Ghetto Chiller

Good job boondocks! 8)
I have one of those Iceprobes too. They are ok for nanos.

 

Just a thought

Why couldn't you take a small bar fridge (probably about $150 new), carefully remove a few screws to allow you a view down one side between the outer skin and the inner liner, find a clear spot and drill 2- 7/8" holes from outside to inside.

You could then feed the two ends of a 25 foot coil of 1/2" I.D poly tubing out the side and silicone them in place with about a 5 inch nipple of tubing sticking out of the bar fridge. the coil is inside, of course. Now attach to a recirculating pump with low gph (bleed off flow if necessary).

With a thermostat controler you could have the pump turn on whenever you need the temp to decrease just like a non-inline chiller.

Here's the best part. You are bound to have 'Left over' room to house a few wobblypops to help cool you down while you iron out any details with your new Barfly Chiller!

Cheers

 

I think the mini fridge idea would work the more length of hose you can have in it the more effective it would be. You could just put the holes in the door to make it easy and a smaller inside diamater like 1/2 inch would work better than 3/4. Just my thoughts. I have been contemplating this for my 28 gal nano HQI gets pretty hot during the day when the halide is on. I still have my old mini fridge from college i also have a small freezer too. We will see as the summer progresses

 

I am considering this route as well, although I have a bigger referigerater "walk-in cooler" so the coil would be longer. I am going to keep reeding on this but we shall see

 

I have a modified IceProbe on the rear of my 12G. I removed the probe and replaced it with about a 6x1/4" aluminum plate that is attached to the rear of the Nano glass (once you remove the contact paper). The plate also has a very thin layer of heat sink compound to make sure the glass is in solid contact. I went to a craft store and bought a sheet of thin foam to cover the entire rear of the tank, and as much of the chill plate as possible to keep the heat exchanger fan from blowing hot air across it when running.

As long as the room isn't ridiculous this works really well. It's enough to offset the heat of the pump and lights as long as the room isn't any hotter than you want the tank. IE- It dumps the heat that you introduce and takes it back to room temp.

 

I live in the desert in so cal and i have been able to work it out with two fans one on the sump and one on the MH light and i keep my house at about 80 any more than that i coil a hose up in a ice chest then fill it with blocks of ice and pump it throught the ice chest. but i have rarly gone over 81 in the tank.

 

As I live in Florida, I am no stranger to hot weather. For all the money you have invested in your tank... your better off buying a chiller and just like the infomorial ... Set it and forget it... well not really but almost..

I recently purchased a chiller and it is the best piece of equipment I have purchased for my tank thus far....