Aquarium cooling, Cherax sp

[Radar]

Hi all, this is just a general question:
Is is possible to cool the water in your aquariums to a certain temp (ie13 to 20 degrees) and maintain it there without climate control for the entire room ?

I ask because in the near future Im going to try and maintain a cherax species that usually inhabits very cool moutain streams and I don't want the temp shock to kill them (which it has done in the past with certain other species collected from the same area). Im in Townsville, and the ambient temp reaches about 34 very regularly in summer, up to 40 on bad days. They are gonna be collected from a stream where the ambient air temp is consistently 5-8 degrees cooler than T'ville and I've recorded the water at 12 degrees (however they seem to be more active on days when its about 19 degrees).

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

[alex_c]

i think a thing called a chiller thats used in marine aquariums may be what you need

 

[alex_c]

http://www.thereefshop.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=43 they arent cheap either though you may be able to get a secondhand one

 

[fuegan13]

you want one of these babies :
http://www.aquaone.co.uk/marine_chillers.php

its liek climate control for your tank. if your read it its basically like a thermostat and will either heat or cool depending on your desired temp and will keep it within 0.5 degrees of your dialled in setting

 

[fuegan13]

ahh alex c beat me 2 it ...

 

[Radar]

Thanks guys, will look into them, But Im still after random suggestions from anyone with experiance.

 

[0_missy_0]

When I had a nano marine tank the temp would usually get to 40degrees plus because of the metal halide, so I just installed a little fan to blow on the water's surface and that kept the water around the 28degree mark. Not sure if that would keep your temps as low as 13degrees, but just an idea.

 

[Radar]

Cool, thanks missy, anythings worth a shot. Its gonna be a freshwater setup, so I'd need a cooling element of some sort, But the wind chill idea will help out with the last few degrees perhaps.

Its only gonna be a single small setup at this point, so I don't really want to go spending 100's of $

 

[cris]

I will have a thermodyamics book on monday that should have some nasty equations and stuff in it to enable working out evaporative cooling and stuff... probably easier just to try the fan and see what temps you get. Having a waterfall/fountain with a fan on it would be even more effective and you would probbly need heaps of oxygen too. Without knowing much about how they died last time, i would imagine lack of oxygen may have played a big role.

Using a plastic aquarium will also help alot as galss conducts heat fairly well.

 

[hornet]

my dad(fridge mechanic) suggested using a refrigeration unit to cool the water.

 

[cris]

Do you have any pics of these critters or other genreal info about them?

 

[Chris1]

and heres me taking up valuable icecream space in my little freezer with frozen bottles of water for the damn fish,...

 

[alex_c]

you could make a chamber type thing and have the water flow through it and then have one of them blower fans from jaycar blowing through at the same time because they are pretty high flowing. they have an axial model which is 12v and flows 2.3 cubic meters a minute for about $30

 

[Magpie]

Evaporation will do bugger all in townsville in summer.
You're gonna need a good chiller unit or get a working fridge and run piping through it and recirculate the water.

 

[jay76]

you need a chiller, they are not cheep but if you have live coral you need one in summer over 30 deg the coral dies

 

[alex_c]

magpies fridge suggestion sounds good get a cheap mini fridge off ebay and drill 2 holes in the side and run a coil of copper pipe in there then just seal up the holes that the pipe go's through with some sikaflex.i imagine it would work pretty much the same as a chiller does.

 

[lizard_lover]

ice

 

[xycom]

I got 2 suggestions:

1. as Magpie mentioned, get an old deep freeze and put a car radiater (or transmission oil cooler)inside it with a fan blowing air throught it. Drill 2 holes in the side of your freezer and pump your water though the radiater. I've seen something similar done for home brew beer. Be carefull of toxic chemicals in the radiater.

2. get an old wall mount air conditioner and hang the cooling side in your tank or in a smaller tub and pump your water through it. I've seen people do this for Lobsters

Per

You'll need a probe thermostat to control the temp with either option.

 

[Radar]

I will have a thermodyamics book on monday that should have some nasty equations and stuff in it to enable working out evaporative cooling and stuff... probably easier just to try the fan and see what temps you get. Having a waterfall/fountain with a fan on it would be even more effective and you would probbly need heaps of oxygen too. Without knowing much about how they died last time, i would imagine lack of oxygen may have played a big role.

Using a plastic aquarium will also help alot as galss conducts heat fairly well.

It wasn't lack of oxygen, lol. There really is a very marked difference in temps and its common knowledge that critters from this location tend to die when taken from their mountain streams and kept in capitivity.

Its also got nothing to do with nutrient concentrations, as I've run tests on the water as part of my research in the freshwater ecology lab and can get distilled water to exactly the same concentrations of everything (which is jack all) with a bit of practice.

RE general info: There isnt any info anywhere (yet) for a very good reason, and for the same reason Im not putting photos up or giving away too much, lol.

My first thoughts were to used an old fridge, was just wondering if I was being stupid or if others would come to the same conclusion. Dads a mechanic, and I've got a few mates who are sparkies, so we should have something put together reasonalbly soon.

Thanks for your ideas everyone

 

[Brettix]

Save all the hassell and just invest in a chiller.
Using a fridge or freezer you would have to do an xtreme mods
and building it blind as you dont even know what temps you will produse.