Very simple, water cooling idea!

[chronic]

I'm sure 80% of you have thought of this once before. But it just dawned on me today!

I was talking with a coworker today and it was hot!! So he's telling me about his neat little set up at home.
He made a heat exchanger, he got a smaller radiator which he pumps cold water through from his well, and pushes air through it with a squirrel cage fan.


So while he's telling me this I'm thinking, yeah! Thats a great idea... omg!!

I need to throw a tiny pond pump into my tank! Then pump the water through a small radiator with a computer fan ontop of it! So on these hot days, I could rig it up so I just just "drop it in" when I need it, and run it through out the day to remove some heat.

I will try it! Definitely need a brand new oil cooler or something for obvious reasons lol
It's such a simple idea! And it would probably work better than having a fan blowing across your tanks water.

but then maybe not... I will try though!

[Xavier]

I just had a fish bag filled with ice and dropped it in the tank whenever it went over 30 C. Would drop 1-2C per bag.

[Cliff]

Let us know how well it works for you

Looks like we had the same hot wether today as you did

[Xavier]

It's supposed to be 13 C in Quebec :P

[tori.lock]

I just had a fish bag filled with ice and dropped it in the tank whenever it went over 30 C. Would drop 1-2C per bag.

The problem with this technique is that it makes the temperature really erratic. It's obviously the least stressful on fish if you can maintain their environment as stably as possible. It works in a pinch if the water really is too hot to a dangerous level, but it's not good practice for regular temperature regulation.

Some people put a fan next to their tank so that the wind blows over the surface water. I don't know how successful this is, but I imagine that it would keep it a bit more stable than the ice trick.

Fortunately for me, I live in a really mild climate so I don't have to worry about this much.

[BIO-Linist]

Tank water might corrode the radiator and release metals into your water. (Unless it's made of stainless steel or something.)

[gadget228]

A replacement heater core for a car would work better and be cheaper than an oil cooler. You can get them in either copper or aluminium if you have fish that are sensitive to copper.

[Lady Hobbs]

How about an air conditioner? They aren't that expensive and you will stay cool, too.

(I think you will be throwing all kinds of electrical circuits with your current plan.)

[Piscine]

A small window unit is like 125 bucks at walmart.

[Brhino]

I guess I don't understand the theory of operation here. Are you trying to cool down your tank which is too hot because your house is too hot? So, you're going to circulate hot water through hot air? I don't see how that will work, unless I'm misunderstanding your goals and purpose.

Your coworker has a large quantity of cool water thanks to his well, and he's using that to cool his house. That I understand... but your situation seems different.

[Piscine]

I guess I don't understand the theory of operation here. Are you trying to cool down your tank which is too hot because your house is too hot? So, you're going to circulate hot water through hot air? I don't see how that will work, unless I'm misunderstanding your goals and purpose.

Your coworker has a large quantity of cool water thanks to his well, and he's using that to cool his house. That I understand... but your situation seems different.



If I needed to cool my tanks down, I'd put a fan into the hood that blows on the water surface. It will cause evap, but you can always replenish that. I have run a box fan sitting on top of one of my tanks before when the power went out. I was running my smaller generator and couldn't use the A/C. My house got up to 84 degrees and my tanks stayed at 80.

-If the temps were seriously too high, I'd buy a small dorm fridge.
-Drill one 3/8" hole on each side.
-Buy 50ft of airline tubing, and coil up about 45ft inside of the fridge in the corner with a short piece sticking out of the holes on each side of the fridge.
-Pump your room air through the line, and the 45ft of coils of airline in the fridge, then into your bubblers.
-It would be like a mini air chiller.
-You could also do the same thing with the water lines, just on a bigger scale.
-Just set your heater on the temp you want and adjust the fridge settings until you have balanced out the heating and cooling, and you've got a year-round automatic thermostat.

[SkipW]

Good point Brhino.
for a radiator to work, you need something colder (air, water, refrigerant, etc.) than the water you are trying to cool down. Assuming the air in the room is warmer than the tank water, thus causing the water to rise in temp, blowing the warmer air across the radiator will probably raise the water temp (in theory).
By blowing a fan across the top of the water, you're cooling the water directly by removing the heat away from the surface. The same effect it has when you stand in front of a fan. Blowing air on a radiator is transferring the warm air to the copper (or what ever it's made out of) which will heat the water (which is cooler) running through it. If your air temp is cooler than your water temp, then I think you need to look at the heater (set to high or not working correctly)
If it's that big of a problem and fans won't do the job, you might want to invest in a chiller. (or 3 window air conditioners for about the same price)

[chronic]

Yeah I jumped the gun there! Boo! Seemed like a cool project and a plausible cure for heat.

Piscine, that's a really good idea!

[gadget228]

-If the temps were seriously too high, I'd buy a small dorm fridge.
-Drill one 3/8" hole on each side.
-Buy 50ft of airline tubing, and coil up about 45ft inside of the fridge in the corner with a short piece sticking out of the holes on each side of the fridge.
-Pump your room air through the line, and the 45ft of coils of airline in the fridge, then into your bubblers.
-It would be like a mini air chiller.
-You could also do the same thing with the water lines, just on a bigger scale.

Unfortunately I have already tried something like this and it doesn't work well at all, the problem is that the small dorm fridge can't generate enough cold to keep up with the heat being exchanged. You can start off with the fridge temperature almost freezing and within an 1/2 hour the fridge will be at room temperature.

20598

[chronic]

That sucks! You have such a nice set up there, too bad it didn't work.

[Michael Milligan]

-10,000 to the radiator idea... sort of.

I worked building radiator cores years ago. They have 3 major constituents: Copper, lead, tin. Plus some pretty nasty stuff to make it all stick together in the oven. So, you won't find me running tank water though it.

That said, I'm now thinking of running a coolant line through a rad and through the tank. The coolant picks up heat in the tank and discharges it in to the air via the rad/fan.

But I don't know the temperature differential between the coolant in the rad and the air will be enough to make it effective enough. Remember, under their normal functioning the coolant in a rad is VERY hot and under great pressure.