poor mans chiller

[trimmer156]

i recently visited a friends house who has a 200g in wall reef very well stocked with a ton of mh lighting. When i started poking around his setup i noticed one power head plumbed
out of tank?? After going around behind the wall i found that he had added a mini fridge into system - drilled thru the side of fridge in two places and added a coil of piping inside fridge - always leaves the door closed and has had very steady temperature control with this system, there is a ball valve to control flow on the return side and when putting finger under return outlet that water is really cold???? maybe a good alternative to $$700.00 chiller , fridge probably costs 50-100$$ plus piping and powerhead, remeber the slower water pass' thru coils in fridge the cooler it gets

 

[sharkbait9]

Well, I feel like an idiot. I have had my chiller for quite some time and never thought about it till I broke it out. A real poor mans chiller is real easy and cheap to make, and it works. The only thing you have to do is build it and watch your temp, making sure it don’t drop the water temp to much. Here is the bridge version of this tweak it as you need. I have used this chiller for quite some time with out any problems or ill effect on my tank or sump.
Buy or use left over egg crate
Get your self a reusable cooler ice pack (the kind that’s blue and you can reuse) they come in all sizes.
Measure the ice pack
Cut out the egg crate to the size needed
Make a box (front, back, left and right side) no need for a top of lid.
Place each piece in the form of a box and zip tie it so it keeps it shape
Go and get your self four suction cups (the home depot sells all different size cups)
Place/stick them into the egg crate and or lock them down with Teflon bolt and washers or zip tie them to the egg crate.
Place in side of sump on the intake side of the sump to help chill the water down a bit.
I have used this type chiller for a while now and have had great success. The reason why I made a holder for it, was just incase the lid leaked it would not go into my tank. The company who makes them says they are none toxic and to humans or live stock, but we did not want to take any chances by just dropping them into the sump or tank. I just remember that my father and me made these for our tanks for use in the summer time. Now that the weathers getting warm and tank temps are rising I went into the garage to get mine and saw this post and said s**t I forgot all about this home made chiller. Well, better late then never

 

[moby]

Another cool "poor mans chiller" is a water cooler. The kind you see in practically every office in the world.
A friend of mine just finished one. Its very simple, take the water bottle off close up the top, drill small hole in both sides to accommodate the tubing,coil tubing inside the basin and turn on. The water leaves the sump via small pump,travels through the "chiller" and returns on the outflow side where the main pump returns water to the tank.
He keeps all sump and refuge, etc. in his garage and it keeps the water a constant 78 even in the brutal Arizona summer. The only adjustment is a small ball valve to check the flow so it doesn't go thru to fast.
He got the water cooler on, er, uh you know that auction place, E-something

for $30+ $10 shipping!
Moby

 

[indooreefs]

I have been using frozen 2 liter bottles of water, but thought of doing something like that with a small fridge and water lines. Like for an indoor ice and water dispencer sytem in your fridge...... My husband will figure something out but any ideas on how to regulate it, like with the heater.... to turn on and off when needed?

 

[maxalmon]

Kinda off topic, when we lived in Alaska our neighbor had a cold water anenome tank. The tank was insulated on 4 side with only the front and part of the top exposed, he ran coils to a chest type FREEZER, then back to the tank, it's been a long time ago and I think he kept the temp just above freezing?. If you have ever seen anenomes from Alaskan waters, they are huge and ultra colorful

 

[indooreefs]

Wow, I bet that was a real "cool" sight to see.