[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[APD] Re: Heat exchanger - was aluminum in the aquarium
I finally got my aluminum radiator installed and got it to actually work.
I used an aluminum transmission oil cooler from the local auto parts
store. I'm getting about a 3 degrees F drop over the 13 1/2 hour night.
The 90 gallon tank has three 96W CF lamps, two on for the entire 10 1/2
hour daytime, plus one on for the middle 3 hours. This is a reduction from
an 11 1/2 hour day with all three on that sent the tank into a high temp
death spiral into the high 80's. (CO2 injected from a cylinder, ferts
added mostly daily.)
[snip]
Just a thought, but if you need further temperature reduction there is
another possibility you might try. Depending on where you are located
geographically you may be able to get very good cooling performance from
some pipe buried outdoors maybe 6-12" down. I tried this once here (outside
Detroit, in Michigan) with maybe 20 feet buried about 4-6" (one shovel
depth :-) and was able to get a few hundred watts of dissipation very
nearly continuously.
All you would need to do is bury a length of polyethylene pipe (sprinkler
pipe, about $6-8 per hundred feet for 1/2"), and setup a powerhead to
circulate tank water through it -- maybe with a temperature controller.
It's very effective cooling in the northern latitudes, probably wouldn't
work so well if you were in southern Texas :-)
And how many people can say they have an aquarium with geothermal
temperature control ;-)
-Bill
*****************************
Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator
_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants