homemade chillers

[DaveAngie79]

thinking about making a homemade chiller
anyone have any ideas or sites to research

[reeftard73]

I would recommend buying one. Look in the classifieds on here or on that auction site thingie. I really don't thik you'll save anything by trying to build one yourself.

[Rhodophyta]

Long version:
One successful DIY alternative to a chiller I've seen was what a guy in Akron did. He built a wall along his family room that enclosed his marine tanks. Behind it was all the equipment, sump, huge skimmer, supplies, in what amounted to a long narrow dead end hallway, with one outside window.

He installed a room air conditioner in that window, way bigger than the tiny room needed. He used a thermocouple from an aquarium heater and a relay to override the thermostat on the air conditioner so that it would come on in response to the water temperature, not the room temperature.

The obvious disadvantage was a jacket by the door to the "back room". You could have stored beer and watermelons back there behind the tanks. In the winter, the temperature had to be contolled manually by leaving the window open a little.

Another guy, who worked for SeaWorld, bought a used ice cream cooler from a grocery store supply. He set up some tanks in the cooler. He needed his tanks chilled close to freezing or below for Antarctic specimens, beyond what a chiller could do.

A really bad DIY was the guy who put his sump in a refrigerator and ran pipes through the side wall, after finding out where it could be done without hitting anything critical. He liked it, but anyone looking at it knew it was insanity!

Short version:
What reeftard said!

[kgross]

There are lots of people that make DIY chillers. A room AC is a good starting point, if you have the HVAC knowledge and certifications, taking an old room AC or a large enough compressor from something else is not that hard to do. if you don't have the HVAC knowledge and certifications I would not suggest you try to make a DIY chiller, just use some fans and a room AC unit.

kim

[kgross]

You can find an article on cooling tanks in this newsletter of our local club.
http://www.idahoreefs.org/News/Imas_September_2006.pdf

[billdogg]

+1 with reeftard - by the time you get all the stuff together and get the bugs worked out, you will have spent as much or more than just buying one in the first place