chuckieee
New member
I got really worried a couple of months ago during that heatwave. One weekend I went away and when I came back on the Monday to my classroom (which during the week is air conditioned, but apparently it turns off at the weekend) the tank temp was at 24 degrees C
I tried using fans, airstones etc but had the same evaporation issues as described in this post.
I looked at aquarium chillers but was put off by the massive price so I decided to try this instead ...
I ordered a mini fridge off the internet, cost about 30 quid and used some wide guage pond hose I happened to have knocking about. I then drilled 2 holes in the door of the fridge and looped as much of the hose as I could inside the fridge leaving 2 ends poking out, one through the top and one through the bottom.
I was initially going to use a water pump to pump water through the fridge where it would be chilled a bit but then I realised that as long as both ends of the tube were totally immersed in water and the tubes were also completely filled with water then convection should do the job just as well without the problem of a pump adding extra heat to the whole system (see below).
I haven't scientifically tested the whole system but a couple of things seemed encouraging. The water temp right next to the OUT was about 3 degrees C colder than near the top of the tank and after another similarly hot weekend when I came back the tank temp was at 22 degrees C not 24 degrees C....
Obviously the whole setup needs more testing and proper chillers are much much more effective but this potentially could be a life saver next time a heat wave strikes, if used alongside other 'budget' aquarium chilling such as air stones and fans.
smart idea i like it, how much a difference do you find this makes in the temperature?