DIY chiller

[kenneth_kpe]

well i have research around a bit and finally decided to start designing the DIY chiller for my tank

im gonna use a styrofoam box filled with water and bottles of ice with a evaporator inside.. similar to the one shown in this page (btw the guy doing the computer speed overclocking in the pages is CRAAAZY!!!! but cool)
http/www.robotics.net/supercooler/phase2.html
the evaporator is the first picture... im gonna have a custom evaporator fabricated from a car air conditioning shop... and place it inside the chilled styro box.. run the aquarium water thru the evaporator and hope for the best

hope it works !

 

[daza]

let us know how this project goes.

Heat is a big problem for me too believe it or not, despite being in England!

 

[kenneth_kpe]

sure, il probably be starting the project this week or next week, im gonna update it here

 

[kenneth_kpe]

heres a pic of the condenser that i had custom fabricated. im gonna be hooking it up this weekend

you can see the in and out tubes in the upper left and right corners of the unit

the chiller is made of aluminum so i think it will be water safe and opcn gave me a tip on grounding the aluminum so im gonna do that too
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=103378

here is the initial design layout for the chiller.

 

[yvez9]

basically all this is is the aquarium water passign through a tube in ice cold water?

if that's the case, how will you pump the water back in the tank?

or is the water just falling in the container and then a pump shoots the water back in?


You should be careful though because the water might shoot out from that tube at very cold temperatures, which might overdrive your heaters

water cools down extremely fast the way you're planning it. I mean like 3 or 4 celcius. that might shock the fish swimming near there...


and i wouldn't want to have to change the cpu on that guy's computer... yuck

 

[kenneth_kpe]

nope the drawing is kinda bad so its hard to picture it.

the conderser

has a inlet and oulet, the water just passed by the chiller then goes back into the tank.

(i dont have a heater... its too hot here i just need to bring the temp to around 28-29 deg celc. right now when the sun is up the tank temp tops at around 33-34 dev celc)

thats the problem actually the sudden drop... im planning on running in on the bare chiller first then after 2 days place it in water then finally ice water... im still thinking this part through

right now im having problems because the internal filter i have isn't strong enought to pump the water through the pipes (lateral already warned me about this )

 

[simonbrown403]

how about an inline heater, on the return from the chiller, that should regulate the temp and stop it from dropping to fast

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i cant use a heater because its already hot here i just need to bring the temp down.... but it is a good idea.. hmmmm more things to buy

anyways i got it all rigged up and with just water in a bucket i think it helped keep the tank temp to around 29 deg celcius.. but its still early morning im yet to see the results during lunch time

i also changed the pump to a powerhead that churns out 800liters per hour from the previous 350 liters per hour, i think it still lacks the power though

 

[kenneth_kpe]

the chiller is working but water is not enough, the tank is holding its temp at around 29 deg even at noon (and the weather is hot again here) down from around 32 deg.

Im slowly chilling the water where the condensor is placed with ice bottles to see if i can drop the temp down to 25-27 deg celcius.

Hope this works well.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

well here are the pics of the actual design in the tank

seen below is the powerhead i used to pump the water into the condenser, its a generic powerhead pumping 800 liters per hour, works good but needs more power to drive my c02 reactor

seen below is the return of the condensor, its rigged directly to my c02 reactor, the flow rate is insufficient to drive the vortex inside so im working on rigging the c02 tube to the outflow of the powerhead so the bubbles run along through the condenser first before going into the reactor to be juggled around again hope it works though

here is the picture of the actual condenser unit in the styro box, the bos is filled 75% with water and plastic bottles of ice are places in the box being, im still working on the plastic bottles though (burp).

hope you guys could help me make the design more efficient

the tank temp is currently still down to 29 lower then the previous 31-33

 

[simonbrown403]

What about slowing the flow rate down, so the water has more contact time.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

actually i did an experiment with the flow rate, i tried increasing it and decreasing the flow rate in an experimental bucket and the cooling performance well in the long run was roughly the same, the temp of the water in the bucket and the chilled container equalized over time.

 

[Discus man]

hope it goes well mate. Can i ask a question though in the link you gave us they guy who has done it has put a motherboard underwater what is the point in that?

 

[kenneth_kpe]

well its working in keeping the temp at around 29 but i cant get it to go any lower!

anyways regarding the link to the motherboard in water

*well water wasn't really used, i think he used a non conductive liquid which has a very very low freezing point. In computer overclocking (making the CPU run faster) colder is better because you run more err electricity through the processor to try and increase its speed (hertz) and in doing so it generates a lot of heat. thats why CPU's have fans and in some extreme case mods liquid cooling systems and in some cases like this guys crazy idea, suuper cooling the chip is a solution to the heat problem hehehe

 

[Discus man]

I no there put little pencil marks to short circuit the procesor then put a larger voltage fan on it to cool it down, well i hope it goes well but i thought electricty wouldnt wok in any liquid? I think this idea is great and worth doing when money is short.