[GpsFrontier]

Dam, my browser crashed and I needed to start all over, so this might be shorter than the original.

Research seemed to indicate that flower/fruit development takes place during the dark period and most literature I've come across recommends a shorter light period during a flowering stage.

I am certainly not an expert, but I have been growing plants of one kind or another sense I was a kid. I don't know about the development taking place during darkness, but I think the shorter light period refers to the suns position in the sky. Most plants start to fruit in late summer after the summer solstice (the longest day of the year). The days start becoming shorter at this point no mater what part of the northern hemisphere you are in (shorter days thus less light). As the days start becoming shorter the angle of the sun in the sky becomes lower, this changes the spectrum of light to what I understand is considered the red spectrum, and in late simmer the deep red spectrum.

Yeah I think we discussed the cooling system before. Something along the lines of running a line from the pump into a coil sitting inside a cooler filled with ice right? Like I mentioned above, I wanted to try and avoid having to deal with any situation where we have to repeatedly fill a cooler with ice or keep dropping in ice packs or what have you through out the day. I mean, if that's what it boils down to and I don't have any alternative I guess I'll have to make that sacrafice until I can come up with a better solution...but would like to avoid that if at all possible.

As I mentioned I can't always remember who it was I was talking to about any particular thing, but that basically sounds like me. I will be drawing it up and creating a pdf file explaining it. I don't think you would need to add ice to it more than once a day for those containers. I am sure you look at the plants once a day anyway. Though I know there are times you wont be able to check it (me nether). But as I said I am on a extreme budget, so I can only do what I can until I find a better way.

I do that it is a well known fact that Alaska is well known for growing huge fruits and vegetables in the land of the midnight sun, as they call it. They still have the summer solstice there, as well as the different spectrum's of light. But what all that boils down to is, even though they have 18-20 hours of sunlight, the days still start becoming shorter later in the summer, thus technically still less light. But don't mind me just use what works best for you.

world's largest vegetables this side of Chernobyl

Pepper plants are a continuously fruiting plant, so they should not be affected much by the summer solstice. After all, they begin to fruit well before the summer solstice in nature. But if I had to guess most of there ripening would happen in the later part of the summer, so I would guess you would probably have better produce with more of the red spectrum of light. and dropping back the amount of light later in their life cycle.

The high ambient temp in the room was causing the nutrient temp to raise. I think I posted about this in one of my other threads.

Yes I understand that, but it doesn't change the fact the room temp is too cold for a warm weather plant. That would be equivalent to trying to bring them to full maturity and producing the best produce in early spring outside. They just wont respond well, unless they are a cool weather variety. I am sure there are hybridized peppers of those variety's that are bread for cool weather. (I do remember that from the other thread, though I talk to so many people that it's hard remember who it was, what thread etc. from time to time)

we aren't in the position to be able to babysit the systems every hour or two throughout the day.

Yes I fully understand, I have the same problem to deal with myself. I am constantly trying to figure ways around this, and on an extreme budget as well. I have an idea, you are already paid for the ac unit and electricity to run it. Is there a way you can direct the cool air from the AC unit into the nutrient reservoir rather than in the room. Cooling the root zone and allowing the air temp to be higher. It would probably need to be set real low so the root zone/nutrients don't become to cold. I know that you have many different systems but with one central adapter at the ac unit and tubing running to the different systems would probably work. but take a little time to figure out.

(Although as a side note: I really feel those plants will get to big shortly for those containers being so close together)

I have no method currently to monitor the air temp inside the tub between the nutrient solution and the water.

If you have the funds a simple $2 fish tank thermometer will work fine (not the stick on ones). Just place one in the nutrients, and tie a string to another one and hang it from the lid near the roots.

Yeah I think we discussed the cooling system before. Something along the lines of running a line from the pump into a coil sitting inside a cooler filled with ice right? Like I mentioned above, I wanted to try and avoid having to deal with any situation where we have to repeatedly fill a cooler with ice or keep dropping in ice packs or what have you through out the day. I mean, if that's what it boils down to and I don't have any alternative I guess I'll have to make that sacrafice until I can come up with a better solution...but would like to avoid that if at all possible.

As I mentioned, I can't always remember who it was I was talking to about one thing or another, but that sounds like me. Though I don't think you would need to add ice more than once a day, and I am sure you check on them once a day. Although I know there will be times that's not possible (me either). But as I mentioned I am on an extreme budget, so I need to be creative until I find a better way.

If I did have to go down that road though, the idea we had was to simply use 2L coke bottles. Filling them about 3/4 full and freezing them and placing the bottle into the solution with the lid on to avoid any melted water from entering the nutrient solution.

I actually like this Idea better than bags for ice. I don't drink much soda. but I can go around on the night before trash day and get them out of other peoples recycling baskets. I didn't freeze my bags, I just used them for water displacement and reduce the amount of nutrient solution required. The bottles wouldn't have worked in the system I had.

P.S. I haven't had time to call the nutrient company today. But now that I know those are the lights, I can look into the lighting situation more tonight.