Question: Home made Coolers/Chiller

[rossman86]

What is your opinion on chillers for maintaining a comfortable temperature? I am dreading the summer and even an English Summer looks like it could tip to the higher side of the Themometer. Has anyone any tips they could offer me, home made or ones they use that are good, with minimum flow etc

 

[Shizeric]

Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity Axolotl.org cooling section.

Caudata Culture Articles - Cooling Caudata Culture cooling section.

 

[rossman86]

Thank you for those hyperlinks Eric very helpful. I have one question on the fan above the water surface technique?? It mentions this is only effective with a screened lid?? That the same as a condense tray?? If so how does the work if the lid is on top?

Really sorry if this is a stupid question, i'm new to this.

 

[dragonlady]

If you are using a household fan, you can just aim it to blow across the surface of the water, with or without a screen top. The screen top is key if you are using a reef style fan or building your own with computer style fans.

A condense tray is solid, isn't it?

 

[rossman86]

Yes a condense tray is, I will try that fan idea. Thank you

 

[michael]

If you have a screen top or no top the fan will cool the tank by evaporative cooling. If the tank has a glass lid the fan will cool the light some but their won't be much evaporative cooling.

 

[ghogg]

Generally chillers don't have a pump, so you need this as well. They are a bit pricey but certainly do the job. Even through the UK winter I was having problems keeping the tank cool with the central heating on in the house so thought a chiller would be the best option. Mine is a Hailea 150 with an Aqua One 700 external canister filter serving a 110 litre (24 UK/29 US gallon) aquarium. The filter is supplying the chiller with clean water and using siphon and pump to circulate.
The outflow into the tank is through a spreader bar on one side of the tank directed into the side glass, and inflow from the other side which has the effect of no real visible current in the tank. The chiller does make a bit of noise so you wouldn't want to sit next to it, but from across the room it doesn't bother me with the TV on. Hear it kick in a few times a day for couple of hours at a time as it keeps the water around 17 degrees.

 

[rossman86]

That sounds like a good idea, do you have a link you could attach to show me that filter? I've just tried to google it and found the effect of the "Bing" Advert cheers

 

[ghogg]

Aqua One Filtration - filter

HC-150A - chiller

There are quite a few filters which will do the job, this is just the range that they had in a local shop. I can recommend it though, well designed so its easy to clean. The pipes come with taps, so you just turn them off, unscrew them and carry the filter off to a suitable cleaning area.