home made chiller?

[corman]

Has anyone here tried this home made chiller ? I'm just getting ready to build the cabinet (into a wall) for a 100 gallon bimac aquarium, and wonder if its worth the time and space.

 

[Pacific Blue]

Hey I am building a chiller using a air conditioner from home depot to keep the aquarium temp around 8 degrees. I plan on keeping a cold water species so it is nessary. I think you will find that the traditional "dorm room" fridges wont work very well as it takes a lot of energy to drop the temp down just a little. I plan on taking the condenser plates out having them chromed as to keep it salt water safe. and then submerging them in the sump. I can provide drawings if that will help.

 

[corman]

Yes, please I'd like to see the drawings. If its not too much trouble. Also, how large of an AC do you recommend for my 100 gal? One last question, how much do you think this will set you back? Thanks in advance.

 

[Pacific Blue]

For 100 gal, (myne is 113) I am using the maytag 5000 BTU airconditioner. I got it at home depot for around $150, so it was fairly cheap. There is a fairly good artical on how to convert them on About.com I am working with a local airconditioning installer to do the conversion. I will keep you up dated.

 

[joefish84]

last summer my 75 reef stayed outside( in south carolina its 110 with the heat index) and i just got a small deep freezer and ran about 65 feet of hose from the sump into the freezer all coiled up and put it back into the sump...
results
thought it would take a while to drop the tank temp from 96 to 80
but...
went from 96 to 68 over night and i had to add like 3 heaters to level it at 80
anyway thats the most efficient way i would think that if you did this indoors you could get the tank to below 60
make sure you go back into the sump with the cold water though or else it wont have enough time circulating between the sump and freeze to drop the tank itself

 

[Scouse]

Hey Pacific Blue, I would be really intrested in your drawings too.

Havin major difficulty in temp. Tank in room at mocan go up to 83-4 and room will get hotter in summer.

Other than doin a chiller am researchin gettin an airconditioner for room, since chillers create loads of heat (fightin themselves) and i cant take air from outside....hmmmmm

nice one