check this out

So i have been trying to think of new ways to cool the water without
1) encouraging excessive evaporation
and
2) not spending a couple hundred on a chiller

check this item out http://www.amazon.com/Super-Efficie...s=miscellaneous&ie=UTF8&qid=1301518162&sr=1-3

I was thinking about purchasing this and running water down from my tank into my wetdry, in the photo both spouts are at the same level but by bending one down it will allow gravity to feed it through and exit into the wetdry, I think the headloss will overcome the force of gravity so the attachment of a small pump at the end to suck it through should overcome. By using the 25ft stainless steel pipe in an airconditioned room at 75 deg I think it will lower the water back down to 80 or lower with the halides running.

I havnt gotten around to calculate the heat transfer yet, but i wanted to throw this idea out there. I figure if it doesnt work I could even place this in a cheap mini fridge off craigslist and route it up the top, then just insulate the hole with sprayfoam. this could all be done for under $100 total still cheaper than a chiller.


Thoughts?
 
This appears to be an immersion chiller. The idea is that the coils will sit inside the sump and a cooler liquid is circulated through the coils, cooling the sump water that it sits in. You would need a pump or some other mechanism to pump cold water through the coils - some people use ice water, some hook it directly to a cold water line (or faucet). Often, a coil like this is usually hooked directly to a small chiller - refrigerant is recirculated through the coil in that case.

This style of chiller isn't used much in aquaria, mostly due to the fact that they just can't remove that much heat compared to our needs.

There's no real reason you couldn't use this coil in the manner you described, but I don't think you'll see any benefit from just running it through the living room. You could run it through a small refrigerator or freezer - that may be able to cool the water down enough for you to see measurable results. You could also link several of these units together...the more contact time, the closer the water can get to the ambient temperature.

EDIT: Just noticed the unit you linked to has brass fittings - these will need to be replaced, as brass will quickly break down and release quite a bit of copper in a saltwater application.
 
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