Which water chiller do you use

Beautiful, loving wife just ordered this for me
Active Aqua AACH25HP Hydroponic Water Chiller Cooling System, 1/4 HP, Rated BTU per hour: 3,010, User-Friendly https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BHHP71C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Sk6WBbVZKFCT1

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Great wife you have, I had to buy the chiller my self :joy:

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I’ve seen folks use a mini fridge with the freezer compartment opened up. They then run a coil of tubing inside of it for the water to circulate thru.

Yeah seen that idea, however I preferred something more “clean”, got a great deal for a hailea chiller, he bought the wrong color (white, absolutely brand new not even opened) and did not match with his aquarium so he sold it to me :joy: bought it for around 150€, its definitely worth the money.

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Damn. Must be an OCD type person. Who cares what the color is. Great deal for you!

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How is it working out so far? I have given up on my dwc systems altogether until I can figure out how to regulate the water temperatures. HPS/MH lighting is just too hot - My A/C can only get the room temps down in the low 80’s which is fine for the grow, but horrible for the reservoirs.

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I was having same problem with mine. I ran an exhaust from my lights out of the room. Do you have air cooled hoods?
Haven’t started another grow yet. Grow room is also drying room. Will drop a couple more seeds in a few days. Don’t give up. I started this endeavor about 3yrs ago. At first I didn’t have any help. I managed to grow a little bit, but not very good. Then I found this forum, and things just keep getting better. I feel like I’m gonna crush it on this next grow. We learn from our mistakes, and I’ve made many. Do you have a grow journal?

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I have a 6" cool tube with 1000 watt light - I blow it out of the 5x5x7 grow tent, but it just blows into the grow room which is 10x10x8. I have a portable A/C unit in the room, but it can’t get keep the temps under 80 in the tent even on at full blast when the lights are on. Really need to blow it out of the grow room completely, but I have not taken that step yet due to stealth. I did finish a grow about 1-1/2 years ago fighting root Root from start to finish in the DWC - I ended up with some okay product, but it was a pain in the ass compared to the following grow with the same setup but in fabric pots with soil. This time around I had a bigger air conditioner so thought I would try the DWC again, but no luck. I ended up just moving the 2 plants to soil after seeing water issues within the first 10 days. They made it and should start flowering in the next few days, so it looks like I was able to salvage them.

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Pulling your reservoirs out of the tent will drop the water temp by 10 degrees

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I understand that you have to do what you have to do. I was fortunate that I have an extra house away from other houses. The central HVAC was gone, so I ran my exhaust to an actual vent in the floor, and blow it out under the house.

I am using General Hydroponics Rainforest systems which is technically a hybrid between DWC & Aeroponics. The fact that they are self contained is cool, but the downside is that the reservoirs are the grow chambers. I think my only option is to come up with an external controller reservoir at some point & cycle the water, but that will be for another time - I am limited on space at the moment.

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EZ reservoirs


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NICE - I just need to see if I can get rid of my two Rainforest systems on eBay, and build something like this instead.

Are you pushing nutes from outside the tent to the inside w/ pumps, and just using gravity to circulate back to the reservoirs outside of the tent?

My setup. You can’t see in the picture, but behind the milk crates is a pump on the return line going back into reservoir

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Resurrect an old thread. I need to buy a new water chiller. Big enough for 2 twenty seven gal reservoirs. I have no idea what to get, or anything else

@Bryan did you end up getting a chiller? I can show you what I did if not. Single chiller for two systems with no cross contamination.

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Haven’t gotten one yet. Whatcha got?

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I got the same one grandaddy did the 1/4 horsepower (I’ll add a link) but honestly think I could’ve gone with the smaller one. But I tested it with a copper coil in each reservoir. Each res has the copper coil one end attached to a T (other side of the T is the other reservoir coil) then connected to the out port on the chiller. The return lines goes to a bucket with water and hydrogen peroxide. The bucket is where the pump is at with a hose going to the inlet on the chiller. I plan to wrap the bucket in insulation to help keep the chiller from working so hard. But I only need the chiller during the summer. The tubing used for feed and return is 3/8 inch inside diameter which fits perfectly onto the copper tubing without anything but a hose clamp to hold it.

Here’s what the test coils look like. I have to switch to stainless steel tubing 1/4 inch inside diameter because the acidic water will leach the copper into the water if not. I placed the coil over my air stones and run the recirculating pump full time. All 6 totes in my big room and all 3 in my small room all stay the same temp. Hopefully I explained well enough. If not i can take pictures to help make sense.


Here’s the chiller.
Active Aqua AACH25HP Hydroponic Water Chiller Cooling System, 1/4 HP, Rated BTU per hour: 3,010, User-Friendly Amazon.com

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Is that 1/4" tubing? I believe what I have is 3/4"

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1/4 inside. 3/8" outside diameter. The copper corrodes and can leach into the water. I have switched to stainless steel now. It’s a biotch to bend right but it should last forever.

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