Reddit reviews Hydrofarm Active Aqua Chiller, 1/4 HP

Design and design considerations:

• Outside Design photo - rooster crowing
  
• Outside Design angle view
  
• Inside reservoir view
  
• Inside close up view
  
• Inside full view
  
  
• I anticipated issues with heat and so I placed my reservoir inside the shed on the concrete floor for a heat sink effect
  
• reservoir holds ~30 gallons of water filled from my well
  
• pump pumps up to ~ 11 feet high in shed (~12-13 feet outside). Pump was rated for 220 GPH at 10 feet, 0 at 13 feet. I figure I'm getting 150-200 GPH at ~11 feet.
  
• I used old hoses, hose repair ends (male and female) with hose clamps to attach, run up and through the shed wall, use a 'Y' splitter and run into the top of each system.
  
• 4" diameter 10' long sewer pipe (cheaper than PVC), elbows and extensions to extend the distance between the elbows. I was concerned about them being too close and over shadowing each other and so there is ~22" gap at the narrow end, and ~28-30" at the far end
  
• target drop was 4" for the 10' run.
  
• at the bottom, I used sewer pipe to PVR converter and joined together with a bottom drain coming out (1 1/2").
  
• this returns through the shed wall with a ~1" drop over 2 feet to re-enter the reservoir at ~2 ' height above concrete
  
• I used these net cups
  
• I'm using Inkbird Pre-Wired Dual Stage Digital Temperature Controller Outlet Thermostat 110V, 1100W Heating and Cooling.
  
  Heating/Cooling:
  
  
• The Inkbird dual stage controller is set to 71F. If the temp goes below that then the heating plug kicks on to active this 800w heater
  
• As seen below in my temp graph, when the temp outside goes high enough, the water temp goes above my target max of 75 F. I need to come up with a cooling solution. Updates to come.
  
• 5/23 update: Decided to get an active cooler Hydrofarm
  Active Aqua Chiller, 1/4 HP - Note in the temp graph below the blunting of the green curve as the red (ambient temp) went high. I have the dual stage temp controller set to kick on the cooling plug at 68, and this starts the second water pump that pumps through the cooler. The cooler is set for 69 currently so when the temp reaches 70, cooling kicks in. I am continuing to fiddle with this setting.
  
  Nutrients:
  
  
• I ordered General Hydroponics Maxigro, Maxibloom, Each 2.2 lbs. - and I started at 1/3 concentration of recommendation of the Maxigro.
  
  Plant photos:
  Plants received dry bare root with no green growth from starkbros.
  
  
• 5/15 2 week old plant - notice the new white growth
  
• 5/23 growth and increase in root mass A lot of the brown is old roots from before the planting, white roots with a bit of browning is visible.
  
  
  Temp graph:
  
  This is with the La Crosse wifi temp probe (https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-926-25106-Wgb-Wireless-Monitor/dp/B06ZYJ5L5B/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8) so I can check remotely. Red line is ambient temp, green line is water temp.
  
  
  
• 5/15 temp graph
  
• 5/23 temp graph with heater and cooling effect
  
  
  Water changes:
  
  
• 5/20 - pumped out old water, filled and allowed to heat to ~58 degrees before being impatient and starting the pump. Ambient temp was low 60s.
  
  
  

I use a 1/4 horsepower watercooler.
Active Aqua Chiller, 1/4 HP https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HV7VKG/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_TroZzb0JC63T8

I posted this to you on a thread from two days ago then I saw this post.

The chiller is probably going to be the most expensive part of your setup. We started with a Max Chill 1/13 HP for a 20 gallon long tank. It worked fine for us.

We weren't prepared for breakdowns though and when our central air died in August the chillers ran constantly until they overloaded. It turned out to have fuses but that chiller wasn't enough for the larger size tank we wanted and so we replaced them.

Our current chillers are ActiveAqua ASCH50-25 1/4HP. They are much larger but they handle our now 40 gallon in Florida with no problem. In hindsight I would have bought my chiller for the largest tank size I expected to have rather than purchase twice.

Advice. Be ready for adapting for whatever tubing diameter the chiller uses. Ours both provide fittings for 2 sizes. Assuming you have an external filter, you will have to run tubing between them and might need an adapter. The max chill had fittings we used with 1/2 inch interior diameter tubing. The ActiveAqua has fittings for 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch. We still use adapters because our filter uses 5/8 inch tubing.

check out these https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-Active-Aqua-Chiller-10/dp/B008HV7VKG?th=1 Might be what you want, might not be.