DWC Resivior temp

DWC reservoir temps are best when they're kept under 70 degrees F. Daytime room temps are fine between 74-81 or so, but regardless of what those are, reservoir temps should always be kept under 70 degrees F. You can maybe get away with 75, but that's still asking for root issues. I personally try to keep my reservoir temps in the mid 60's, but that's just me.

 

DWC reservoir temps are best when they're kept under 70 degrees F. Daytime room temps are fine between 74-81 or so, but regardless of what those are, reservoir temps should always be kept under 70 degrees F. You can maybe get away with 75, but that's still asking for root issues. I personally try to keep my reservoir temps in the mid 60's, but that's just me.

 

How did that double post happen??

 

You're probably right lol.

Water chillers, but they're pretty expensive. Frozen water bottles. Those blue ice blocks tend to last much longer than the water bottles though. How many plants are you planning on growing?

 

cooling coils a stainless steel one though friend of mine even made his own last year works well he says and no electricity used too

 

I came up with a little chiller system that I've been using in my last 3 DWC growths without any issues. It requires no electricity, but you have to make sure to change the blue ice blocks when needed. It's not necessarily what you think lol. However, since I only grow 2 plants at a time, I haven't tried this with more than 2 buckets. It may not be for everyone, but it seems to work for me and it keeps my reservoir temps in the 60's and doesn't touch the roots even once. I had explained this once before in a different forum a while back. I'll just copy and paste my explanation from that conversation here:

Anyway, it’s basically a shallow reservoir with just water and a couple of those blue ice blocks. Then you place your growing buckets into the water reservoir. For some reason those last much, much longer than just frozen water bottles. I use two to three of those ice blocks and it keeps my temps down in the low to mid 60’s for a good 12 hours (at least for me). I change them as needed. So whatever temps are in the water reservoir, those same temps will be in the nutrient reservoir. This way I don’t have to be adding ice blocks directly into the nutrient reservoir and disturbing the root system, etc. Afterward you can cover the water reservoir with black/white poly material so light won’t enter and keep the temps cooler, longer. Water chillers did cross my mind, but my budget doesn’t allow and I just want to use less electrical devices as possible. It has been working for me for years without any issues. Water reservoir can be any size, but I recommend the short shallow ones. Even a smaller, shallow one that can just barely handle a 5-gallon bucket and a couple of ice blocks will work fine too. Hope this helps give someone some ideas for a cheaper way of lowering their reservoir temps. The first pic is a sample of what I described above. The second pic is an actual setup I had for one of my seedlings using a 3-gallon bucket. I transplanted into a 5-gallon bucket right before I flipped. Hope that helps or gives you some ideas. Good luck.

 

I usually just put the buckets into the water reservoir, add the blue ice blocks, then just add as much water as it can hold without spilling out. The more water, the better imo because it tends to last colder longer. This is the one I used:

 

Just a little advice though. I'm not sure what's your technique when changing the nutrients from your bucket, but I usually use a small pump similar to the one below to pump it out of the bucket, then I use a funnel to pour the new nutes back into the bucket. However, doing it this way tends to make the bucket float up as the bucket becomes more empty. This becomes a problem because then the whole freakin plant will come tumbling down like a tree on your head lol. To prevent this I would tie the bucket down with something or have someone hold it down so it won't float up. Once in flower it tends to happen less and less because the plant obviously gets bigger and heavier. Another technique is to just lift the bucket out and onto a towel because it'll be wet. Do your thing or even change to a different bucket with the new nutes and change the net pot with the plant into the new bucket, then place it back into the water reservoir. I can't do the latter due to back issues, so I do the first one.

 

Sounds like a plan and you're very welcome.

 

Many factors need to be taken into consideration here. First, the room temps will also affect the temps of the water reservoir. If the room temps are high, then obviously the water temps will go up faster. The temps of the lights will also affect the temps of the water res. This is why I also covered the reservoir with that black/white poly material as shown in one of the pics I provided above. Doing that blocks a lot of the light rays from heating up the res as well. I usually use 3 ice blocks and change them every 6 hours or so. My grow room doesn't get so hot, so that sort of helps me as well. Also, whenever I fill the water res, I always start off with cold water. Sometimes I even have a pitcher or two of water in the fridge to add to the res the first time around. As I mentioned above I only grow 2 plants at a time, so to me it wasn't much of a hassle changing the ice blocks.

 

I'm glad it's working out for you, man. Yea it was just a matter of first getting the water res to the proper temps, then once that's done, you wait a bit until the nute res temps catch up to the water res temps. Once those two temps are more or less even, it's just a matter of changing the blocks on time before they reach dangerous levels.The black/white poly material really helps keep those temps down as well as not allowing fungi crap to form in the water res.

BTW what size of those blue ice blocks are you using? I use the 8"x5" blocks.

You're very welcome my friend.