Lookin all over for some sort of warmer i can drop into our 2100 gal RO tank. Just need to keep the temps around 68F. Anyone?
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In the aquarium market possibly.
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Maybe it is a keyword search issue? Have you looked into livestock water tank heaters, immersion heaters, or circulating heaters? There are too many models to even begin to suggest what might work in your situation.
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A stock cattle tank heater works great. Might have to monkey with the thermostat to get 68. But they only cost 100 150 dollars. Any farm supply will carry them.
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Drop 1 or 2 recirculating pumps in the res. A little heat from the pumps should help warm up the water and promote good water movement and recirculation. Also why stress over 65F -68F water temp?
Have you checked what the water temps is coming out the drippers?
65f-69F is my preferred reservoir temp regardless if season.
If my res gets to 70F or higher I chill it.
K
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I like warm water irrigation. I try to have my temp 5 degrees higher than my root zone Temps. I like warm roots and cool tops. Some growers like 70 degree roots zone and 62 to 65 air for Temps.
It may just be the grow. A cattle tank heater plus a little Giant pump. small-submersible-pumps plus a thermostat
Look at How to choose a heater.
You can also go the small point source thankless water heater. Home despot sells electric ones for $120 dollars deliver. You will have to use an in line water pump like Little Giant In line
Lots of solutions. Pick the method that will give you the least agrivation.
We used an old electric hot water heater and a grunifone circulation pump for hot water system. We went really cheep on the heater. They last only a season because of all the salts reacting with the coils. Clean and drained monthly and new heat coils each season as preventive mantance. Just remember to installation lots. We used septic tank for hot water storage for big hydro grows. We lined the tank with a red rubber product that you have to paint on or spray.
You should size your tank to be 1.25 times the flood area. Watch the EC vary closely and the pH. We adjusted prior to each cycle and adjusted need NPKCa daily. A bit of chemistry bucket style, simple titration from high school chemistry. We rinsed weekly. We also messed around with UV in line cleaners they work, but you have to add good funges back each cycle. Like Uv filter. they are pricey, but really help in root desease control in flood hydroponic systems. pain in the Ass insalateing water tanks adiquitly. We wanted R100 on the side and R200 on top. We had a flood area of 1500 gallons and used a 1800 gallon septic tank of concrete to meet city codes. Had to also have a gray water area or approve to pump back into the city. We switched to city because the disposal was covered under our comercal water plan. Thankfully. Used a septic lift pump and a big Ass RBFP with is just a big double check value with an air release. We got ours from grainger. The rince diluted the waist water EC to under.5 which was the standard at the time 1989 to 1996.
We add water when the total EC is higher than we wanted. Don’t Rember the exact target but I want to say in our grow 1.5 for sweet peas. 1:3:2:1 on flowering. During vegetative my guess we where 1:1:1:1 at ec of 1 to 1.5 depending on cycle in vegetative stage. pH in our grow was 6.5 vegetative and 6.8 at flower. This is not what cannabis growers use for targets. I don’t know them for cannabis.
@ron might be a nutritional resource, he grew tomatos hydroponicly and has a line of hydroponic cannabis feed that looks really nice. I am more comfortable with the peters but that is me being old school. If I was growing today I would use Ron’s recommendations. He has lots of customers. So he is doing something right. Can’t just be a good salesman, you have to have a good product.
We also had really good HE Anderson injectors. Pricey but there are royols roce of the injector business. @heainjectors four head meet all our needs. We were ready to buy two more head when boy child came along. 
and everything I valued took on new meaning. IBM offered me 20 times my my take home to move to computer analytical work. I worked about half the hours per week, got to travel 4 days a week and got 3 day weekends and 40 week year. Got a quarterly bonus if we did something great. The groomed me for Hewitt, later AON Hewitt. Retired from AON. Plus no shit jobs. Some really crazy clients. But mostly loved it.
Show us your Grow or some plants. Cold water lots of males popping up?
From the voices in my head.
Ethan
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Ok thanks for those suggestions.
When we grew underground in a much smaller space we used to heat our 55 gal reservoirs with aquarium heaters. Also tried a trough heater which works but doesn’t have any thermostat control so u gotta monitor water temps manually or it’ll heat up too high. But we’re talking a 2100 gal tank here.
I like my RO at 68-70 for max oxygen absorption and consistency. When the water temps fall much below 65F I’ve noticed some lockout issues.
Does anyone successfully run their nute solutions at 55-65F? Interested to know…
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Are the air pumps exposed to colder temps?
Are you able to move the air pumps to warmer spot?
2100 gal is kinda big to make a difference with air.
Being aware of things like this is good.
It might even get colder as winter gets going.
My next toy is a dissolved O2 meter.
Air air air air air air air air.
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@ron do any flood growers run water this cold? I don’t know any hydroponic crop that wants water this cold but water caress.
I would flood at a much higher temp. Warm roots cool tops.
A $100 electric flash hot water heater is all you need. Go to home despot. A small grunifone pump for a hot water heating system will give you enough PSI to run a flash heater. Airation of the water for the flood is not actually required, no real evidance. Other than it causes shit to grow in the storage tank.
From the voices in my head
Ethan.
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Save your money and buy a really good PAR meter. You will have more fun. Especially with your hybiscus.
From the voices in my head
Ethan
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Cannabis, at least for me, has a much narrower temperature range for the roots than other crops I have grown. Our root temps at our facility stay between 71-76 degrees all year round. I have found that below or above this range, things don’t go as well. At 55-65 degrees, you are going to have reduced growth/nutrient uptake. Particularly phosphorous which will be indicated by purple stems and the undersides of leaves being purple on small plants.
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That makes good sence. Closer to what we wanted on renuculus production.
Thank you
Warm regard
From the voices in my head
Ethan.
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Ron, the temp range you gave is what I shoot for. With tropical plants in general they don’t seem to like roots to drop below 68F. Pythium spot sweet is 63F in wet soil someone mentioned to me.
I have seen 63F soil temp with nightime air temps of 68-69F. With containers elevated off the floor. 12hrs can be a long drafty night in root bags.
I found that a recirculating pump heats the water just enough over winter in the res and I get good mixing action for my elemental compost tea weekly reservoir.
K
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Make sure you pay attention to the temp with those pumps though, or use a controller. Leave them on too long and you could wind up ruining the nutrients. I saw one hit 95F once!
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For sure, I’m very aware that a 185GPH mag pump will raise watet temp quickly even with cool ambient temps of mid 60’s on cool floor.
I learned real quick how pumps act like heaters.
This is the only time of year I can drop a pump in my res with the ground being so cool.
Any other time of year I go inline by recirculating back into the res.
I prefer to keep pumps outside the water as those mag pumps will mess with some of the micros and cause them to fall out if solution in addition to over heating my tea.
Good looking on that.
K
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Pump impeller, pressure chamber housing and shaft/cover need to be non-reactive with the nutrient solution. That’s why stainless steel is preferred, though some plastics are fine. Also important for table construction where the nutrient comes into contact.
I’ve seen people use pool pumps with cast iron impellers, definitely will interact with the nutes.
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Ya Joe and my microbes and fungi are delicate to survive a pool pump. A pump could act as a black hole and kill the microbes or hurt them as they go through pump and out. I still get some heat from running a small pump inline but it’s minimal compared to dropping the pump in the water. I try to adapt to changing conditions and my surroundings while keeping cost to minimal.
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One of our heaters was designed for Diesel Exhaust Fluid(DEF) so it is made of stainless steel since the DEF just eats aluminum. Should be fine in a nutrient tank.
http://rolliesystems.com/heaters
-Bill
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