Question About reservoir temperature
 

Hello Say I Hear Temperature of the water is very important so I been looking round for and hydroponic water Thermometer no lock so I brought this and wondering if it will work ? Brinkmann Digital Thermometer with stainless-steel probe Measures Fahrenheit or Celsius with hold function I got it at home depot for $10 bucks I Just Need To Know If This Okay Or if I need to find something else thank you
Attachment 2757

thermometer
 

it will work, but it will not address the problem of adjusting the temp of the water. I have a water heater (fish tank) that heats the water to 70. In the summer I have a water chiller to start cooling the water when it reaches 74, and it has a built in thermometer in the unit that is displayed.

right
 

Any Fish Tank section (even Walmart) would have good drop in thermometers for 3-10$. Finewood, I was interested in temperature control as well and had a spare 1/3 HP Chiller laying around lol. My problem is I have multiple reserviors so I built a heat exchange out of thin-walled plastic irrigation line forming coils and running through each chamber via bulkheads. The jury's still out...

FYI: I would suspect going as far as adding chillers is a less common but preferable thing.

chillers
 

Or you connect all the reservoirs using large diameter hoses and in the last one you pump the water to the chiller that deposits the water in the first reservoir.

Okay 1st that's kool I can use that to monitor temp, winter time be more of issue here for me I was thinking on insulating my black hydroponic buckets summertime here in Cleveland ohio usually don't get hot my main problem is the humidity woke up this morning my humidity was 16%.. see im trying to make sure I have best possible environment before I start my seeds

I keep my reservoirs at different ppm's. I'll post my set up on here soon.

Bigdaddy, I don't know what you mean with the humidity. I'm beginning too, but as far as I know everybody starts their seeds in some sort of contained plastic tray- with a clear top to let in light (a lot of plants need light to trigger germination)

I even started some Cilantro recently in a zip lock bag in rockwool cubes. Anything that holds in the humidity creates a fog type deal- tuppawear, taco bell salad bowl container, etc. Also I started all mine indoors where it's warm (70's).

what I mean is I started hydroponics back in February 2014 and I had a lot of issues improper humidity and lighting and feeding it was so bad I got mold and fungus so right now im gathering information so I wont screw up again

There isn't a specific type of thermometer used for hydroponics. Digital thermometer can get expensive, though $10 isn't bad at all for a digital one. Though just like with anything electronic it may eventually give false readings. I personally just use a small standard glass fish tank thermometer I got at wal-mart for $1.97. I just tie string around the suction cup and toss it in the reservoir for a couple minutes to check temp.

16% humidity?? Wow, that's extremely low. My weather station won't even register anything below 20%. Like daytonajim00 mentioned most people start seeds in some kind of seed tray with a clear plastic cover. The plastic cover holds in the humidity. As the water evaporates inside, it creates humidity, and the lid holds it in. So regardless of what the outside humidity is, inside the tray stays around 80% to 90% humidity. But you can use just about any covered container. As long as the top lets the light in. Though you should open it up once in a while so the plants can get fresh oxygen from time to time.

Thanks For The Reply I Scoot Down To Pet Store Grab Glass Thermometer
This Way I Will Have 2 Ways To Check Reservoir Temps

As For Humidity I Know It Has To Be 70 to 80% in seed Tray One I Have Has Vents Also I Put And PC Fan On One Side and keep other side slightly open ...

but yeah house humidity was 16% .. I Know For Plants It Need To Be 40% to 60% .. my thing is which would be better a cool mist or warm mist humidifier to help keep humidity between 40 & 50% ?

What's the normal air temp in the room? If the air temp is on the high side, than cool. If the air temp is on the low side, than warm. However I'm not sure that they make humidifiers that put out cool mist because cool water (humidity) condenses quickly (dryer air output). 40% to 50% humidity is much better than 16%, but 70% to 80% is much closer to optimum greenhouse conditions.

well normal temp is up and down example today indoor 70 F and humidity 30%

I have been thinking about it, and I could be wrong, but something doesn't make scene to me. I think either your humidity senor is off, or your not reading it correctly. Because Like I said 16% is extremely low. I live in the desert and our humidity is higher than that during this time of year. You said you were in Cleveland Ohio, so I checked the weather there, and it says currently you were at 86%. Now there will be differences between inside and outside humidity levels, but nothing even close to a 70% difference. Not withough't running Dehumidifiers constantly...

Intellicast Cleveland, Ohio

maybe I did read it wrong -- (Indoors) right now it says 30% Humid & 81f indoors outdoors its raining

This All Current For Euclid Ohio 44132 (Suburb of Cleveland)
Current 50f
Precipitation 100%
Humidity 96%
Wind 9mph

It's normal to have outside humidity in the 80's or 90's when it's raining, even afterword. Typical for your area I would expect around 50-60% humidity normally on a nice day. 20% difference between inside and outside would probably be normal. But beyond 30% difference I would say something in your home is acting as a dehumidifier, HVAC system etc. or your humidity sensor/s are off. Especially when you say when you got up today your humidity was 16%. That's just too much of a difference to make scene naturally. There is no way your humidity should be that low in your area. That level is equivalent to the desert (where I live) during the hot dry July and August months. Even at 30% indoors now, that's about a 50-60% difference between inside and outside. Why is there such a drastic difference??

Good Question check this out here layout of my apartment
Attachment 2760

Don't know what could be causing the reading maybe sensor bad like u said
I but and different kind meter to see if this one bad

also my AC/HEATER unit is up on wall and I also
have baseboard heat which aint worth a crap and
also my patio facing towards lake I get a lot wind and cold
air that hit my unit directly

Here's A Look @ Both Gauges reading 16% or less Humidity I Knew I Wasn't Seeing Things lol Attachment 2761

What do the same meters say the outside humidity is?

I Have No Outside Temp/Humidity Gauge...

All I know is this right now outside is
Humidity: 70% Pressure: 30.41 in Dew Point: 3° F
Temp 14

I'm confused on two points. First you said you Have No Outside Temp/Humidity Gauge, but you also state a Humidity of 70%. How do you come to that conclusion? Second, again you said you Have No Outside Temp/Humidity Gauge, but why cant you place the ones that are inside, outside for a while?

no1 I went here got information Weather | fox8.com that for m city give me everything I need to know about outside that's where I got that info

no2 I didn't think Gauges I have could be used outdoors

one thing clear like you said something is sucking humidity out of here

Unless they are to big and bulky to move outside, any temperature and/or humidity gauge can be placed outside. Even if it isn't water proof it can be placed outside for 30 minutes or so when it's not raining. Or even placed under a patio roof to shelter it from the rain. If It were me, the first thing I would want to do is test those meters by placing them outside. Then see if they give you the close to the same readings you are finding online. I would move them back and forth a few days in a row to see if they read the change between inside and outside consistently. If it's reading the outside humidity correctly, chances are it's reading the inside humidity correctly as well. But if your not getting good outside readings, your probably not getting good inside readings either.

Then if they seem to be reading correctly, I would probably call a HVAC company and ask them if that type of drastic difference between inside and outside humidity levels is normal. If so, ask them what is acting as a dehumidifier? I see in your area it's cold, perhaps your home is closed up tight all day and the HVAC system is dehumidifying the air all day while it heats the home. Where I live we don't need to close the house up tight, and don't need the heater much during the day, and only sometimes run the heater much at night (even during winter). However we do use the AC all day and night during the summer, but until monsoon season there is very little difference between inside and outside humidity during summer.

[QUOTE=GpsFrontier;12289]Unless they are to big and bulky to move outside, any temperature and/or humidity gauge can be placed outside. Even if it isn't water proof it can be placed outside for 30 minutes or so when it's not raining. Or even placed under a patio roof to shelter it from the rain. If It were me, the first thing I would want to do is test those meters by placing them outside. Then see if they give you the close to the same readings you are finding online. I would move them back and forth a few days in a row to see if they read the change between inside and outside consistently. If it's reading the outside humidity correctly, chances are it's reading the inside humidity correctly as well. But if your not getting good outside readings, your probably not getting good inside readings either.

Then if they seem to be reading correctly, I would probably call a HVAC company and ask them if that type of drastic difference between inside and outside humidity levels is normal. If so, ask them what is acting as a dehumidifier?


Okay no1 So Move Both outside for 30mins and take reading from both to see if get same readings no2, move them back indoors to see how close indoor reading is compared to outside no3 repeat this a couples times and if their both still different or way off then its probably HVAC

Well here thing I don't have traditional heating and cooling, my AC is on the wall @ top of room and its and combo Ac/Heater Unit Used To supplement Our Base Board Heaters, bedroom window I never open however patio door I open off and on sometimes and one more thing the way my apartment faces all wind and cold hits my unit

No...
You already know how to look up what the outside humidity is online. Place the humidity sensors outside, leave them outside long enough so they can acclimate to the outside weather ( good 30 min or so). Then compare what the readings on your humidity sensors read to what it says your humidity is online. If their close, they are probably working right. If not, their likely not working correctly.

After you tested your outside humidity, then bring the sensors back inside the house. Run this test more than once, at least 3-4 days in a row. If you get readings that are close a few times, and readings that are far apart other time's, I wouldn't trust the humidity sensors.

If they don't seem reliable then don't trust them. If they do and still read so low inside, start looking for a reason why it would be so low inside. I'm not saying it's your HVAC. I'm saying if the humidity sensors turn out to be more or less accurate, I would investigate the HVAC system first as a reason that might be because I can't think of anything else it might be unless your running dehumidifiers inside.

ok I'm about to print out your instruction's...

And No I don't have a dehumidifier..

However I do have A Vick's Warm Mist Humidifier I run
every now and then till it start making noise

Thank You For trying to help me.. Very Few People Would
I'm Just Not Good With The Math & Science portion of Hydroponics'
I 'am More Of And Visual Person With Things