Re: Quest for 1g/w: 1k hps liquid cooled on a 6' mover in a 4x8 tent.
Hey WOF,
Been think about the W/C reflector tube..
1)DO you need to add anything to the water for algae control etc to prevent funky water blocking light?
2)Is there a way to physically clean the area where the water is in the tube?
3)I assume a water pump runs 24/7 to keep it moving through.. or do you run a cycle timer?
4)Is it feasible to link multiple (3 ) together to run from 1 pump and 1 res?
Thanks
The Volks didn't work out very well for me, but it was just to restrictive for my personality. Unfortunately for me It was a Huge purchase.
Since then I've made a bunch of really great purchases including that pH controller I am loving the hell out of, and this water jacket which I am also loving the hell out of.
1) if you use RO, then I wouldn't. . . the biggest reason being that pure H2O has a very very high heat capacity, meaning the res will try to stay the same temp. If you add anything it will lower the heat capacity some. Also, with out and food, you don't have much chance of anything growing, cause there's nothing to eat. right?
I put about an ounce of bleach in the 50 gal res to keep it sterile, as I didn't wait 3 weeks to fill it with my RO and didn't want to chance anything growing. since then the tubing I used got a little lighter and i rethought it because of the seals and rings in the fresca, so I emptied it 3/4 and then refilled it. I dump a bit of the res every once in a while, say 5-10 gal, and refill with nice cold water. this cools it down since i have no chiller on it at the moment.
2)yeah, both of the sides come off by two nuts on each side. I tightened mine up a bit when they got here cause someone told me to beware because theirs came shipped a bit loose. if you take a sides off, the two tubes separate for easy cleaning, but i would be surprised if you had to do that very often, with constant movement, nothing has time to settle in it.
3)24/7
4)yeah most definitely. Although, you would either need a swimming pool for your reservoir, or a nice chiller, and by nice i mean 1/2-1 HP. Also you'll need a nice pump, and by nice i mean 1500 gph or more the best way would probably be to run fresh cold into all 3 and let all 3 empty together as opposed to daisy chaining them together as the light at the end of the chain would def be hotter than the first.
even with only one 1k hps, the res gets hot w/o a chiller. prob 100*F or more, I haven't checked. . . this lets more heat into the room. The manu suggests keeping the water temp just above the dew point temp to keep it as cold as you can without having it sweat condensation down on your plants. 3kw will take significant cooling or a huge res to handle it.
The 800 gph pump I use barely has enough head pressure to be able to cold start. I want to get something bigger than 1000. My flow rate is not great due to all the head pressure i get from running through so much hose and all the bends and because i have to run tubing high up above the light.
All in all, even knowing i need another big investment to get a nice big chiller, I love the purchase, I think it'll be much more efficient in the summer and much much quieter.
Last summer I def had a few heat issues, looking forward to not this summer.
When is the aero coming?
Well, Im gonna veg out the EnG to about 2.5-3 feet, take clones, once rooted, go to flower.
So it looks like i still have a couple weeks before they get tall enough for me to take clones and time it out right.
Plus i still need to do some stuff to get it going, but since I have time i'm not rushing. Plus I'm busy with other things.
I'll go take a couple pics to show you guys how tall they are now. there has been noticeable growth since the last pics.
i hope you get your gram per watt I'll be watchin'
