Any suggestions for a DIY peltier chiller???

[unwired]

Hi folks.

I thought I'd post this to get some suggestoins from and of you DIYers out there.

I recently came across this Peltier Cooler and thought I'd buy one to tinker around with. The photo is cute but using a copper or aluminum pipe seems to be out of the question for saltwater tanks. (Here's a link with a photo: http://cgi.ebay.com/154W-40mm-Thermoele ... dZViewItem )

Does anyone have any questions on what I could flow the thru to cool it?

I have considered drilling a piece of acrylic and gluing the cooler to it. I was afraid of the temp variation though and don't want to crack the acrylic or even poss heat it too much on the other end.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

- Thanks.

 

[reefman23]

What size tank are you dealing with? What kind of lighting, powerheads, etc do you have? What temps are you working with? Heat is usually combatable with fans on nanos. I would consider doing something with them before getting into a chiller.

Jesse

 

[unwired]

The entire (poss) water system would be about 18 Gall (tanl + sump) Could be a bit less when considering live sand and rock.

Lighting on the tank is a 32W PC fixture and fuge has a 13W PC Galaxy II.
Powerhead is a Rio 1100 (23W I believe).

The room can get pretty warm in the summer though and since it's in a high traffic area the A/C gets sucked out every time the door opens. Although the Pelteir cooler is capable of a pretty substantial chilling effect I'm hoping to use it minimally to maintain a temp in the low 80's.

 

[reefman23]

I have found that putting a fan on the sump so that the water is blowing over the surface of the water can keep a tank pretty cool. I just use a little 4" desk fan and it kept my tank below 80* with a 150 watt MH pendant over my 20L. It is much cheaper than a chiller too... DIY or not.

Jesse

 

[unwired]

I'd prefer not to leave the tank or sump open b/c of evaporation.
My theory is that I can get the chiller onto some sort of homemade switch that only turns it on as nec.

My big issue is what do I run the water thru and affix the cooler to. Are there any metals that can be used with Saltwater (that are reasonably priced)? How resistive to cold is Plexi, will it crack on me?

I haven't seen anyone disassemble a chiller before but I'm fairly certain that at least a few of those models use Peltier devices inside.

 

[KidNano]

I'm sure Jesse can explain better then I, but you have to leave something open so the tank can breath. There is no getting away from evaporation. Gasses build up and need realesed as well otherwise they will poison everything in the tank or your fish will suffocate.

So I've been told. Jesse? Input?

 

[johnanddawn]

I have found that putting a fan on the sump so that the water is blowing over the surface of the water can keep a tank pretty cool. I just use a little 4" desk fan and it kept my tank below 80* with a 150 watt MH pendant over my 20L. It is much cheaper than a chiller too... DIY or not.

Jesse

evaporation is your friend - it cools your tank in the same way that panting cools a dog and sweating cools you off. you will find that almost every reefer out there has open tanks and sumps to encourage evaportion! a few reefers have fish that jump so they need to cover their tank but they use eggcrate not glass! glass also inhibates the exchange a O2/CO2 which is natural and effective way to stabilize pH - you want any CO2 created in the tank to be released. and a third reason for not having glass is salt creap/condensation over time will allow less light to get into the tank. and a forth reason i like evape is it allows me to add more kalkwasser - very few if any reefers use glass covers, it just makes no sense.
try a fan it works in most cases

 

[Trogdor]

i tried the glass cover on my tank and really didn't like it. it was nice not to have to worry about water splashing on my lights but it really traps a lot in your tank. salt creep can become a mess because you don't want to let that salt fall back in the tank so you have to be real careful removing the glass to clean it. i found some legs for my lights and elevated them. the plastic cover on the lights still has to be cleaned though. i found that mixing up some top-off water was just as easy as dealing with the salt creep and glass cover and better for your tank.