Aquarium cooling on a budget

[BowMaster]

Hi guys. I'm the new guy here and have recently started up a 72 Gallon Bow front, planted aquarium. Everything is going great except I have a tempurature issue. on a hot day my tank can easily push over 80 degrees. Which is not good for my fish and is killing some of my plants. I have sort or remedied this by putting a large fan blowing straight at the water. But my rate of evaporation is terrible. On a hot day, I'm losing 2 gallons a day.

So, as you probably know aquarium chillers are quite expensive. So, I was planning on possibly building one. I throught a small automotive oil cooler (new, and properly cleaned) with a fan would work. I would use an independant suction/discharge system with it's own pump.

I'm just curious if anybody has done this or has any other ideas.

Thanks in advance guys.

Lyle

 

[patoloco]

I've considered building myself a cooler.

My designt would consist of a pump (probably a power head that) would pass the water trough a cooper tube serpentine with a fan blowing on it. However the copper idea is bad for its toxic effect on the fish, so I letf the idea behind. This can be remedied by using another material for tubing, and it would work.

Another way to do it would consist of using an already working refrigerator. If you dare and know the risk, you could drill two holes in the refrigerator and use it to pass a hose inside the cold zone. Then, pump water thru that hose and you'll get cool water.
However, the tricky part is how to get a balance. You'd need a temperature sensing device that would turn the system on and off. I'd consider modifying a regular heater in a way that would allow me to use it to power on and off my pump.

These are just some ideas. And, being serious, I don't really think I'm ever gonna use the refrigerator idea.

 

[tai95]

What kind of fish and plants do you have? I keep my planted angel tank at between 82-86 degrees and have never noticed a problem.

 

[Alestro Bakai]

What kind of fish and plants do you have? I keep my planted angel tank at between 82-86 degrees and have never noticed a problem.

I had the same thought. One of my little tanks always hovers around 82-86 and the plants are growing like crazy. They're creeping out of the tank now. Then again, maybe they're trying to get away :duh:

 

[jaymasta]

they have fairly inexpensive window type air conditioners at costco and home depot, in fact they had one on sale for 89.99 the other day, Iam not sure if that is an option for you or not giving your window situation in the room, but my friend also modified one so that it has a big dryer vent type thing and he just uses that to blow the warm air out his window, in fact he got the 89.99 and it cools a 15*20 foot room really well...

 

[BowMaster]

I had the same thought. One of my little tanks always hovers around 82-86 and the plants are growing like crazy. They're creeping out of the tank now. Then again, maybe they're trying to get away :duh:

I've got mostly Tetras, some Octocinclus and Clown Loaches. Also a few Zebra snails, and assorted algae eating shrimp. My plants I have about 14 species in there and a couple of them need cool water. Because when the temp was normal they grew fine. But when it peaked over 80F they started to die and 90% of the leaves fell off.

I would like to keep the water within the 70's. So, I would like to have a cooler. As far as control goes. I'm thinking about getting a full feature controller. Something that would control my light timing, heat and CO2. I've found a few resonably priced controllers, but all of the chillers I can find are for very large tanks and offer a WAY to large temp drop. Oh, and they start around $400CDN.

Given the large temp drop that these refridgerated units offer. I think that a simple radiator would work fine.

Lyle

 

[dadof3]

Hi guys. I'm the new guy here and have recently started up a 72 Gallon Bow front, planted aquarium. Everything is going great except I have a tempurature issue. on a hot day my tank can easily push over 80 degrees. Which is not good for my fish and is killing some of my plants. I have sort or remedied this by putting a large fan blowing straight at the water. But my rate of evaporation is terrible. On a hot day, I'm losing 2 gallons a day.

So, as you probably know aquarium chillers are quite expensive. So, I was planning on possibly building one. I throught a small automotive oil cooler (new, and properly cleaned) with a fan would work. I would use an independant suction/discharge system with it's own pump.

I'm just curious if anybody has done this or has any other ideas.

Thanks in advance guys.

Lyle

Using a fan as you know leads to too much evaporation which means the addition of new water which is bad because this will increase calcium and other mineral buildup in the tank. Not good either.
Ice floating in a freezer or sandwich bag is the cheapest option I've ever read.
A refrigerator would be good as a long term solution.
Perhaps a small bar style would be good enough.
I've seen these at garage sales and thrift stores dirt cheap.
Temp regulation and creating a flow would be the next problem.
Grainger has adjustable temp controls avail as online orders as well as small pumps, all of this will add up though.
I think the only safe tubing would be Poly tubing like what the Python uses, as copper and aluminum would be toxic. PVC may not transfer enough heat off thru the pipe.

Our weather has been in the upper 90's but we keep the house around 80, odd thing is the tank water will always be lower than room temp, like 75 if I dont heat it to keep 80, and there is very little evaporation.