Cheap Cooling Solution That Works

Browncoat

New member
Fan $18 (eBay), InkBird controller $40 (Amazon) keeps the tank at a steady 79. Brought down from 84 degrees. Fan is run at full power. Controller isn't 100% necessary but it controls heating and cooling nicely and has an alarm for high and low temps.
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IMO, it's a tradeoff. You invested ~ $60 and it's keeping your tank cool which is great but excessive evaporation is the downside requiring more RODI for the ATO which shortens the lifespan on your filters and membranes and questionable lifespans on the fans and controller. You can find numerous great deals on preowned chillers so that's my preferred route but to each their own. Good research and well done however.
 
IMO, it's a tradeoff. You invested ~ $60 and it's keeping your tank cool which is great but excessive evaporation is the downside requiring more RODI for the ATO which shortens the lifespan on your filters and membranes and questionable lifespans on the fans and controller. You can find numerous great deals on preowned chillers so that's my preferred route but to each their own. Good research and well done however.
It is a trade off. I'm fortunate to have my own RO/DI unit in the garage. If I didn't I'd still use the fan over the chiller to save $ on electricity which chiller uses a ton of though. If you don't have your own RO/DI you can use water from the Glacier machines treated with Prime(much better than tap, though not as pure as RODI). A replacement RO/DI filter pack costs $80, you would probably spend that in 1+2 months just on electricity for the chiller.


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those little fans are usually pretty loud.. Is it loud?
Mine is noisy though it is quieter than a chiller. I blow it out with compressed air every couple weeks. This is the second summer using it. I wouldn't be surprised if it randomly died though haha.

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IMO, it's a tradeoff. You invested ~ $60 and it's keeping your tank cool which is great but excessive evaporation is the downside requiring more RODI for the ATO which shortens the lifespan on your filters and membranes and questionable lifespans on the fans and controller. You can find numerous great deals on preowned chillers so that's my preferred route but to each their own. Good research and well done however.

Yeah, I went the chiller route and found a used one on craiglsist for half the price of a new. Its been working great for 3 months so far. I preferred this method over turning on my AC when no one is home, I have solar panels on my house so that helped my decision as well.
 
Most things in this hobby are trade offs of some sort. Having used a chiller for years and then switched to fans, I have to say I much prefer the fans. The chiller would heat up the whole 1900 sq foot house, was much noise than fans and cost a small fortune to run. The amount of evaporation I get is pretty insignificant on hot days compared to every other day and the fans cost almost nothing to run.
 
Most things in this hobby are trade offs of some sort. Having used a chiller for years and then switched to fans, I have to say I much prefer the fans. The chiller would heat up the whole 1900 sq foot house, was much noise than fans and cost a small fortune to run. The amount of evaporation I get is pretty insignificant on hot days compared to every other day and the fans cost almost nothing to run.
That's another good point about chillers. They do put that heat out into the room which you don't get with a fan. I actually really a chiller on my tank last summer, bought a brand new one online, but the noise and the electricity bill were killing me.

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Once I got rid of MHs I got rid of the Chiller. It was hot, big and not needed anymore.

The fan on top definitely makes my ATO run more but Im fine with the trade off.
 
I use the 120mm infinity fans from Amazon -- They are $15-ish, and put out more CFM than most of those fans like yours. A single one puts out more air than a 4-5 fan fixture. They also plug directly into a wall outlet, and can be daisy chained. Lastly, they're pretty quiet for such a strong little fan.

$15, 110cfm AC Infinity 120mm x 38mm deep fan blade, high speed fan <--- Link

Those are good options too but not sure how you would angle it down to hit the water.
 
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