The Puffer Forum

DIY chillers I have seen have been severely underpowered to even cool a 40g tank 1degree F. In the end, buying a chiller is going to be way more effective and energy efficient. If I have missed a good DIY chiller please link it. I was offered a 2x250watt HQI setup for my reef, I had to pass because I have trouble keeping my house under 78F in the summer with out running the AC all day long, so I have done a good amount of looking into it and needed to install a few on customer tanks (all of which were installed outside to keep the chiller noise and heat out).

Either way that is one cool looking fish, reminds me of pac-man in the 1st video.

I keep my house at about 71f dureing the day and it drops to about 68f at night. So im not looking at a drastic drop in temp since i think about 65 would be a perfect temp for a tank like this. (I got enough heat when i was in Iraq and dont plan on liveing without AC for the rest of my life lol)

But no i have only been looking at examples of different types of chillers so i couldnt give any suggestions. I am going to school for computer engineering so i hope by the time i graduate i will have the skills needed to create a chiller with a thermastate and something i can control from my computer. It will be a couple more years b4 i graduate but i eventually want to be able to control everything in all of my tanks while sitting at my computer lol. Or have a laptop in my tank room that automaticaly tells me my water params and be able to adjust them by clicking a button.

A shop I like in the UK (Simply Seahorses) modifies old beer chillers for pubs. These chillers are beasts and they use one to chill what must be a 200g (one of those four foot deep six foot long acrylic jobs with curved ends) tank full of H. abdomalis seahorses that need water between 10 and 20C. Must chew power, though.

I've seen lumpsuckers in a few places around the uk while diving. Around this time of year they breed, laying eggs on rocks which one guards. You can swim right up to them and they won't budge. I've been looking for them this year but no luck so far. My garage only gets to 20C so far as I've noticed - what a project if it wasn't for the salt cost

Should move closer to the sea, so I can pump cold seawater through vats

Mek0ng wrote:DIY chillers I have seen have been severely underpowered to even cool a 40g tank 1degree F. In the end, buying a chiller is going to be way more effective and energy efficient. If I have missed a good DIY chiller please link it. I was offered a 2x250watt HQI setup for my reef, I had to pass because I have trouble keeping my house under 78F in the summer with out running the AC all day long, so I have done a good amount of looking into it and needed to install a few on customer tanks (all of which were installed outside to keep the chiller noise and heat out).

Either way that is one cool looking fish, reminds me of pac-man in the 1st video.

When I was researching DIY chillers for a lobster tank I found the best design was with a bar fridge / small chest freezer. There was a small tank / bucket inside that. The main tank was drilled or piped via a low flow coil into the bucket in the fridge / freezer. Usually black flex piping and, the more coils submersed into the water, the colder it got. The pipe exited the main tank and entered the fridge / freezer via a drilled but sealed side or top of the fridge / freezer. The only problem I saw with those plans was the disconnect to thaw out the fridge / freezer. I suppose you could cap the display from inside if it was above the waterline, but still a PITA.

Maybe a inside the fridge / freezer a quick disconnect for a garden hose would work if it didn't leak or drip