DWC May Try it Again

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Heres a thought on a DIY chiller, hows about using a small portable camping fridge place a air pump inside of the fridge and let it chill the air than pump it to the buckets it may actually work

 

That is potentially a brilliant idea.  Whether it would work or not is another matter, but fuck me it's worth a try.  If anyone does it, let us all know how it goes.

 

Back when I was growing 15 years ago I had what I guess is a type of dwc. It was 2 black recycle bins. One sat on top of the other.

The bottom was the res and in the top it had 2 of those little sprinklers that people put in there garden.

The water was pumped into the sprinklers and drained back to the bottom. The plants were just in baskets with clay balls that hung through a lid into the top bin. I used that flat out for a few years with no chiller and no issue.

The guy at the hydro shop even talked me into putting an aquirium heater in the res to warm it to 26c. The heater didnt help the plant at all but didnt hurt it either. Again no root rot or any other problems. That shed got stinking hot in summer as well.

 

Yep, that sounds like aeroponics to me as well.  Which was touted as being the ultimate at one point, but haven't heard fuck all about it since.  Done properly it uses foggers rather than sprayers, and I seem to remember foggers clogging up being a problem.

 

In colder weather, a res heater is a must have.  It's the same as needing a chiller in that it's very important to maintain a set temp range for both oxygen levels and comfortable root zone temps so the plants can perform.  26 is too high though, so he gave you bad info, I think (but don't quote me) the ideal range is 18-21 celsius

 

Edit:  probably should add that higher temps like that are for striking clones, but even then I think it's 24 maybe????

[smj81]

That is potentially a brilliant idea. Whether it would work or not is another matter, but fuck me it's worth a try. If anyone does it, let us all know how it goes.

 

 

Yep, that sounds like aeroponics to me as well. Which was touted as being the ultimate at one point, but haven't heard fuck all about it since. Done properly it uses foggers rather than sprayers, and I seem to remember foggers clogging up being a problem.

 

In colder weather, a res heater is a must have. It's the same as needing a chiller in that it's very important to maintain a set temp range for both oxygen levels and comfortable root zone temps so the plants can perform. 26 is too high though, so he gave you bad info, I think (but don't quote me) the ideal range is 18-21 celsius

Fuel injectors would make a nice fine misty spray if it was easy, which it probably isn't

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Fuel injectors would make a nice fine misty spray if it was easy, which it probably isn't

 

Suppose they would, but you'd need a high pressure pump, and would want to find a non electrical way to keep them permanently open.  I'd say it would be more expensive than buying proper foggers, but chances are you'd have some lying around you could Macgyver.  I think (but again don't know) that foggers put out a finer and more dispersed mist, whereas fuel injectors, whilst atomised, still put out more of a spray than a mist.  I wouldn't do it, but feel free.

 

I've always partly wanted to have a go at aero, but these days if I got adventurous I'd have a crack at RDWC instead.  Still finicky, but has more margin for fixing failures before catastrophe IMO.

[smj81]

Suppose they would, but you'd need a high pressure pump, and would want to find a non electrical way to keep them permanently open. I'd say it would be more expensive than buying proper foggers, but chances are you'd have some lying around you could Macgyver. I think (but again don't know) that foggers put out a finer and more dispersed mist, whereas fuel injectors, whilst atomised, still put out more of a spray than a mist. I wouldn't do it, but feel free.

 

I've always partly wanted to have a go at aero, but these days if I got adventurous I'd have a crack at RDWC instead. Still finicky, but has more margin for fixing failures before catastrophe IMO.

Oh nah it was just a thought I'd be shit at indoor, in bad enough with outdoors. Is flood n drain and nft still popular these days ?

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Oh nah it was just a thought I'd be shit at indoor, in bad enough with outdoors. Is flood n drain and nft still popular these days ?

 

Haven't seen anyone do NFT on here, I think that's more of a larger scale agricultural hydroponic technique, but I was briefly tempted by the idea at one point.

 

I love flood and drain and have done it the last 2 years, but not a lot of other growers here have done it, same with recirc in clay balls or perlite.  The popularity and ease of coco seems to be partly killing off other techniques, but whilst I'm a fan of coco, flood and drain is my favourite, but only during cooler times.  In hotter times of the year coco comes into it's own IMO due to it having near soil like insulating qualities.

[Gazza2001au]

I done NFT many years ago 16 plants on a set around 1.2x1.2m they grew around 8inches than i had a massive failure a water leak on the return and it ran for a couple of days flooding the room and plants died

[hydrochronic]

I do NFT for my veggies outside in the garden, grown basil over 4' tall regularly before i chop them down. Clone easier than weed too to get it restarted. 

I've done top fed recirculating DWC once or twice, even though I never had a chiller or anything still went really well. Very easy to setup actually and the growth rate is unparalleled but unless you monitor conditions carefully it can easily kill all of your girls at the same time. I prefer coco these days because I'm a bit more lazy but I am only getting back into this after 8 or so years out of the game and a lot has changed, trying to get caught up with the new techniques. 

[Gazza2001au]

Thinking about it a little bit this portable fridge cost $40 and this oil cooler could act as a radiator, u could place the radiator inside of the fridge with a couple small computer fans circulating the air thru the radiator

 

but how would u regulate the water temps?

[Sir PsychoHashy]

I would have thought just chuck the air pump, or it's intake if separate, in the fridge, and if it's hot enough that that doesn't get the res temp low enough put the cooler inline in your water pumping system and chuck that in the fridge.  Those little fridge doobies only take something like 10 degrees c off ambient, or something like that, so they won't get things super cold when it's hot, but once ambient drops low enough you could just turn it off, or put it on a timer switch to cycle on and off.  Nowhere near as good as a thermostat controlled water chiller, but a lot cheaper if it works when it's most needed.

 

Cost of a chiller is a big DWC turn off for me, along with my paranoia wanting me to double up on both water and air pumps in case one fails and I didn't catch it in time.  Just starts to get too expensive.  Plus I often have to leave town for 4-5 days during grows, and I don't feel DWC is good to leave unsupervised for that long, just like me

[Gazza2001au]

Some good points there Hashy