Reef Safe Metals?

the title says it all i am trying to make a diy chiller and want to know if any metals are reef safe. I know that copper is a big no no

 

Stainless steel would be the only metal I'd ever place in the tank.

 

Any sort of heat exchanger these days is either fully aluminum or some alloy of brass. Pretty hard to find a SS exchanger. Plus it wouldn't be as efficient.

 

I planned on doing this as well but have resolved to just buying if I need it.
Bronze is out. Most of the common metals deteriorate quickly in saltwater.
Some stainless is uneffected by saltwater but I can't remember the the type or who makes the tubing. But you can look into it.
Honestly the best is titanium for this application but by the time you pay for the tubing and have it bent you could pay for a manufactured chiller.

 

I have this idea about drilling holes in a mini fridge and spiraling plastic RO tubing throughout the entire fridge, and pump water through it at the coldest setting... any reason this wouldn't work? Or, you could create a sealed plastic container to pump water in and out of inside the fridge. I think it could work and small fridges are cheap.

 

It's likely to be inefficient compared to a chiller, gabba. Also, you still need to set up a thermometer to prevent from chilling the tank too far, and by then you've put enough into it to just get a manufactured one.

 

I'd like to see brass being used since it has copper.....

 

This idea has been suggested countless times. The plastic tubing doesn't allow enough heat transfer to be effective.

A mini fridge is also going to use a lot more power and be less effective than a regular chiller. In the long run a chiller would save you money.

 

looks like i am going to buy a ro system. you see the thing is if i put a fan on the tank keeps at 79 Degrees all day the only thing is that i go through about 5 gallons of ro every 5 days an it getting kinda anoying going to the lfs every 5 days. do you guys know of any good but cheap ro systems that come with a tank and a auto shut off switch? and thanks for all the help.

 

the stainless grade you would want is 316, which is food grade, and i believe is for surgical field also.