CPU Heat Sinks???????????????????????

[Pattylucylaura]

I saw a guy post a thread on another site that he added CPU heat sinks to his sump and so far saw no drastic increase in heat.
Does anyone think this would actually work. He attached them to the outside of the glass just incase anyone was wondering

[sfsuphysics]

I honestly don't know how effective that would be.

First, glass/acrlyic doesn't transfer heat very well, and I doubt a few heat sinks will do much compared to the entire surface area of the whole sump, might as well blow a fan on the glass (or better yet across the water's surface ;)).

Second, If this is a passive system (ie no fans), the temperature difference between the ambient air and the sides of tank is not that great to make a real difference, CPUs get REALLY hot by comparison, with a fan/heat sink combo can easily reach temps of 140F.

You're much better off with blowing a fan over the sumps water, evaporation can work great at cooling.

[Pattylucylaura]

I agree I was wondering if anyone else had tried it kind of sounded a little of the wall. I actually had asked the guy more about and he said they weren't even attached to the glass so I figured it wasn't going to work that well.

[BeanAnimal]

maybe if he attached them to the house it would stay cooler and he would not have to worry about the tank.

[Melnick]

I have been thinking about taking a couple of heatsinks, cutting them into 1' wide sections and gluing them around the round metal housing of my Velocity T2 external pump (it adds 2-3 degrees to my nano). The pump is almost painfully hot to the touch and the small fan I have blowing on it really is not doing much.

[ChemE]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7466797#post7466797 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BeanAnimal
maybe if he attached them to the house it would stay cooler and he would not have to worry about the tank.

I really do enjoy Bean's dry cutting wit. Keep up the good work Sir.

[BeanAnimal]

Bah....everybody was thinking it, somebody had to say it.


Melnick, heatsinks work on the principle of contact area and contact conductivity. A flat heatsink will not do much glued to a round pump body.

I bent some aluminum and fashioned it's edges into fairly meaty fins. Thew heatsink was firmly clamped ot the T4 with a band clamp... the hetsink fins wre warm to the touch, showing it was working... However it did not make that much of a difference. I have a project in the works for a better design (that will fit several external pumps).... but it will be a while until the prototype arrives from the OEM.

Why not run the larger eheim external on your nano? It would provide a fair amount of flow.

[Melnick]

I knew a flat HS would not work on a cylinder but I was goinjg to try cutting it into thin-ish pieces 1 to 1/2 inch wide and possibly even grinding a curve into the back with a dremmel or grinding wheel. Not the most efficient design but one I hoped would help. They also sell thermal epoxy for computer heatsinks that would help fill in any gaps between a rough grinding job and the pump housing and is suppose to transfer heat well.

I went with the T2 because I wanted something very quiet for my living room and the thing is QUIET. In hindsight the eheim may have been a better choice heat wise and something I may look into inthe future. Right now everything is plumbed for the T2 so I want to try to make it work.

[Afishianado]

look into using a peltier device if you need to cool a very hot small area

[Barto]

this is a link to a thread here with some very good info on heatsink/pump combos
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=828812

**EDIT** I just re-read the first post, it said sump, not pump OOPS

[Melnick]

Well, it started out as sump but I think I hijacked the thread... :O

[jimmyray]

Melnick, I did exactly what you were saying, putting a heatsink on a hot external pump. While the contact area wasn't ideal with the curve, it did help quite a bit. What used to be too hot to touch for more than a few seconds was now just very very warm.

[Melnick]

Nice. When I finally get around to doing it I will post pics.