Really stupid question

[icebear]

I've seen those little deepfreeze chest freezers at walmart for under $200

and they'd just about fit some rubbermaid tub in them.....possibly a 30 gallon or so, and could be treated kinda like a cold fuge that would chill the tank....


now should i bother thinking about this any further?

i mean, i was under the impression that the expensive chillers use a lot of energy and only chill a few degrees... so i was hoping maybe a chest freezer might do better and cost about the same, but i don't have a clue to thephysics of it.



i'd like to entertain the idea of a Native Species tank one of these days (in the WAY future) but i don't think chillers will get them that cold ? i'd need about 50-60 degrees which is about 10° lower than normal room temps.

but its not really worth it anyway if a relatively inexpensive deep freeze can't do it as well or better and use less energy.


i wonder if i should just look into getting one of those commercial lobster pounds- like the ones you see at the grocery store.....

[Phishnoob]

Heya Ice,

I have a beer fridge chiller but it only cools down a few degrees. To get that low I think you will need to actually have the water inside the cooler or have the cooler be a large part of the water volume.

Geoff is doing a chiller with a window AC unit that will be better than mine, but it still will not cool you that low.

I would love to have a SoCal Kelp bed style aquarium some day with fish from our native waters at those temps. If you hear how to do this let me know

Phishnoob

[icebear]

LOL, thats what i'd have 30 gallons in a rubbermaid tote, and since its an actual freezer, i thought it would cool a lot better than a minifridge, but i'm not sure about how much it would run and how fast the flowthrough could be to prevent freezing or to keep it from being too warm... i suppose if it got too cold, the thermostat should be able to be set at different temps

[icebear]

oh, here's some info on coldwater keeping
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/cold.htm

[Geoff]

i finally downloaded the pics of the project off of the camera, so i will try and get a write up pretty soon.

IB- what is the compressor size for the freezer? this will give you a good idea on how powerfull it will be as a chiller. my A/C unit is 6000btu or a 1/2HP compressor. these are used on fairly large tanks, i do not have a chart with me right now. granted these would not be as efficient as a true chiller but they can be pretty close. mine is having no problems keeping the tank cool.

the best thing to making any of these DIY chillers efficient is getting Ti in there. when Phishnoob has time he has some Ti that he is hoping to run in his chiller. even a shor 5ft would make a huge difference. i think combining the A/C unit with a Ti piece would make a chiller that could be close to a commercial chiller.

G~

[wanareef]

This is what I'm trying to find. There is a titanium coil in there and it's rated from 1/3 ton to??? This guy on RC used a window AC unit and just replumbed it, taking out the coil and putting this unit in place. The holes toward the middle are for the tank lines to pass thru and the outside is where the freon circulates.

The drawback, you need a HVAC type of guy to evacuate the system and refill it again.

[Geoff]

i think Aquatic Ecosystems has them. they were not very inexpensive though. it came out to be about the same price as a real chiller. almost all of the price of a chiller is in the Ti. the compressor part is cheap.

G~