Chillers

[Awky]

I need advice on getting a chiller for lotl. His tank is 20 gallons, but I would prefer to only fill it half way so he can easily swim to the surface and gulp air (I'm not sure if not filling it all the way will interfere with what kinds of chillers I can use, as it does with filters.) The house can get up to 95 degrees in the middle of the day when we aren't home, so this wont do for the axolotl (who is currently at a friends well air conditioned house).

Most of the chillers seem to be for much larger setups, and the little ones don't seem to be capable of lowering the temp the amount I need it to. It is also unclear what is included and what isnt with these chillers. I need to make sure I order everything I need and get the tank set up before July 1st. Anyone have any advice of how I can do this for less than $400? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[jcb118]

I don't know much about the high end chillers or what they are actually capable of, but you might want to check out this article: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml

Most of the advice in it will not work for you because it's likely impossible to keep a tank at 70F in a house that's 95F through any small chiller, or evaporation setup (fans would not be very effective with such warm air), and using things like 2-liter bottles of ice will require too much replacement. But there are a couple of ideas that you could try to keep you under the $400 range.
Pin-pin's setup of an ice chest (#7) helps you by separating the cool tank from the rest of the hot house. You could either turn an ice chest into a tank, or possibly find an ice chest that your tank will fit into. Once your tank is thermally insulated from the house, then use some method of cooling like #6 or #8 or simply add bottles of frozen tank water once or twice a day. Be sure not to use an air-restrictive top.