I build my own chillers out of wall shaker units. i cut the condensor off and the evaporator off. then i buy two stainless plate exchangers off ebay and solder then on in there place. i add the high and low pressure fittings if there not already installed. I buy a can of hot shot refridgerant from the parts store and dump it in tell the system is cold.
a store unit is fine for a small system but a wall shaker starts out at 5 , 7 or 10K btu's. i have one in my shop right now i'm building for my 250 gallon hot tub fish tank for summer time. i think its a10k btu's got it off craigs list for $20 and the plates were 25$each and the freon is $8. takes about 4 hours to build.
I wasnt suggesting any one keep tere nute at 45f i was stating that this is a safe place for water to be to keep it drinkable.
Titanium fish tank heaters are the only way to go. But iof you were growing indoors you would realize taht you have to heat the room if its cold. with
lights and in the dark cycle with a heater. so since the room is warm the nute will be warmed up. since we all grow about teh same temp indoors its the exact same factor for temp in my state as it would be in the midwest or hawaii. when you take control of your air climate the hydro will also fall into the right place.
All the other creative heating and cooling stuff for the most part is for guys trying to grow sea of green pot plants hidden with non air exchanging rooms to keep teh smell down.
my system runs this way only for the hottest few weeks. the rest fo the time i use out side air to cool the room as its free cool air. i use air filters from a furnace to keep it all clean.
set the room temp at 75 or 85 depending on what your growing drop the night temps to 60 or 65 and use a heater if you have to. your walls and floors will get saturated with a base line of heat and it will all self reguate and your plants will have grow better than any dirt grow has grown.
frontier what issue with the water are you worried about? I think cleaning tanks and containers is awful. in fact if i wee a newbie hearing that i would go grow in the dirt. thats a lots of time and effort and its not the fun part fo a grow at all. How about you run a grow through in a another system with out this cleansing and just do the normal once a week h22o2 doseing and what ever drain and refill program you want and see what or if it makes a difference. keeping stuff alive out doors in natural sunlight for a few months is so much easier i think than in doors. try keeping 60 to 90different varities fruitig and vegging for 2 or more years staright indoors with out cleaning the system once a week.
drop the stress on those plants to. can you imagine changing the dirt out around your garden plants every week just to be sure there clean? also how are you getting any micro growth when your dumping the tank and then washing it all out.? Aslo once a week is way to ofetn to be dumping tanks and to expensive. two weeks is to much unless you ahve bad water and that can be fixed with a dehumidifier to keep the system full. cheap free pure water. or a nice solar still made from a kids pool and some black plastic will get a guy enough pur water from nasty pnd scum water to run a large in or out door system if the sun is out and if its not you probably dont need that much water that day if your grwoing out side.
Lets not scare the new guys into a path of taking there systems donw and cleaning them.lets go with light blockage and cool nute temps and good nutes. hard to get inside my hydrofarm hoses and clean them once a week? I've heard of properly trained gerbals that climb right up in the whole with a litttle lube and do the job? I believe they can be had at
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