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tb27272
06/08/2008, 03:22 PM
So, a friend took down his 90 gallon reef tank today. I purchased his rock and he gave me a SCWD and his ghetto chiller. He initially tried the tubing through the dorm fridge thing with results like everyone else. So, then he had a friend create him a 1 gallon stainless steel box (316 I think, aircraft grade) which is submersed in a cooler filled with deionized water. It is run by a Ranco single stage controller. SW flows through the box and back into the sump. I asked him about corrosion and he indicated that it has been running for about a year and a half without problems. He reports that the cooler water stays about 28 degrees. I am guessing that the thermal mass of the water is what allows the dorm compressor to work. Anyhow, he gave it to me today. It is ugly! I don't know if I am going to use it, if so I will build a box around it. I'll try to post a pic later. One nice thing is that it is a closed loop in case you had a failure of the refrigeration unit. Anyone else try anything similar?

tb27272
06/10/2008, 06:13 PM
No feedback? thinking about selling it if I can keep my tank cool enough

jmadison
06/10/2008, 06:20 PM
I am interested in this! Love to see some pics, curious just how it works!

BeanAnimal
06/10/2008, 08:00 PM
The "thermal mass" of the water has nothing to do with it. The fact is that he has a heat load that is smaller than the dorm fridges capacity.