Hi I am new to the forum and did do a search before asking this question Is anybody using the Active Aqua Chiller? Have got the 1/4 HP unit and am having troubles keeping the water temp below 78 which in turn is keeping the hut at 80 - 85 degrees and I cant get it cool. When the grow light is not on the water temp goes down to 40 - 45 degrees over a few hours (that is where its set) and works perfectly but within an hour or 2 the temps are back up to around 80 - 85. The current set up is 4 x 4 silver edition grow hut, ebb and grow hydro system set up for 6 plants, 1000 Watt halide bulb with air cooled reflector, vortex 8 inch power fan and chill box that was purchased with the chiller. It was purchased a week ago and it was set up step by step according to the instructions and diagram and it stopped cooling after an hour. We have made a few changes to see if we could improve it (shorten the lines) used less water (currently have 25 gallons in the reservoir) and changed the pump size from a 550 GPH to a 1000 GPH. I thought the pump size may have been the problem but the non cooling is happening exactly the same with both pumps. Could the chiller size be too small for this set up? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
The black barrel rez? If so then its probably absorbing heat faster then the rez chiller can cool the water. Try putting the rez outside of the tent and see what happens, if it helps you know the light was heating it up. Also get some flash gro reflective film or back and white polly and wrap the rez with it so see what happens. The flash/b&w would reflect the light and hopefully let the chiller keep the water cool. Also if the buckets are black then they'll also contribute to the heat exchange.
Thanks for your fast reply! That is one change we did on the weekend, we covered it with reflective insulation and its in a wardrobe about 2 feet from the grow hut so its getting no heat at all. The only things in the grow hut are the plants and we are still having the same overheating problems.
Are you getting any error codes on the unit? Did you make sure your pump was cycling before you fired it up?
Not getting any error codes on the unit....and the pump was cycling before it was fired up. We leave the chiller and pump on 24 hours and are on a 18 hour lights on/6 hours lights off cycle. The grow light has been off for 2 hours now and its cooling down from 80 degrees and its currently 65. By the time the light comes back on again in 4 hours it will have gone down to 50 - 55 degrees and then it just takes only a few hours to get back to 80 degrees. Its puzzling.....
Sounds like when your light is on an area is heating that the "soup" makes contact with. The "soup" can't get rid of that much heat. Maybe you should thermal isolate (wrap) the tank or buckets or anything exposed to the light. Either that or get a bigger chiller. IMO I would forget ebb and flow and just go with a recirculating soup.
The problem is your air temp is directly proportionate to the water temp. You should be getting a delta t of 10 - 15 deg across your coil (i.e. if the entering water temp is 40 deg it should leave at 50 deg or higher). If this is working then your larger pump may hurt instead of help the problem, because it adds to the heat load, and transfers heat to your res faster. If your entering water temperature is to high (this sounds like your problem) then the coil will not be able to remove enough heat from the air. To lower you res temp, place it somewhere colder, make it larger, add fresh water, or invest in a cooling tower.
bro what I would do since you got the chiller, they sell a small ratiator that hooks up in a loop with your chiller and attaches to you light refector. your problem is the heat from the light. cool the light problem solved. keeps the whole tent at 70s. you can not hook it in with your res, only light with ratiator attachment. if your tent is 70's your water is 70's
I know this thread is old, but i'll answer it anyone in case anyone else finds this thread on Google like I just did The biggest problem I see in your setup is that you were already using an overpowered pump (550GPH), then you upgraded to an even more powerful pump (1000GPH). Chillers need slower pumps to be able to efficiently cool the water. Also, the larger the pump is, the more heat it will add to your reservoir. The largest pump recommended for the Active Aqua chillers is 250GPH, but 160GPH would make the water even colder.