Water Cooling System: DIY-Cheap & Innovative!

[REHEM]

This was a recent topic on a sub-forum group, and it made me think that I've never really struggled with high water temperatures. My "Cooling Method" is a unique one, but it works incredibly well, and it cost me less than $150! The entire system is low on electricity, it runs extremely quiet, and it almost works too good! Here are some product pics and some photos of how I applied them to my personal set-up. It's a highly flexible system and it could be tailored to most any tank.
(I also gave a brief description afterwards of the connections and the total cost of the system.)

This is a nifty little gadget that is used to cool PC motherboards. It has copper heatpipes encased in aluminum fins, and on the back it has a fan that draws air through the cooling fins. I don't understand how it works, but it blows out refrigerant type air!(The entire thing is about a 4 inch x 4 inch cube).


FRONT

BACK

I just mounted it to a little wooden shelf behind my canopy and placed a separate 5 inch fan next to it which also blows air "IN" across the water surface. (I moved the fan back in the photo to show the CPU Cooler).


SIDE VIEW


FRONT VIEW

On the opposite side of the canopy, I mounted two PC Hard Drive fans which blow/draw hot air "OUT". They each have three different speeds (L, M, H). The HD fans and the CPU Cooler come with a 3 and 4 peg wiring system to connect to PCs, but I just purchased three 12 volt AC adapters from Wal-Mart and re-wired the two HD fans and the CPU Cooler to those.


HOT AIR OUT


12 volt AC adapter

Here is the entire system:


PRODUCTS:

*CPU Cooler from Office Depot....$25.00
*2 Hard Drive Fans from Office Depot.......$10.00 each
*Three 12 volt AC adapters from Wal-Mart........$5.00 each
*5 inch Aquarium Canopy Fan from my LFS "AQUARIUMS".........$50.00 and worth it!!!

Total system........$110.00

It is admittedly a "rigged" system, but everything is hidden in/by the canopy. As I said, it is quiet as a mouse and in the peak heat of the summer my water temperature never raises above 79 degrees. I run mine on timers synchronized with my lights, but I imagine that they could run 24/7 if you wanted them to. Just blow out the fins on the CPU Cooler with canned air periodically and wipe the fan blades down for maintenance.

I hope this helps somebody who is struggling with high temp. problems but can't afford the $$$$$$ for a chiller.

[GreenUku]

I hate to tell you, but I don't think that the CPU cooler is doing anything for you, besides acting as a fan. When mounted on a CPU, the heatsink is in direct contact with the hot CPU. The metal is of course a good heat conductor, drawing heat out of the CPU and the fan cools off the heatsink by blowing air across it.

Since your heatsink isn't touching anything, it's not actually making a difference. You might possibly be better off with one $10 walmart fan blowing across your sump...

It is nice that it's all hidden in the canopy though.

[firewill65]

Yes, GreenUku is right...thats only a heatsink...does not generate or blow cold air.

[REHEM]

Originally posted by GreenUku
I hate to tell you, but I don't think that the CPU cooler is doing anything for you, besides acting as a fan. When mounted on a CPU, the heatsink is in direct contact with the hot CPU. The metal is of course a good heat conductor, drawing heat out of the CPU and the fan cools off the heatsink by blowing air across it.

Since your heatsink isn't touching anything, it's not actually making a difference. You might possibly be better off with one $10 walmart fan blowing across your sump...

It is nice that it's all hidden in the canopy though.

I definately see your point, and I didn't mean to mislead anyone to think that this device has freon or anything. All I know is that when I take it off to clean it, it is very cold to the touch and the fins have actual condensation on them. Is there any way the metal could be getting chilled from the intake fan air?

Either way, with the combination of the 4 fans (2 IN and 2 OUT), I have never had high water temperatures or the need for a chiller in my particular system.

[lakeRat]

For others that are interested in the "fan across water" method of aquarium cooling, it can be done a lot cheaper.

I just picked up a case of 26 used PC fans from eBay at a whopping cost of $10....including shipping.

So, $10 for fans, and a 12v power supply stolen from an old printer in the attic I have a 4 fan setup....with 22 spare fans.

When it comes to working on a budget, fans are well worth a try before buying a chiller.

[Tang Salad]

Yeah, sorry bro. Unless we're missing something, that setup would work better without the layered metal heatsink.

[GreenUku]

Originally posted by REHEM
All I know is that when I take it off to clean it, it is very cold to the touch and the fins have actual condensation on them. Is there any way the metal could be getting chilled from the intake fan air?

One reason why it feels so cold is just that we're good at telling when something is a good heat conductor. If you have a piece of aluminum at room temperature and you put it against your skin, it will feel much colder than a piece of styrofoam at room temperature, but that's because the aluminum is much better at drawing heat from your skin (which is most likely above room temp.).

The fan can cool the aluminum even further. Since the air above your tank is probably close to saturated with water, you could definitely get condensation, which would help to cool the aluminum even more.

[gh0st]

Yup, looks like just a heatsink.

On the other hand, there are Peltier units for computers that basically use a little film under the heatsink that has a seperate plug in that supercools the CPU and superheats the heatsink. They are a bit more expensive and hard to apply to aquariums. There was a product out that used Peltiers for fishtanks (I forget the name), but you had to mount it through a bulkhead or somesuch, and with the controller it put you in Chiller price range.

[BruiseAndy]

Originally posted by gh0st
Yup, looks like just a heatsink.

On the other hand, there are Peltier units for computers that basically use a little film under the heatsink that has a seperate plug in that supercools the CPU and superheats the heatsink. They are a bit more expensive and hard to apply to aquariums. There was a product out that used Peltiers for fishtanks (I forget the name), but you had to mount it through a bulkhead or somesuch, and with the controller it put you in Chiller price range.

http://www.nanotuners.com/product_in...roducts_id=304