diy chiller

[Nano_Steve]

alright folks, i just ordered a 320 watt peltier thermoelectric device so it should be here within the next couple of days. i plan to go over to tinkertronics(after a quick stop at fry's) and have them run me through the ropes of setting this thing up.

ill try to post some pics if i can get a camera.

lemme know if anyone has a temperature switch they wanna sell too :D(one like a floatswitch but for temp instead of water)

thanks, steve

[Nano_Steve]

oh man!!! i think i bought a MONSTER! ive been emailing the seller back and forth and i think this peltier has the potential to cool some major water! i found a power supply for it but its expensive.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48708&item=5707230 440&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

does anyone have a power source that will convert ac to 0-15 vdc with 0-26 amps?

thanks, steve

[StephenA]

Your average AC adapter is .5 amps. Check around your house for an old phone or portable cd player adapter. If you have to buy one go to fry's or radio shack. That power source on ebay you are looking at is way over-kill! When you look for amperage ratings the listed number is the max it can handle. So .5amps (or 500mA) would handle what you are doing.

[StephenA]

I'm not sure if the thermoelectric device will work for what you are doing. It's designed to pull heat from it's heat sink and remove it. It will cool only what it is touching.

I've got an old cordless phone adapter that is 9V you could try. It would be neat to see what this thing does.

You could stick it to the outside glass and it should pull the heat from it.

[Nano_Steve]

stephena,

thats just what i had in mind to do :) im going to set up a makeshift design that uses the peltier inline in this order from outside in:

cooling fan-heatsink-peltier-aluminum disk-tank glass

im going to use heatsink adhesive to stick the device to the glass. this works. have you ever seen those iceprobes? all they are is a 50 watt peltier with a titanium bolt ontop thatyou drill a whole in your tank and set inside. same principle i am using here, just with a ridiculously powerful peltier :)

-steve

[StephenA]

Good Luck. Keep us posted.

[Nano_Steve]

will do. i am going to build everything else and see how hot the water temp gets with just my fan setup before i buy the stuff to make the peltier device so as to save money if i dont need it to be spent.

there are a bunch of articles about this on nano-reef.com where i got the idea. i hope it works if i have to make it :)

-steve

[Ram_Puppy]

I too am curious if this will work. One of the key features I think makes the ice probe work is the 'probe' that goes into the water column. Personally, I would be a little scared at having a 'cool' spot on my glass, seems like a recipie for a crack as part of the glass pane shrinks, though, I expect that it won't make enough of an impact to have such a disasterous effect. Definately keep us up to date, very interested.

[Nano_Steve]

hey ram,

i was thinking the same thing about the shrinking of the glass but if i do make this it will be going onto the side of a 5.5 gallon tank so im not as worried since the surface area is smaller than say a 20 or 30 gallon tank.

-steve

[Ram_Puppy]

any more news on this? my curiosity is still brimming!

[Nano_Steve]

not just yet, im still waiting on my lights to get here that way i know how high to build the canopy and stand. once all of that is done i will fill it with tap water and run it for a few days to see how hot it gets and if i need a chiller or not.

if i do, however, im proud to say that i know an electrician that worked with the armed forces for over 20 years and built 80,000 peltier units for the AMD athlon processors!!!!!!!!!! so im in good hands if i need to put it together :D

-steve

[bprewit]

Before I moved my tank into the living room from the plant room I had to use a chiller. It was very unscientific with no temp control, instead just a timer that turned it on during the hottest part of the day. I used a small drink cooler that they sell at stores like walmart that are only big enough to hold a 12 pack of sodas for around $60. I cut two holes in the door and coiled 1/2" plastic tubing in the fridge coming into and out of it through the holes in the door. I hooked one end of the hose to a powerhead in the sump and the other into the return flow of the sump back to the tank. It worked keeping the tank cool while running MH and being in a non-airconditioned room that got up to almost 90 degrees during the day. It was cheap but actually worked **** good. Would have been better with a temp control relay switching the powerhead on and off.

[wkopplin]

Troy and I were talking about this, but couldn't you take an old freezer, put a long coil of hose in there, pump water through it and a not so fast rate and use that for a chiller? Get like a 30 ft. coil of titanium hose? My fridge uses less amps than most commercial chillers.

[BA]

but ur chiller uses more amps than most houses,lol...good idea, i've always wanted to try something like that...and maybe use like those mini frides, only like 4 feet tall...ne1 done this???

[wkopplin]

You can go buy a new chest freezer for a couple hundred bucks. My chiller is not too bad on the amps. My electric meter still moves fast enough to power a helicopter.

[BA]

ya, that chiller is a haus....

[BA]

would it have to be titanium?

[Troy Valentine]

Stainless steel, glass tubing, anything that will remain cold. or set up a mini-1 gallon drip top off from the frig, into your sump. Similar to a calcium/kalk reactor... Have a valve on the output line to control the amount of cold water flow into the sump.... And gravity feed the water from your tank, or splice of your return hose with a Johnguest fitting, to supply the chiller with water.

Frig. cost $49.99 at any pawn shop.

miss. cost $25

A chiller for $75 Not to shabby!

[bprewit]

I ran my diy chiller on a 55g tank. The drink cooler was basically a small refridgerator maybe 2' high and about 2' deep. Walmart and places sell them for under $100. It worked really well but like I said I just had it on a timer. It would be much better if there were a temp control switch connected but I was too cheap to buy one. It was really pretty simple with just 1/2" id tubing coiled around inside. I dont know how big a tank it would work on, but worked well on the 55g.

[wkopplin]

I can't seem to think why it would not work. The hose part being expensive could be one. bprewit, yours sounds like it worked quite well.

[wkopplin]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=45040&item=3829009 593&rd=1

There you go!

[Nano_Steve]

josh,

no you cant unfortunately. "stainless" doesnt mean that the stuff is incapable of staining it just means it "stains-less". i learned in chemistry that the process that the iron goes through to become steel does not change the chemical properties only the physical by bringing the molecules closer together and to make it stainless they put a layer of special metal onto the piece during production. if that layer is scratched or is worn away then the steel will become open to the elements and will rust for sure.

its way too big of a risk to use stainless steel for aquariums. the only metal that is proven 100% to be safe is titanium, and others that are out of the question due to cost.

either way, the main point im making with a peltier chiller is this is going on a NANO reef aquarium. i dont want my chiller to be bigger than my tank :P i have a mini fridge that ive thought of doing just that and putting a titanium coil in but whats the point if you could just as easily place the whole aquarium INSIDE the fridge!!! :shock:

still laughing, steve

[wkopplin]

LMAO Good point. Can you put a window on the front of the fridge?

[Nano_Steve]

LOL, dude blake, quit giving me these ideas!!! youre as bad as tim and his suggestion that i put a surge device on the dang 7 gallon!

-steve

[BA]

LOL!!oceansmotion on a 7gallon...

[prof]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=45040&item=3829014 692