DIY Chiller

[Martin in Holland]

I build a Chiller for my 40 liter tank from an old water cooler. Here some pictures.

Opened the water canister to be able to fit a small pump in it connected to the outlet. This way it should suck the cold water out of the canister into the tank if needed.

The hole is closed up with some acrylic to make it watertight again.

Here I'm testing the Chiller. The pump is hooked up to a thermo-switch. the small water canister is back inside the insulating foam box.
It works ....now I can clean it and make some kind of box to house it in.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

What a fantastically, eccentric project and if it doesn't cool your tank it will probably be the first cold fusion device in the aquarium hobby! Martin…is you full name Martin Fleischmann?

 

[ian_m]

Does it work though......

These Peltier effect coolers are not very big, in water coolers generally less than 50Watts (with over 100-150Watts power consumption -> 150/1000*24*265*0.15 -> £200 a year running cost).

Compared to a proper chiller @ £300 which is generally rated at 300W cooling for less than 150Watts.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

These Peltier effect coolers are not very big, in water coolers generally less than 50Watts

We had a go at pimping/DIY one of these for a colleague who works with tufa, and we didn't get much cooling effect.

cheers Darrel

 

[ian_m]

Hi all, We had a go at pimping/DIY one of these for a colleague who works with tufa, and we didn't get much cooling effect.

cheers Darrel

Yes these are meant to cool a cup of water and not litres of water for 24/7.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Yes these are meant to cool a cup of water and not litres of water for 24/7.

I think she is looking at a second hand "beer chiller" now, or possibly a new lab.

cheers Darrel

 

[EnderUK]

you could buy a radiator for a PC water cooler for about £25, rig a fan up to a 12V supply and then hook it up to a pump/filter. There would be a hell of a lot of restriction and I don't if you would get it much below room temperature, maybe pushing a couple of degrees, maybe.

I think she is looking at a second hand "beer chiller" now, or possibly a new lab.

Again as Ian mentioned fridge is a terrible way of doing it as you would soon burn out the motor.

 

[ian_m]

Last summer when tank reached 32C odd, verified it wasn't heater stuck on, I placed a clip on fan on rim of tank and easily got the temperature back down to 25C odd in an hour or two

 

[mafoo]

personally id go with freezing 2L coke bottles with water in them then putting them next to the filter canister wrapped in a towel to insulate it, or floating them in the tank, or wrapping the filter tubes around them.

 

[Andy D]

I use a clip on BOYU fan which typically gives a drop of about 3°C.

 

[Martin in Holland]

My test showed a drop in from 29°C to 26°C in about 2 hours, but only a bucket of 10 ltr .....the humidity here is so high that a fan doesn't do anything...maybe 1 degee...lets hope this little chilly works on my 45x30x30 tank

 

[Matej]

Buy PC water cooler for procesor or GPU and peltier.Strap peltier on cooler an PC fan on peltier.Blow heat from peltier and peltier will cool water cooler.

 

[ian_m]

Buy PC water cooler for procesor or GPU and peltier

Be very careful here, most PC water based coolers use copper heatsinks, pipe & radiators. Fish and especially invertebrates are not tolerant of copper in the water.

 

[Matej]

So look for aluminium cooler

 

[X3NiTH]

Aluminium will also undergo Corrosion both above and below a neutral pH causing its own toxicity problems.

 

[EnderUK]

Be very careful here, most PC water based coolers use copper heatsinks, pipe & radiators. Fish and especially invertebrates are not tolerant of copper in the water.

Probably not the cheapest option now that I think of it. My watercooling costs more than most peoples PCs.

 

[flygja]

you could buy a radiator for a PC water cooler for about £25, rig a fan up to a 12V supply and then hook it up to a pump/filter. There would be a hell of a lot of restriction and I don't if you would get it much below room temperature, maybe pushing a couple of degrees, maybe.

This won't work well, because a PC water cooler is designed to cool something thats higher in temp than ambient. It will most likely only drop 1-2'C compared to ambient.

 

[ian_m]

Right you have 40Kg of water. Cooler is 50Watts (much more likely to be less as a drink cooler). Heat capacity of water if 4200J/Kg/C.

Time to cool by 1C = mass x specific heat capacity / Watts.

Time = 40Kg * 4200J/Kg/C / 50 Watts -> 3360 seconds.

Thus nearly 1 hour to drop 1C. I doubt will achieve this as obviously the 40Kg water will probably be warming up faster from the surroundings than is being removed by the cooler.