stems&seeds
Active Member
I've been lurking around here for a while. Since this is my first real foray into bubble/aero, I've learned a lot about what to and not to do.
In any event, I live in the South and it's getting pretty hot already. Even with the AC blasting all day my rez temps were hovering at or above 75. Frozen water bottles got old and didn't seem to work well, plus the temps would fluctuate wildly.
A water chiller would certainly be nice, although is far outside of my budget at this point. So I looked around the garage and came up with a viable alternative and thus far it seems to work great.
I used the smallest in-tank water pump I had(I believe 60 gph or so). Dropped the pump in the rez, ran almost 75ft of 1/2" tubing from the pump to a cooler. In the cooler I coiled most of the hose up then ran the remaining tube back out to the rez. In the cooler I use ice and frozen water bottles to keep cold.
With 10 lbs of ice it will actually chill the water below 65 for several hours with my setup. I dont use that much but I'm easily able to keep the rez below 70 by transfering frozen bottles and ice thoughout the day. My rez is a little over 15 gal. For a larger rez, I would use more hose, like 100 plus feet.
Ya, it's definitely more of a PITA than a chiller, believe me. But it would cost less than $30 with a cheap pump and cooler.
I also added a PVC drain spigot to pour water in a cup to test.
All in all, pretty easy setup, very cheap. For me it works very well and I've had no issues yet(with the water temps at least), plenty of other issues of course!
Let me know what ya think or if ya have questions of course!
-AK-
In any event, I live in the South and it's getting pretty hot already. Even with the AC blasting all day my rez temps were hovering at or above 75. Frozen water bottles got old and didn't seem to work well, plus the temps would fluctuate wildly.
A water chiller would certainly be nice, although is far outside of my budget at this point. So I looked around the garage and came up with a viable alternative and thus far it seems to work great.
I used the smallest in-tank water pump I had(I believe 60 gph or so). Dropped the pump in the rez, ran almost 75ft of 1/2" tubing from the pump to a cooler. In the cooler I coiled most of the hose up then ran the remaining tube back out to the rez. In the cooler I use ice and frozen water bottles to keep cold.
With 10 lbs of ice it will actually chill the water below 65 for several hours with my setup. I dont use that much but I'm easily able to keep the rez below 70 by transfering frozen bottles and ice thoughout the day. My rez is a little over 15 gal. For a larger rez, I would use more hose, like 100 plus feet.
Ya, it's definitely more of a PITA than a chiller, believe me. But it would cost less than $30 with a cheap pump and cooler.
I also added a PVC drain spigot to pour water in a cup to test.
All in all, pretty easy setup, very cheap. For me it works very well and I've had no issues yet(with the water temps at least), plenty of other issues of course!
Let me know what ya think or if ya have questions of course!
-AK-
