Cooling the water temperature

[vincegoh]

I need to cool down my tank water temperature. It is now ranging from 28.5 to 30.5. I have 2 fan blowing at the water, 1 at the main tank and other at the filter sump. This will help to control so that the temperature do not shot up to 31 degree.

Sometime, I uses lots of ice cubes to try to lower down the temperature and also to add water to the evaporate water (which is a lots with the blowing fan, about half a pail every day). Mine is a 5ft tank.

Any other ideas to lower down the temperature without chiller? By the way, my tank is totally enclosed as it is part of a partition wall.

Thanks.

[Matt06]

Your tank needs air circulations around it as it create a cool zone for the tank itself. With all the options of cooling methods done, it should be at its maximum cooling, else, you need to get a chiller. It is best as it save you hassles.

[Golden Tooth]

Don't use ice to cool down the temp..

[Clownfish]

A chiller will do u gd in the long run....

but i must admit that a gd chiller for 5 ft will be veri ex....

however, ice-cubes r not a gd way of cooling too.... cos sudden drops in temp will cause fishes to be stressed.. giving rise to ick...

Any corals? or FO?

normally i dun think temp shld go up so high.... unless ur tank is covered n sump is in a cabinet (covered as well) that y ur water cannot evaporate well to remove excess heat.....

thus, maybe u can think of some ways to ventilate ur water surfaces like opening up ur cover or modify something to hav ur fans bring in cool air or suck out warmer air....

FO shld be able to cope without chiller but with enough ventilation....

[andez07]

Someone told me not long ago to use 2 or 3 1.5ltr pet bottles, fill up with H2O and freeze it. Put these frozen bottles in your sump to bring down the water temp in it 2 to 3 times a week. He claims that it helps bring down the water temp in your main tank considerably!

I tried juz using 1 frozen bottle to experiment. The result........ it works a little, take consideration that I hv 2 PC fans to cool down the sump tank, thus if using 2 PC fans and 1 frozen bottle brings the temp down a little, I guess using 2 or 3 frozen bottles would bring the temp down more.

[Shark]

Someone told me not long ago to use 2 or 3 1.5ltr pet bottles, fill up with H2O and freeze it. Put these frozen bottles in your sump to bring down the water temp in it 2 to 3 times a week. He claims that it helps bring down the water temp in your main tank considerably!

I tried juz using 1 frozen bottle to experiment. The result........ it works a little, take consideration that I hv 2 PC fans to cool down the sump tank, thus if using 2 PC fans and 1 frozen bottle brings the temp down a little, I guess using 2 or 3 frozen bottles would bring the temp down more.

Freeze afew bottle but dun put all in at the same time, rotate bottle by bottle ..

[vincegoh]

Don't use ice to cool down the temp..

Why not? Anyway, it help to re-hydrate the system as quite a lot of water evaporated.

Any special reasons? Thks.

[vincegoh]

A chiller will do u gd in the long run....

but i must admit that a gd chiller for 5 ft will be veri ex....

however, ice-cubes r not a gd way of cooling too.... cos sudden drops in temp will cause fishes to be stressed.. giving rise to ick...

Any corals? or FO?

normally i dun think temp shld go up so high.... unless ur tank is covered n sump is in a cabinet (covered as well) that y ur water cannot evaporate well to remove excess heat.....

thus, maybe u can think of some ways to ventilate ur water surfaces like opening up ur cover or modify something to hav ur fans bring in cool air or suck out warmer air....

FO shld be able to cope without chiller but with enough ventilation....

Well, actually my tank are not totally enclosed, I have designed it so that there are ventilation slits at the top. my idea is that the cold air will be entering from the side and hot air will rise up through the ventilation slits (which is about 2cm and is all round my tank). My sump is in the base cabinet which also has slits on the upper end to allow for ventilation.

I intend to have fishes and invertabrates setup, no coral for me due to the lack of chiller. Anyway, I do not have a place for the chiller since my tank is in the middle of the room and the base cabinet already hold my 4ft sump.

[vincegoh]

Someone told me not long ago to use 2 or 3 1.5ltr pet bottles, fill up with H2O and freeze it. Put these frozen bottles in your sump to bring down the water temp in it 2 to 3 times a week. He claims that it helps bring down the water temp in your main tank considerably!

I tried juz using 1 frozen bottle to experiment. The result........ it works a little, take consideration that I hv 2 PC fans to cool down the sump tank, thus if using 2 PC fans and 1 frozen bottle brings the temp down a little, I guess using 2 or 3 frozen bottles would bring the temp down more.

Quite good idea. However, will the bottles crack or "explode" when freeze. Do u freeze it with or without the capping on?

By the way, how do you get the PC fans to work on the aquarium? The power plug is different. Also, how do u secure the fan so that it is blowing at the right angle? Talking about this, wat is the best position to cool down the water? Blowing directly at the water surface or blowing across or blowing upwards (so that hot air is being suck up and out?)

Thanks, people.

[andez07]

So far I've frozen a few bottles and it hasn't crack or "explode" yet. Freeze it with the cap on but dun fill up to the brim..... juz fill up 3/4 or a little bit more. Leave some air space juz like when u buy the soft drink, they dun fill up to the brim rite.

For the PC fans, there r some ways to DIY them available in the forum

[scooter blenny]

I need to cool down my tank water temperature. It is now ranging from 28.5 to 30.5. I have 2 fan blowing at the water, 1 at the main tank and other at the filter sump. This will help to control so that the temperature do not shot up to 31 degree.

Sometime, I uses lots of ice cubes to try to lower down the temperature and also to add water to the evaporate water (which is a lots with the blowing fan, about half a pail every day). Mine is a 5ft tank.

Any other ideas to lower down the temperature without chiller? By the way, my tank is totally enclosed as it is part of a partition wall.

Thanks.

do u know the theory of aerodynamic? apply it and it can bring down another 1 or 2 more degrees.

[killfire]

do u know the theory of aerodynamic? apply it and it can bring down another 1 or 2 more degrees.

[yus75]

wich 1 better...to put 3fans at the main tank or the sump......???

[Clownfish]

Well, actually my tank are not totally enclosed, I have designed it so that there are ventilation slits at the top. my idea is that the cold air will be entering from the side and hot air will rise up through the ventilation slits (which is about 2cm and is all round my tank). My sump is in the base cabinet which also has slits on the upper end to allow for ventilation.

I intend to have fishes and invertabrates setup, no coral for me due to the lack of chiller. Anyway, I do not have a place for the chiller since my tank is in the middle of the room and the base cabinet already hold my 4ft sump.

For ur case, it would be a betta idea to DIY fans on the cover (or just place some PC fans on the slits ) which suck out air rather than blowing at the water surfaces.... or having the fans to bring in air from the side into the hood...

the objective is to bring out air saturated with water vapour ( when water evaporates to remove latent heat )... then air with less water vapour comes in place of that to facilitate betta water evaporation, removing more heat.... though hot air rises, ###### out/directly blowing in is much betta than waiting for it to rise....

[scooter blenny]

do u know the theory of aerodynamic? apply it and it can bring down another 1 or 2 more degrees.

I think you are refering to thermodynamics?? care to share any suggestions using thermodynamic principles and theory?

[xiggie]

I think you are refering to thermodynamics?? care to share any suggestions using thermodynamic principles and theory?

hi, it's aerodynamic. using the principles of aircraft wings. when air passes over the wings. air pressure reduces, air velocity increases, hence the temp. drop.

So, by placing a inverted wing like design combine with evaporation. u can actually reduce 5 degrees C below ambient temp. I have done mine and i managed to bring down from 32 to abt 27. My tank is built into a wall, so temp variation is not high.

hope this helps

[killfire]

I think you are refering to thermodynamics?? care to share any suggestions using thermodynamic principles and theory?

hi, it's aerodynamic. using the principles of aircraft wings. when air passes over the wings. air pressure reduces, air velocity increases, hence the temp. drop.

So, by placing a inverted wing like design combine with evaporation. u can actually reduce 5 degrees C below ambient temp. I have done mine and i managed to bring down from 32 to abt 27. My tank is built into a wall, so temp variation is not high.

hope this helps

[SpiderOne]

5 degree drop? i suggest u quickly go and patent this design and sell it to ....... Marc Weiss . It will be a wonderful help to all reefers everywhere.

[scooter blenny]

its like a venturi effect... the chord is of not importance here IMO. The shape of the aerofoil is some sort of a inverted trapizium(sorry wrong spelling). Where the base is near the water level. thereby, forming the venturi shape.

the idea is to allow longer heat exchanges between the air and water and at the same time, with the increase air velocity will speed up the rate of evaporation. Hence, reducing the temp further. I only top up a big pail of water every 6 days. My tank size is 3.5 x 1.1 x 2 feet.

Drag is not a consideration since we are not flying our fish tank . So, i tried a 12 -15 degress AOA. the turbulence created at the back of the aerofoil may be of advantage as it seems to create water movement and assist in evaporation? Anyway, the effect is minimal.

I used 2 small CPU fan as my main blower. the temp went down 5 degrees. I used digi probe to measure water temp. have not try the bigger fan yet. maybe cannot do it due to space constraint.

On second thought, killfire, u may be right...

[reef2]

topping up a big pail of water every 6 days does not sound good, coz water evaporates but the salt will not this may coz stress to the LS.

[joeydanielle]

HI KILLFIRE , is it possible for you to provide some drawings of the aerodynamics wing , sound quite unbelievable to bring down 5deg with only one fan , i am using 3 ac fan and only managed to bring down avg from 31deg to 28deg , if your practical design is working i will surely like to try it.

thanks

[yus75]

I think you are refering to thermodynamics?? care to share any suggestions using thermodynamic principles and theory?

hi, it's aerodynamic. using the principles of aircraft wings. when air passes over the wings. air pressure reduces, air velocity increases, hence the temp. drop.

So, by placing a inverted wing like design combine with evaporation. u can actually reduce 5 degrees C below ambient temp. I have done mine and i managed to bring down from 32 to abt 27. My tank is built into a wall, so temp variation is not high.

hope this helps

[vincegoh]

Talking about DIY PC fans. Can anyone show me the links? Thks.

Lowering the water temperature down 5 degree sounds too good to be true. It will be great if u (KILLFIRE) could show us some illustration on your aerodynamics wing. Thanks again.

[killfire]

HI KILLFIRE , is it possible for you to provide some drawings of the aerodynamics wing , sound quite unbelievable to bring down 5deg with only one fan , i am using 3 ac fan and only managed to bring down avg from 31deg to 28deg , if your practical design is working i will surely like to try it.

thanks

Lowering the water temperature down 5 degree sounds too good to be true. It will be great if u (KILLFIRE) could show us some illustration on your aerodynamics wing. Thanks again.

Hi ,

I think there are some misunderstanding here... I am not the one who is using the airfoil in my setup.... scooter blenny is using the airfoil setup. I see novelty in the idea but I am questioning the practicability...

how temp reduction is achieved follows this:

increase velocity of airflow across water surface => local atm. pressure drops near water surface => rate of evaporation increases => increased removal of latent heat from tank water

mine is just a single 119mm dc fan mounted near the water surface. will try to borrow a Dig Cam tonight to post some pics of my setup and thermometer reading.

To add, even if the airfoil setup works, it will be extremely tedious and expensive to machine strips of rigid material with the required airfoil cross section. Adjusting the AOA and the distance of the leading edge to the water surface to achieve desired effects will be a big hassle and requires a lot of experimentation. Also, I just don't see how the airfoils are going to be effective since the airflow is introduced by PC fans that will cause swirls and turbulence in the flow.

[killfire]

hi, just got hold of Dig cam.

my fan setup:

119mm 12Vdc 0.2A fan RU brand

Super multi AC/DC adapter

Fan is held in position using cable ties secured to DIY light fitting.

Killfire