Ghetto Chiller - Page 2

Matt Rogers · 04-26-2008, 01:19 PM

Good job boondocks!

I have one of those Iceprobes too. They are ok for nanos.

billm90 · 05-15-2008, 12:25 PM

I did some ghetto cooling on my 100g.

I had a ghetto sump made out of a rubbermade tub. this was the tall one because I could not fit in a long one, and fear of over flowing I chose the tall. I think it was something like 30" tall. maybe 27ish.

I had 2 overflows come in from the side and 90* across the top of the tub. (I drilled 2 holes on the top, side of the sump for the pipe to go across)

I put 2 PVC pipes through the side and drilled holes in it, slightly down from horizontal. this made the water stream out to the sides a good bit.

about 6 inches below I had my filter media which was pond foam sitting on egg crate. I had the lid on the tub, so I cut 4 holes in it. 2 for some fans I picked up at lowes that were AC power and about 4.5 iches diameter (more CFM then a computer fan, and only slightly louder). they blew straight into the path of the streaming water from the drilled pipes, and exhuast out of the 2 other holes I drilled that were on the opposite side.

this alone dropped my temp 4 degrees in about 10 minutes.
Now that I built a whole new sump and summer is rolling in, time to do something a little more cleaner, but the same idea.
blow air over the streams of water and something like a sponge that holds water and can be cooled. kind of like a radiator.

Fishfingers · 06-04-2008, 07:05 PM

Why couldn't you take a small bar fridge (probably about $150 new), carefully remove a few screws to allow you a view down one side between the outer skin and the inner liner, find a clear spot and drill 2- 7/8" holes from outside to inside.

You could then feed the two ends of a 25 foot coil of 1/2" I.D poly tubing out the side and silicone them in place with about a 5 inch nipple of tubing sticking out of the bar fridge. the coil is inside, of course. Now attach to a recirculating pump with low gph (bleed off flow if necessary).

With a thermostat controler you could have the pump turn on whenever you need the temp to decrease just like a non-inline chiller.

Here's the best part. You are bound to have 'Left over' room to house a few wobblypops to help cool you down while you iron out any details with your new Barfly Chiller!

Cheers

billm90 · 06-04-2008, 08:06 PM

I thought about the minifridge thing years ago when I was "planning" on getting into this hobby.

So as soon as I actually got into this hobby I do a search and find everyone saying it is not effective. things like even if the fridge ran all the time it would not work. even if it was packed with ice. even if it just dumped that small amount of cool water out it would end up at the point of diminishing returns. I think bottom line the fridge would have to be bigger then the tank. and it would be cost effective to get a chiller.

somehow I still want to play with this idea as I would like to do a cold water tank with some of the stuff I can find around the coast here. I just dont want to fork out that kind of money for a chiller because it would mean I need to step up to getting something cooler like jellyfish.

yeager003 · 06-04-2008, 08:43 PM

I think the mini fridge idea would work the more length of hose you can have in it the more effective it would be. You could just put the holes in the door to make it easy and a smaller inside diamater like 1/2 inch would work better than 3/4. Just my thoughts. I have been contemplating this for my 28 gal nano HQI gets pretty hot during the day when the halide is on. I still have my old mini fridge from college i also have a small freezer too. We will see as the summer progresses

Afterdark230 · 06-06-2008, 02:31 PM

I am considering this route as well, although I have a bigger referigerater "walk-in cooler" so the coil would be longer. I am going to keep reeding on this but we shall see

SCVJeff · 07-12-2008, 03:09 AM

I have a modified IceProbe on the rear of my 12G. I removed the probe and replaced it with about a 6x1/4" aluminum plate that is attached to the rear of the Nano glass (once you remove the contact paper). The plate also has a very thin layer of heat sink compound to make sure the glass is in solid contact. I went to a craft store and bought a sheet of thin foam to cover the entire rear of the tank, and as much of the chill plate as possible to keep the heat exchanger fan from blowing hot air across it when running.

As long as the room isn't ridiculous this works really well. It's enough to offset the heat of the pump and lights as long as the room isn't any hotter than you want the tank. IE- It dumps the heat that you introduce and takes it back to room temp.

coaxman · 07-13-2008, 12:07 AM

I live in the desert in so cal and i have been able to work it out with two fans one on the sump and one on the MH light and i keep my house at about 80 any more than that i coil a hose up in a ice chest then fill it with blocks of ice and pump it throught the ice chest. but i have rarly gone over 81 in the tank.

w000p · 07-13-2008, 08:44 PM

As I live in Florida, I am no stranger to hot weather. For all the money you have invested in your tank... your better off buying a chiller and just like the infomorial ... Set it and forget it... well not really but almost..

I recently purchased a chiller and it is the best piece of equipment I have purchased for my tank thus far....