Non-copper water blocks?

[flot]

Does anyone make a non-copper water block? I'm looking for something to use to overclock my aquarium and copper and salt water would be an absolute catestrophe. I THINK stainless steel would be ok but honestly I'm not even sure about that.

I bought a weak peltier cooler designed for the task, and it just isn't cutting it. I figure I need to disappate at least 100-150 watts. A fan and heatsink on one side is no problem, but how to handle the side that needs to either go into the water, or have water circulate through it?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

wtf?

 

[flot]

Actually, I'm serious. I have about 300w of lighting above my saltwater aquarium, and I need to lower the temperature about 3 degrees when the lights are on.

A peltier cooler is an obvious choice, except that the actual getting-it-in-contact-with-salt-water is tricky. The one I bought now (designed for drinking water and aquarium use) has some sort of coated probe that you stick into the water.. but it's only a 50w unit and can't influce the temp enough...

 

[Tiamat]

hmm... speaking outta my butt... but can you pump the water into some sort of large radiater, and air cool it with a 120mm, then loop the water back into the tank?

Oh wait... salt water...

Sorry, seems like my idea got killed.

Can you put the lighting somewhere further away, and use angled mirrors to light up the tank?

 

[Dman877]

First, stainless steel doesn't conduct heat very well. I don't know how well aluminum handles salt water but it's worth investigating.

 

[flot]

I've already got pretty good air circulation (fans) through both the tank hood and stand. I need an active cooling solution.

They make aquarium chillers just for this purpose - but a commercial one would run at least $350. I just dumped $140 on this worthless small peltier one, which isn't powerful enough to even nudge the temperature. (I was hoping to get a degree or two out of it, which is all I really need)

I figured if I could get a big enough peltier, I could put a fan on one side, and a water block on the other, and just pump the water right through the block. For salt aquariums though, they make most metal gear out of titanium because of corrosion.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

seems your best bet is to go with a regulated peltier to me, there isn't much that plays well with salt. only other thing I could think of would be to have a large yet narrow plastic resevoir that your pump pushes into (and water overflows back into your tank) so that it can cool off before going back into your tank. (something like the smaller water filter systems for freshwater tanks only bigger)

 

[flot]

I don't think I need to regulate anything - the peltier isn't possibly going to make my tank too cold... the issue is just, how to somehow mate the cold side of the peltier with the tank.... I could practically just glue the peltier to the side of the tank or sump, but then it would have to radiate directly into the glass or plexi, neither of which is an especially good conductor.

Or was that your comment on the regulator? So the peltier woudln't burn itself up? ( that is a risk, right? )

 

[beatle]

How about an anodized aluminum or gold plated block? Neither one corrodes. I think Koolance makes one.

I hope you have a serious heatsink/fan on the hot side of that 100-150 watt monster, as that's a lot of heat to dissipate.

 

[marine73]

Brass. Or more correctly, naval brass. Don't know of anyone currently marketing such a thing, but you could design a simple 2 piece (top and bottom) block similar to other CPU designs, and get a local shop
to do the machining for you. Probably wouldn't be that pricey. In any case you'll probably have to make it easy to maintain due to build up of deposits in the block. Aquarium water isn't especially clean plus the salt
would most likely add to the problem. Good luck.

 

[jcm2302]

do you have a water cooler in your fridge?
if so this is what i did when i had my salt tank i had to run minimum lights because of heat i took stainless tubing and coiled the tubing into a series of loops and the ends i screwed a barb in and ran a water line from my fridge water cooler the cooler filled the tube with cool water cooled my tank almost perfect i did have to turn up the heater at times it depends how much you use the water despenser

 

[WoodButcher]

Build a bong cooler, no metals contact the water, you probably already have the pump, $20-25 in pvc and your done. Evaporation would be your biggest issue.

 

[aigomorla]

Does anyone make a non-copper water block? I'm looking for something to use to overclock my aquarium and copper and salt water would be an absolute catestrophe. I THINK stainless steel would be ok but honestly I'm not even sure about that.

I bought a weak peltier cooler designed for the task, and it just isn't cutting it. I figure I need to disappate at least 100-150 watts. A fan and heatsink on one side is no problem, but how to handle the side that needs to either go into the water, or have water circulate through it?

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=944

u want whats called a plate heat exchanger.
Its made from Stainless Steel.

Basically one side of the plate is chilled.
The other side of the plate has your aquarium water running though it.

Unless your talking about like an icyprobe, which u had to drill a hole in the side of your aquarium.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I'm sort of confused - correct me if I'm wrong...

You have a tropical, saltwater aquarium that requires the water to be heated to a certain temperature in order to keep the fish alive. You use 300W worth of lights to heat the water. The water is about 3 degrees too warm, and you need something to cool it by 3 degrees when the lights are on.

Why not just reduce the wattage of the lights (one way or another)? Different bulbs perhaps, or put them on an on / off timer and experiment with how long they need to be shut off every hour to maintain the target temperature. For example, perhaps you could run them for 45 minutes on, 15 minutes off.

It seems like a much simpler, much easier solution to me. Less fun, yes, but less potential loss too.

 

[aigomorla]

Why not just reduce the wattage of the lights (one way or another)? Different bulbs perhaps, or put them on an on / off timer and experiment with how long they need to be shut off every hour to maintain the target temperature. For example, perhaps you could run them for 45 minutes on, 15 minutes off.

It seems like a much simpler, much easier solution to me. Less fun, yes, but less potential loss too.

because then your limited to what you can grow inside a reef tank.

On some cases like SPS corals, they require on average 4-5W (compact flourescent) / galon.

In a 20 gallon tank, thats 80-100W of pure light hitting it.

But when you do go SPS u tend to drop a metal halide fixture on top which is about 90-400W itself. Also spews a ton of radiation in the process.

The problem with slapping a tec on the side of the aquarium is that unless its glass and even then it will be very inefficient.
Also you risk cracking the class if the peliter got too cold.

Acrylic just sucks horribly for this type of task also.

If you really dont mind drilling a hole in your aquarium, you can get one of these guys:

http://www.marinedepot.com/chillers_coolworks_iceprobe-ap.html

However honestly op, your just best off getting a small inline TEC chiller.
Those work as heaters also, so they are a set and forget.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Um..... guys?

You do realize this thread is from 2004, right?

 

[WoodButcher]

ROFL, jcm2302 posted and I replied w/o looking at the date, damn noob!D:

 

[aigomorla]

ROFL, jcm2302 posted and I replied w/o looking at the date, damn noob!D:

DUDE THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!

I only replied because u did, i should of checked the first post

OMG... at a time like this i should ban you, and then myself for following you as a double suicide. :hmm:
(incase anyone is wondering.. WB and i are buddies.. so this is a complete joke... )

Meh... gonna lock this post unless someone has a need for this.

If you do PM me, and i will unlock it.