DIY Chiller that works

[jason the filter freak]

I'm calling you OG's of reefing and electronics.

 

I was poking around the interweb and came across these

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Qty-TEC-Thermoelect...QQcmdZViewItem|

 

obviously you couldn't put them in water. But what if one was to attach them so a sheet of thermally conductive material, and then glue it to the back of a nano sort of like the stick on heaters used in reptile applications.. I'm not thinking this will work for any large tanks but what about smaller ones? Then just put it on a controller (ranco or the like)

 

Thermoelectric cooler / Peltier junction + Controller + Powersupply + Aluminum plate for thermally conductive material = chiller for smaller tanks?

 

Note: I didn't come up with this all by my self, it's a some what modded idea from a source from another site.

 

[treesprite]

this is interesting - I was researching this subject last night, so am happy to see someone else bring it up.

 

I can't afford a chiller, but I have a travel cooler which uses the thermoelectric method - I took the cooler apart to see how it worked, to see if I could use it somehow. I had no clue what I was looking at, so I looked the cooler up on the internet to see what it was, then upon learning what the system is called, searched to find out if there is such a thing as a thermoelectric chiller for aquariums. THere's got to be some way to seal the gadget into a casing to make it useable in the tank.

[mogurnda]

Thermoelectric cooler / Peltier junction + Controller + Powersupply + Aluminum plate for thermally conductive material = chiller for smaller tanks?

=IceProbe, more or less. I have one I used for a 20 gallon, along with the controller and a DIY inline housing, if anyone is interested.

[lletellier]

I was about to post a thread about a diy chiller for my 46 till I saw this one.. i'm wondering if I thow one of those ice probes in my 20g sump if that will make enough of a difference. Can you just drop them in like a heater or do they have to be drilled??

 

I was also thinking (and this may just be crazy talk) but I have a small fridge in my room next to my tank and I have a diy denitration unit with about 30' of small plastic hosing. This gave me the idea that perhaps somehow I could work a chiller in the same way the unit works. Run 20-30' of the tubing through the fridge somehow and attach a powerhead to one end. That way the water would cool as it went through the tubing and drip back into the tank kind of like those cheap pool heaters where the water runs through 100+' of black tubing that gets warmed by the sun. Hopefully someone knows more about this than I do cause I'm not about to start drilling my fridge till I know more.

[Rascal]

I was about to post a thread about a diy chiller for my 46 till I saw this one.. i'm wondering if I thow one of those ice probes in my 20g sump if that will make enough of a difference. Can you just drop them in like a heater or do they have to be drilled??

 

I was also thinking (and this may just be crazy talk) but I have a small fridge in my room next to my tank and I have a diy denitration unit with about 30' of small plastic hosing. This gave me the idea that perhaps somehow I could work a chiller in the same way the unit works. Run 20-30' of the tubing through the fridge somehow and attach a powerhead to one end. That way the water would cool as it went through the tubing and drip back into the tank kind of like those cheap pool heaters where the water runs through 100+' of black tubing that gets warmed by the sun. Hopefully someone knows more about this than I do cause I'm not about to start drilling my fridge till I know more.

 

The fridge idea is sooooo tempting ... (for me mostly b/c I always figured I could still save room for a couple of brews in there ), but unfortunately it won't work.

This link: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/chillers/d...idge/index.html was posted in this thread: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...ridge&st=25

Edited May 30, 2007 by Rascal

[mogurnda]

I was about to post a thread about a diy chiller for my 46 till I saw this one.. i'm wondering if I thow one of those ice probes in my 20g sump if that will make enough of a difference. Can you just drop them in like a heater or do they have to be drilled??

You either have to use them in-line or drill the tank. It's too small to do much on a 46 though. It dropped my 20 about 2-3 degrees.