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Terrarium Setup & Pics

  • #21
gill_za said:
One potential problem with having the radiator inside as others mentioned will be dehumidification of air in the terrarium. But if you are running the humidifier constantly it should not be a problem. Humidity, could damage the fans if they are in a very wet air. But if you leave the radiator somewhere closer to the top I'd think it would solve the problem.

I am sure others with more experience and knowledge can point out other issues with this approach. But the potential benefit is that your cooling will be faster and more efficient as you will not be cooling hot air from outside and you could reach lower temperatures.
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Last year when I did my AC mod to my tank (see link in my sig) I placed the Rad right in the tank. It really lowered the RH a lot, about 20-30%. The Humidifier would try to compensate but wasn't strong enough. the plants were fine though for the most part.

With the new setup, using a smaller rad, you shouldnt have much of a drop in RH. Plus is looks like you have a pretty hefty humidifier so it should have a problem compensating for the drop in RH. Moreover, you wont lose as much RH because the temperature of the radiator isn't all that cold. On the AC I used, the rad would get to like -30c in a few minutes, and would frost up really quickly so I put a plastic box over it with some holes in either side and it was much better. So what I'm saying here is, I'd stick the rad in the tank, as gil_za pointed out, the temps will drop quicker and it's also a lot more efficient.


gill_za said:
And what is interesting is that I've done a quick search on google and haven't yet found similar setups with water coolers. So robthered's idea might be unique :) He should post it on "instructables" or something.
Click to expand...

I'll definitly post a how-to up there once I get it all finalized :), thanks for the idea.
 
  • #22
Well, thanks you two! I'll see if I can make some room in the tank for this rad. What sort of position in the tank would you recommend? Blowing along the top? How far away from all the glass edges should the rad be? Just an inch or two?

Not too worried about humidity - it has no trouble staying up near 90%; if my humidifier has to work a bit harder to keep the RH there, it shouldn't be an issue. Though the rad doesn't get THAT cold... condensation might not even be that extreme. I'll keep everyone posted!

If summer peaks and the cooler proves inadequate I'm just going to pick up an aquarium chiller. There are some decent small-tank models that run $300 or so and don't seem to be too power-hungry compared to their larger brethren. It's a big chunk of change, but I've come too far with this setup to have it not work at this point!!!
 
  • #23
huh. Just like that.
Always loved putting tanks together. But I was never to this level of it. :hail:
 
  • #24
awesome setup!
 
  • #25
TheFury said:
Well, thanks you two! I'll see if I can make some room in the tank for this rad. What sort of position in the tank would you recommend? Blowing along the top? How far away from all the glass edges should the rad be? Just an inch or two?

Not too worried about humidity - it has no trouble staying up near 90%; if my humidifier has to work a bit harder to keep the RH there, it shouldn't be an issue. Though the rad doesn't get THAT cold... condensation might not even be that extreme. I'll keep everyone posted!
Click to expand...

I`d place it in one of the corners, at a 45 degree angle so that the air is blowing downwards. This way if you do get condensation on the rad, it wont drip into the fans. Also I wouldn't worry about the fans being in high RH, as I`ve been using the same fans for about 3-4 years now and theyhaven't had any problems at all.


TheFury said:
If summer peaks and the cooler proves inadequate I'm just going to pick up an aquarium chiller. There are some decent small-tank models that run $300 or so and don't seem to be too power-hungry compared to their larger brethren. It's a big chunk of change, but I've come too far with this setup to have it not work at this point!!
Click to expand...

If you want to get more cooling, and you dont wanna dish out 300-500 bucks for an aquarium chiller you can make your own using an AC and a Cooler. You can get an AC cheap off kijiji or craigslist. I got mine for 20 bucks.

Pop open the front of the AC and bend out the front AC rad in the front (like in the setup i did last summer. see my sig). Remove the evap fan (looks like a hamster wheel). Place the front AC rad into a cooler. Fill the cooler with coolant. Put a pump in the cooler and run tubes to the computer rad that is placed in your tank. The AC rad will get the coolant down to some really crazy temperatures (-30c). BTW a 6K BTU AC uses pretty much the same amount of energy as an aquarium chiller; only difference is that you`ll probably save money in your energy bill if you use the AC setup rather than the chiller one. I know someone that uses a chiller and they say it runs 24/7 which will kill you on your electric bill. At least with the AC setup, it wouldn't have to run as often as it has an insulated reservoir.

Here's how you can make one
 
  • #26
Hmm - @rob, unfortunately the terms of my lease limit me to one 6,000 BTU window unit because of crappy wiring in my apartment. So perhaps even an aquarium chiller is out of the question; I've already got one AC unit keeping my bedroom cool. So I'll cross my fingers and hope! But thanks for sharing that link - that's a really cool idea.

@mass - LOL, thanks for the kind words, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Ambient conditions in my apartment are lousy, so I gotta build pretty intense setups to keep my plants alive. And anyways, I'll stay humble as a child until my plants start looking like yours!!! :0o:
 
  • #27
The drop in humidity from the air conditioner is an interesting topic if you think about it. Its not the cooling of the air that is causing the drop, far from it.... As air temperature drops, its ability to hold moisture also drops, so the relative humidity actually rises....this is why we have fog in the mornings only to "burn" off when day starts to warm up.

What is lowering humidity is the temperature of the evaporator coil is reaching the dew point. So the water condenses and then as the air exits the evaporator it warms up a little but has now lost some of the water.

The trick is preventing the moisture from condensing on the coils, do that and the humidity will actually rise instead of go down

;-)

exam in the morning
 
  • #28
Actually Butch....The EPA certification HVAC test IS tomorrow...9am. :lol:

I'll be there!
 
  • #30
Hmm, interestingly enough, putting the rad inside my tank as opposed to resting on top seems to have *increased* internal temps by a degree or so. Curious.

I'm trying to think whether a Peltier device would be enough to give my system the edge it needs during summer heat waves and for nighttime temp drops. I know it would certainly be inadequate as a standalone cooling solution, but.... I wonder.........
 
  • #31
TheFury,

That is very peculiar, and makes no sense. Maybe external temperature changed?
 
  • #32
Maybe because the rad is black it's attracting the heat from the lights. Maybe put something above the rad to block the light from it.
 
  • #33
Hey Garroch, I am interested in trying this cooling idea and was wondering what temperatures you are getting with it. Like I said before I am using an AC but it is pretty inefficient.
 
  • #34
@gill - could be the case, but temps rose almost immediately when I lowered the rad into the tank. Who knows, I'll have to keep playing with it.

@rob - the rad casing is cool to the touch; not sure whether T5HOs give off enough energy to cause that sort of warming

@heli - this setup has no trouble keeping temps around 10 degrees below ambient. At night, if my room temps drop to 70 degrees, my tank will be 60. It's not great, but it's more than fine for 90% of the year. Summer might be rough, which is why I'm considering augmenting this cooler setup with a Peltier device. That would also help bring night time temps down a few degrees extra, I'm hoping. It's worth a shot. Certainly wouldn't rely on a Peltier alone to cool my rig (on the sage advice of Av & co.), but using it as a booster might be the perfect application.

I'd say this cooler might be inadequate to control temps in a large grow space. I'm actually not sure how much warmer the water is leaving the radiator than it is entering. If it's not that much warmer, then this system would have extra cooling capacity and would be able to feed a second rad. Of course that would make the compressor work harder to cool the water that much more, but...
 
  • #35
hm... thanks for the info. Those temps should be fine for the summer months. I found this vid that uses a peltier device but I am not sure if its effective but maybe it would be a great booster like you said. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3LMnqslbXA
 
  • #36
Keep in mind that my room temps can approach 90 degrees during summer heat waves. Summer in my apartment is truly hellish. That's why I'm concerned about the inadequacy of this system... cooling from 80 to 70 isn't a big deal. Cooling from 90 to 70 might be a struggle. If your house/apartment is air conditioned, you likely don't face the same problem as me.

Funny - I was watching that same video last night. I think I'm gonna try it; gotta get cracking before things really heat up here in BK.
 
  • #37
good luck with it, i am interested in seeing how it works. Also, im sure you could grow HL plants, temp drops are more important than the actual temps so im sure HL plants could acclimate to your temps. How is the pulchella doin?
 
  • #39
Yea I was just talking to Butch. It seems they are actually not good.
 
  • #40
Hey - yeah I have seen that thread. Doesn't give me pause at all.

First off, efficiency is not my concern. I don't pay my electric bill (my landlord covers it), and as long as the device draws less current than an aquarium chiller or an A/C, I'm good.

Also, the thread notes that a 15 degree temperature drop is possible in a 20 gallon terrarium. My terrarium isn't 20 gallons, but remember that I've already got a compressor cooler doing most of the heavy lifting.

Still seems like a good idea to try if you ask me.... no?
 
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