depending on your climate this can work for some people. i ran a line from the tank into the fridge which has a small bin of water in it at the bottom, looped the hose through the water a bunch of times, and back. put it on a timer and seems to work quite well. our 135g has two 400w mh's, but we live in the pacific northwest so only needed at max four degree drop.
would love to have a proper chiller, but for a fraction of the cost this works ok. shane m.
>Subject: Re: DIY chiller
>Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 22:17:16 -0400
>
>Ahhhh....this is an old topic that has not come up in a while. You will need something quite a bit bigger than a dorm fridge to cool a decent size tank. Plus, copper is a no no...it will leach into the water and kill any invertebrates. Most chillers use Titanium or high grade stainless steel. Compare the BTU's of a dorm fridge to a commercial aquarium chiller, and you'll see what I mean about size. Many have thought of this, tried this, and come to this conclusion. I'm not trying to be an ass or kill your idea. Just a little FYI. I'm a great big fan of DIY. There is almost always a way of DIY which is cheaper and sometimes better, but this is a hard one. My 125 gallon reef with 500 watts of MH lighting gets hot. I have it in the basement which helps and a fan which blows across the water when the temp gets up there. A/C is a must in my house. FWIW
>
>Craig
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ron Earl
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 10:09 PM
> Subject: DIY chiller
>
>
> I was just thinking about making my own chiller and wondered if anyone has done this and what their outcome was. I was planning on the "traditional" method. that being a small dorm room fridge with a copper coil inside. I don't think one of these would be to difficult, but then again I don't really want to find out the hard way.
>
> TIA,
>
> Ron
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