chiller needed

OK. so you know me.. always thinking of something....

I have this large chest freezer (6') sitting right next to the sump. what if...

I put a coil of 3/8 tubing of say 50-100 ft in a bucket filled with something.. water (now ice) sand.. something that could retain or help transfer the heat better than just air, and I flowed this water thru there with a small powerhead capable of moving the water thru there slow enough to cool, but fast enough to prevent freezing, I wonder if I could find a ballance to generate a cooling effect for the tank?

the freezer is set to -10*F. It is very quiet and efficient and is already on to keep our sams goodies froze, but has plenty of extra room in it. it has a good flexible seal so I could run the tubes thru the lip on teh back side with minimal transfer so I dont get frost.

If I could drop the water temp 1 or 2 degrees thru the tube and flow maybe 100 gph, to me, it could balance out. use a valve to adjust the pump flow so that if it cools too much, it can be throttled back a bit or use the temp controller to kick heat on if it works too well.

the only thing is that if the power goes out for an hour or so, the water in the tubing could potentially freeze. this could be solved by just pulling the bucket. the controller has alarms on it so I could tell how the balance is working...
 
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At first glance, I see no more potential problems than those you have already stated. Seems like it would be worth trying. Good Luck!
 
I think your problem will be no matter how fast you run the water through it will sooner or later just frezze up. If it was that simple i think you would have heard of someone already doing this. It may be worth a try but personally don't think it will work. JMO
Bill
 
yea, I was thinking about that bill.. -10* is cold. but im sure there could be a balance in there somewhere. tubing lenght, water flow etc to keep it from freezing up.

and just to get it out of the way now.. Yes, bill, you told me so on the heat issue. I knew I could encounter it, and I had this thought when I first started. but I do know that running water tends not to freeze. also, that water would have to go from 75* to about 29* to actually freeze. that is a 46* swing. all I want is 1-2* in a constant stream to provide cooler water into the system. this could be just right to overcome the heating effects of the lights and ambient in the garage.

Does the water line going into your ice maker freeze? there is a small area of it that is fully inside the freezer. that is usually somewhere close to 0*F.
 
Zef. a bar fridge gets to about 32-34*. im talking -10* ambient in the freezer. heck. I may be out $30 at the hardware store. but yea, the volume of cold water in comparison to the total system volume may not be significant enough to make a difference.
 
you can use a Ranco temp controller and have it control the freezer temp based on the tank temp. just set the freeezer so it does not freeze and it should work nice.
 
Ah but I need the freezer cold to keep the food in it cold... thats the thing, I already have this very cold space sitting just next to the sump. its there.. jsut maybe I can figure out how to use it for a while until I can get the other tank sold.
 
ahh, then its going to have to be velocity of the water and temp of the input that will need to be set just right. Since your input temp is the tank temp, and not much you can set there, you would have to get tthe velocity right.
 
With 1/4" tube I still think it will freeze no matter what speed or temp, If it is below freezing it will freeze up IMO, But i could be wrong!
Bill
 
I meant dorm frige 40-45deg his stayed to cold. I was why don't you start a cold water reef. Right now corals are free just mave to pay for shipping. Just got find someone like Steve weast to pick them for you. Here's his web site.
http://www.oregonreef.com/
 
Bill.. i was thinking a bit large tubing. I went to lowes and at $0.27 per foot, they have some that is 1/2" OD I believe. that shoudl match the Maxijet well.

and if it gets too cold, I can shorten the tubing to lessen the exposure to the chill.
 
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