Its that time of year...

[emmyk]

So, anyone who lives in Washington knows not to complain about sun. We get all rain. Anyways the last week has been sunnier, and last summer I cooled Stanley's tank on sunny days with Ice bottles. But this summer i'm actually working, so i won't be here every 3 hrs to replace the ice bottles. I'm in the process of getting a 40 gal running for him (also,plot twist, pretty sure Stanley is a girl) so the temp shouldn't fluctuate as much. I'll be getting a canister filter, so does anyone have any good diy setups for 'inline' chillers?
I'm thinking something along the lines of a insulation box (the Styrofoam type) with two holes to run the line through, and I work at a vet so I was thinking of using the ice packs they use to send medicine to the vet. (We have a surplus of those! Lol!) Anybody have better ideas?

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[emmyk]

My brother brought up something interesting. He was saying a car radiator system.

There's two things I'm going to explain. What I'm planning on doing, and what I'm going to do. That I'm planning on doing is setting up a closed system with a pump to circulate water through copper tubing and through the radiator, with a computer fan blowing through the radiator. I would wrap the copper tubing around the line or around the canister filter itself.

Now what I wish I could do:
if I wasnt so afraid of what the metal would do to my water, I would hook it up to my canister filter line and run the tank water through it. It would be much more effective.
now if only they made PVC radiators... ahah

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[Boomsloth]

What type of tubing line do you use? If it is vinyl or pvc it will be pretty insulated.

 

[emmyk]

I haven't got the canister filter yet. I'll make a note to get vinyl

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[Jonjey]

Hey, just wanted to share an idea I had for a diy chiller..
Basically, the idea would be to get one of those countertop water chillers, you know, the ones that have the big jugs on top that are at every office/doctors office/place of business ever etc... buy a big jug (5 gallon to make it easier) and put the water chiller next to your tank at a similar height. drill a hole in the very top of the jug then silicone any form of hose to that hole, then run a hose from the "cold" tap on the water chiller down to your tank. Have a small submersible water pump (can get one for less than $30 on amazon) and attach the hose that's siliconed ontop of the jug to the pump. This will pump water up into the jug then it will come out through the cold tap and back into your tank. You could get a bunch of other things to make it work better like a dripper system on the out-hose so the water spends more time in the jug, more time to get colder.
A simpler thing would be to just fill up the jug with cold water and some dechlorinator every morning and have it drip into the tank with an overflow on the other side letting the old warm water drain. A DIY overflow is easily made out of pvc pipe for a few dollars. You can youtube "pvc overflow" should be able to find it.

 

[Boomsloth]

I haven't got the canister filter yet. I'll make a note to get vinyl

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Ah no! what I meant was that most tubing you buy whether vinyl or pvc will be insulated so if you wrap copper tubing around it, the heat transfer will be minimal if anything at all. I'd advise against using copper but most aquarium chillers use either high grade stainless steel or titanium coils. Metal will always be one of the better options for heat transfer and is the reason why things like copper are used so much.

 

[emmyk]

Ooh. That's a good point. Drats! Also, the water cooler is a good idea but unless I found one used it would probably be just as expensive as a chiller, right?

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[Boomsloth]

I've looked at a lot of diy chillers too and found most people who have done it would rather have just bought a used chiller. Its a lot of time and effort and doesn't always work. If you don't want to buy a chiller yet another option is to use fans and wrap the bottom and sides of the tank with insulation. The fan cools the tank through evaporation at the surface and the insulation prevents heat transfer from the sides and bottom.

 

[Jonjey]

Ooh. That's a good point. Drats! Also, the water cooler is a good idea but unless I found one used it would probably be just as expensive as a chiller, right?

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You can find one on craigslist for like $30-$50, remember to always offer less than they're asking! They have full length ones that could sit on the floor next to the tank and be around tank level that would work well, or they make countertop ones that are cheaper ($50 new on amazon) that you could use on a shelf or table next to the tank. Depends on your set up, mine is on a table so I am going to just get a tabletop one and put it next to it.

 

[sde]

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ers-substrate/96697-do-yourself-chillers.html Heres another way to make a DIY chiller