DWC water temperature

[Bud]

This is my first time growing using the deep water culture method. Temperature inside the tent ranges from 73-80 degrees and the water temperature sometimes reaches 75 degrees or higher. I have read that water temp should not go above 70 degrees. Does any one have any suggestions for cooling the water other than using a chiller. Would a frozen 2 liter bottle work in a 5 gallon bucket, or could that lower the temp to much?

 

[Royal Nugs]

Alternative to chiller, you might consider using a product like Hydroguard to keep pythium from rotting your roots.

Ive heard of people adding frozen water bottles to their master reservoir but that sounds like a pain.

 

[Bud]

Thanks for your response Royal Nugs. I am using Hydroguard. I will try the frozen bottle and see what happens.

 

[Royal Nugs]

I think you'll be wasting your time trying to keep it cool. I've been running 73 degree water for over 9 months. No issues thanks to Hydroguard....

 

[Wavey Davey DWC]

My girls are loving temps at 86-88 Im only @ week 3 of veg 2nd grow in DWC 1st grow went really well tho with no problems with root rot last round... I tried filling up large med bottles w/frozen water in em & dude its a pain in the ass. You gotta do it a few times a day to keep the temps below 80.... Hydroguard is a good way to go if you do not want to use a reservoir... Just keep an eye on em but remember they dont like light so be quick about it ya know? Just my opinion of course...Good luck bro!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I use Hydroguard and my reservoir water temperature reached 84°F for weeks this summer and I did not have any root problems. This is not ideal. I have no economically feasible way to keep my house and grow cooler than that in the summer. I have two large air stones to help overcome the low oxygen holding capacity of water that warm. My next system will have 4 large air stones on two separate air pumps for redundancy. I just feel that If I lost an air pump for a day it could spoil a crop. I have my air pump and LEDs on an battery backup I had sitting around. It will give me plenty of time to fire up the generator in a power outage - but that is just me!

Let us know what you find.

 

[NebulaHaze]

I agree with the others, Hydroguard seems just as effective as chillers at stopping root rot! It is made of a bacteria called bacillus Amyloliquefaciens that was discovered in the 40s in a rice paddy in Japan. They found that rice grown in soil with this bacteria didn't get root rot as often. Although this bacteria is commonly used in Asia, Hydroguard is one of the first products in the US I've seen that uses it. It colonizes your tank and roots, out-competing the organisms that cause root rot. I believe it's really important to focus on letting the colony build up in your tank at first, and just top off instead of doing full reservoir changes for the first few weeks of a plant's life. You can't just dump a bunch of bacteria in, it needs a little time to colonize all the surface area and roots, kind of like an aquarium or aquaponics.

After a few weeks your roots get very resilient. We live in Southern California and it gets to 85 or even 90°F if we grow in the summer, but as long as you're using a good root supplement the problems come from the plant and buds on top suffering, not from root rot

 

[Karlee]

I'm growing in a basement with Temps at 65 at night and my plants seem to not mind one bit. I use hydroguard and I've not had any rot , I use it with clones and haven't lost any plants. The light warms up the tent to 75 in the day, it's all good for me at lower temps.

 

[420n808]

I have used 5 gallon Igloo coolers instead of black buckets or taped up buckets. Keeps the water lower in temps for a longer period of time, and 20 oz ice bottles in reservoir keeps temps in mid 60s.