Grow Mediums Chiller necessary with RDWC?

[Pezzer69]

Hi, I'm about to embark on my first hydro grow. Can anyone advise me on whether It is likely that I'll need a chiller. I'll be running a 12 pot RDWC. The ambient room temperature will be close to 30 degrees Celsius. Is root rot a likely issue without a chiller?

 

[frogleg]

Hey Pezzer,

I'm a new grower myself setting up my first RDWC too and was wondering the same thing, so I'm not sure what my advice is worth.
If your room temperature is 30°C, your reservoir might be at a slightly lower temp from evaporation and loss of energy, but not more than 1°C I guess.
From what I've read, dissolved oxygen levels will be impacted by your temperature, as they can reduce by 20-40% when increasing from 23°C to 30°C. So (from what I've read once again), advised temps are 20-23°C.
Furthermore, I believe root rot starts being a serious threat above 25°C..

Hope I was able to help !
Cheers

 

[I grow my own]

I'd think so just my opinion

 

[greenjeans]

Invest in some Dutch Master Gold Range Zone. It will keep your res sterile and improve the temperature tolerance. The main issue with temps is bacteria growth. Using something to keep the system sterile will keep that from being so much of an issue.

 

[greenjeans]

Don't get me wrong, cooler is better, but DM Zone will definitely work in your favor if you run it continuously. Since it isn't peroxide based, it doesn't evaporate out like H2O2. I think it is chloramine based. I used it to cure root rot and haven't had anything but white roots since I started using it.

 

[Anasazi]

I ran dm zone and still had root problems. This was almost a year ago and I haven't did dwc since. Just decided to do rdwc today and I decided I'd do it right. Spent 280 on a chiller at amazon. Even going to kill my 2 week old photos just so i can build rdwc and start autos lol.

 

[derek420colorado]

Make sure you have enough air to your rootzone! You will NOT get root rot in DWC if you have enough air to the RZ, if you are doing just one plant I would not go with anything less than 50 LPM(Litres Per Minute) do not go off of gallons or tank size or watts or any of the other weird ways to tell what kind of pump you have. It is all about the LPM, here is a picture of what roots are supposed to look like in DWC if you have enough O2 to the roots you never have to worry about root rot or any other root problems from my experience. You can have all the rez chillers in the world but if you don't have enough air to the roots it will all be for naught. Just my two cents, happy growing and I hope your DWC experience goes very well