases. Also if the root/water temp is too high in hydro setup it invites root fungus. Wrapping in black could cause the heat retention in the buckets. I'd try wrapping them in reflective tape as suggested. Also keep in mind once the plants get bigger they will block a good amount of direct light to the buckets, thus keeping cooler temps in the res. 70-75 degrees is a good suggestion. But I remember the Aero-Space-Shuttle by Earl ... he kept his res at 68 degrees. This is optimal for the roots to take up as much nutes as possible. So I'd go 68-73 and try and keep it there. hope this helps
cool. Thanks for the speedy replies. Think im gonna try the reflective tape and hope it cools it down a little. I also moved the light up a little further around 24" insteed of 14", where i had it. so we'll see, ill keep you guys posted.
I wonder if you were to hook up a mini cooler in series with the buckets....the natural convection of the heated water being cooled would create a slow current through the tubes therefore no need for a pond pump.