Chiller on the Way

i was meaning use a non-refrigerated passive cooling type. run a pump in one are of the sump, probably right after the skimmer, and go out of the sump into a radiator. have a fan on the radiator. might only see nominal improvement, but it wouldnt cost anything.

heres a rough schematic. doesnt include any of the sump partitions.

sump.jpg
 
Most of the time, aluminum radiators are made with a copper/aluminum alloy.. And we all know what copper does to reef tanks...

Jason
 
hrm.

good point. i hadnt thought of the copper part.

i could make my own radiator out of aluminum stock, or coat the inside of the radiator with something to prevent leaching.

another idea someone had was a window ac unit.
 
you could get away with an apartment size fridge with a pump circulating water into a coiled hose inside the fridge and back to the sump on the 55g.. poke a couple holes in the fridge... poormans chiller.. lol

Jason
 
I'm no A/C expert, but buy the time you get all the parts together, get it tuned, figure out a way to regulate temp, make it Tank safe, quiet it down, and then realize its eating energy, etc.... It would probably be better to just buy one. Most Auto Compressors take a minumum of 5-10 Horsepower to turn, and cause massive amounts of heat!! Not to mention the evaporation rate. I made a air compressor out of one a long time ago, and the electric motor required to run it was a hog!! Just my 2 cents worth............
 
you guys are missing the original idea.

radiator of some sort with an electric fan on it.

that would cost like 20 bucks.
 
There would be very little heat exchange.... Thats why A/C units have a reactent called refrigerant. If you could cause a cooling effect that way the enviromentalist would love you!! Put a couple Icecap fans in your cabinet, or in your hood, and you will keep cooler but will cause more evap.. Like Jay said, run a coil system thru a fridge, but then you will have to have a heater to negate the fridge, no balance point?? The radiator idea only works if you have thermostat of some kind, to stop flow long enough to allow the water to cool.
 
how would there be little heat exchange? it cools a car.

my idea was to run a pump in the sump to get the water out, and a couple valves to slow the flow down inside the radiator. then discharge the radiator back into the sump
 
Because a Car has the freon which is compressed which causes it to get very cold, and this is then circulated thru the system, and air is blown over it which causes the air to become very cold, which then is circulated thru your cars vents to make you nice and comfy. You just cant cool water the same way... If you could, you would be very very rich!!! And did you ever notice, when you turn your A/C on in your car how it causes a loss of performance (Horsepower Drain)? And also It causes tremendous amounts of heat in the engine compartment, to cool the interior of you car!! And Gallons of Evaporation!!
 
You can compress almost any gas and cause a cooling effect.. The problem is finding one that doesnt become unstable when compressed.. Thats why the stuff used in cars is so pricey.. We actually used compressed propane in the military in a few apps to run A/C.. But deffinatly not stable.
 
no it doesnt.


a car is cooled by water.

in some cases antifreeze.

if you are still going to beat your head against the r134a wall, or in case you havent figured it out yet, im talking about a cars regular cooling system. for those of you who seem to think they know more about this system than i do, have you taken a minute to ponder how the heater works in your vehicle? exactly the same way im talking about. ever noticed that when your car is overheating that if you turn on the heater it cools it quicker?


maybe im missing something but i see no reason why this wouldnt work. it wouldnt work as WELL as a gas charged cooling coil, but it would definitely work.
 
Well your car is being cooled to around 104 degrees which is ussually hotter than the outside temp. And when you turn your heater on all you are doing is increasing your coolant capacity.. I do understand this, I spent a good 10 years as a mechanic.. If it was that easy, you would see these systems for sale all over the place...
 
all youre trying to do is bring the tank temp closer to ambient. there is no way this system could do anything negative.

increasing your coolant capacity? what youre doing is pulling as much heat out of the water as possible....

which is what were trying to do here.
 
You will risk contaminating your whole system when you use automotive parts. Unless you can find a titanium radiator you will run the risk of leaching. Plastic radiators will not conduct heat very well.

Almost ALL aquarium chilling systems use titanium because it its inert. Plastic is a terrible exchanger of heat. Most people who went to the trouble of making the fridge chiller regret wasting their time. It is usually good for 1 or 2 degrees but if you need more they just dont cut it.


Now, if you could find something that is inert and will exchange heat that would be AWESOME. Most people cannot afford a chiller and still want to run halides and not have their house at 60 degrees.
 
OK, I'm not going to get into this much more... But yes you increase your coolant usable capacity when you turn the heater on!!! When you Turn that little knob from blue to red you open a waste gate style valve which allows water to circulate thru your heater core (which on some vehicles can add as much as 1-3 gallons of additional coolant, not to mention all the additional surface space that becomes available for heat to dicapate thru) and the water that has been sitting in the heating system is alot cooler than what was circulating around the engine, this is why you get a temporary cooling effect!!!
 
Steve we are not talking about using r 134a. He is talking about using a condenser without coolant and running aquarium water through it.

Also a heater core Will act as a radiator. a fan blowing or sucking air past a radiator will pull cooler air across and in turn cool the water.
 
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