Keeping your aquarium cool WITHOUT a chiller?

[Eagle_Steve]

Wife keeps the house as cold as the Arctic, so no issues with those tanks lol.

Fish barn is super insulated and has a/c, so no issues there. The tanks do have fans over the sumps and chillers just in case the a/c goes out. But so far, they have not cut on.

 

[kaylajoy]

I have a cheap fan from marine depot and it cools my tank 6 degrees pretty easily.

 

[Brandon3152134]

I have one of those small window air conditioners and I keep my room around 70 for myself and let the heater keep the tank around 76. I also have a small tank tho

 

[Not_Eeyore]

I am in the fan camp. Add in that I am only home maybe 3 days out of 7 and a cheap skate...

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Ive made a surprisingly effective system for my tanks. A SINGLE fan, powered by the apex 24v accessory port, gets me well over 4 degrees of cooling on a Reefer 350 (~75g). My tank used to spike to 82+ but now it stays within .2 degrees of 78. Waterproof 140mm Noctua fan. You can also daisy chain a bunch for larger tanks, because these fans draw so little power.

Very nice! Love the fan shrouds! Can you give some details on the shrouds, model of fan you used and most importantly are they quiet?

 

[SauceyReef]

We dont have an AC here and it has been getting 80 degrees + sometimes in parts of the house. The tank got to 81 last week so I had to take action. Bought one of those window AC units. It keeps the room where the tank is as cold as I want it! Plus more affordable than running AC through the whole house. If the power goes out long term during one of these hot summer days I am a bit screwed! My backup plan is to have a mini generator or move my small tank to our very cold basement if this happens.

 

[TheHarold]

Awesome job, guess that means I have to move a 3d printer up on the wanted list.

Thanks! Yeah 3D printers are great, I have five going in a little print farm.

Very nice! Love the fan shrouds! Can you give some details on the shrouds, model of fan you used and most importantly are they quiet?

I designed the shrouds from scratch and it is fully 3D printed with a bit of stainless hardware. You can download that file here if you have a 3D printer

It was designed for a Noctua 140mm IP67 24v 2000rpm fan. That is pretty much the best quality you can get for this application, and very quiet as well. They have a 3000rpm version that is more effective but quite loud. I linked the 24v version because its designed for apex 24v programmable accessory port, but Noctua offers an identical fan in 12v that is easily powered from the wall via a fan specific PSU .

 

[Lylelovett]

Here in AZ we keep our house at 79-81-ish degrees, so I just need to knock the temp down on my 150g by a few degrees. I use GHL's Propeller breeze fans on my sump and controll it with the Profilux P4. Works great - and really makes you realize much water you use via evap every day.

 

[Reefer_NYC]

ice bags and fans when the AC is not working. tank spikes to 84 -_-

 

[fishybizzness]

I break this out every year in May and need it until early October. I control it with my apex. This is on my 55 gallon. The 120 gallon i just have a smaller desktop fan blowing over the sump.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Ive made a surprisingly effective system for my tanks. A SINGLE fan, powered by the apex 24v accessory port, gets me well over 4 degrees of cooling on a Reefer 350 (~75g). My tank used to spike to 82+ but now it stays within .2 degrees of 78. Waterproof 140mm Noctua fan. You can also daisy chain a bunch for larger tanks, because these fans draw so little power.

This is great! Do you have a more detailed thread on this? Would love to feature it on it's on!

 

[Karen00]

Ive made a surprisingly effective system for my tanks. A SINGLE fan, powered by the apex 24v accessory port, gets me well over 4 degrees of cooling on a Reefer 350 (~75g). My tank used to spike to 82+ but now it stays within .2 degrees of 78. Waterproof 140mm Noctua fan. You can also daisy chain a bunch for larger tanks, because these fans draw so little power.

These are awesome!! I read further down where you posted the details. Thanks! Someone else mentioned they have to bump a 3d printer up their priority list. Ditto to that! Haha. I want a printer just to do these!!

 

[mindme]

I live in Florida, but no problems as the temperature in the house never gets above 74 with the AC on. My heaters run a good bit.

I do have some fans that will automatically turn on if it gets hot, but I've never seen them cut on.

My old 25g cube did require some fans attached to it. But this was because it had a glass lid that didn't let the heat escape/evap happen.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I've been using a window air conditioner.....works great. I've been kicking around the idea of thorwing in a ductless system....they are pretty reasonable.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Ironically living in AZ (moved here from FL) has made it easy to keep tanks cool for me. Average humidity here is about 10% so evaporative cooling is incredibly effective. I ran my 90 QT in my garage last summer when temps were hitting 115 regularly, and a couple of cheap clip on fans held the water temp steady at 80 degrees. The evaporation from my DT inside the house helps keep humidity comfortable inside too.

 

[Tman007]

As a noob in Florida, I quickly learned during the early spring that my tank was going up to creep up to 84F on the warm days. (Fortunately no livestock was in the tank during this learning phase!) A big factor is that my family is cool-blooded so our house AC is set to 78F, which is probably warmer than most homes.

For my 28g JBJ AIO, I first tried the chinese clip-on-the-back fans that you can find on amazon, and they did the job but were noisy. I decided to just make a similar but better contraption myself with higher-quality computer fans, and it works great and is super quiet. I'm pretty happy with it considering that the whole setup only cost me around $35 (+ some labor of course). When I have some time, I'll create a little DIY thread with the details if anyone is interested.

 

[TheHarold]

This is great! Do you have a more detailed thread on this? Would love to feature it on it's on!

I haven’t made a dedicated thread on this but I can absolutely make one. I am always concerned/cautious about what constitutes advertising on R2R given I have my small 3D printing business; members will inevitably ask to buy the housings and complete assemblies if I make a thread. Don’t want to step on any toes!

I did share the free file though, which makes it pretty open source and probably okay to share. Will work on a post this afternoon that explains everything including the wiring to apex 24v accessory port!

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Wisconsin No chiller needed

 

[Karen00]

As a noob in Florida, I quickly learned during the early spring that my tank was going up to creep up to 84F on the warm days. (Fortunately no livestock was in the tank during this learning phase!) A big factor is that my family is cool-blooded so our house AC is set to 78F, which is probably warmer than most homes.

For my 28g JBJ AIO, I first tried the chinese clip-on-the-back fans that you can find on amazon, and they did the job but were noisy. I decided to just make a similar but better contraption myself with higher-quality computer fans, and it works great and is super quiet. I'm pretty happy with it considering that the whole setup only cost me around $35 (+ some labor of course). When I have some time, I'll create a little DIY thread with the details if anyone is interested.

This is also a great setup! Can't wait to see the DIY thread! I never would have thought about using computer fans but they make perfect sense given they were designed for some serious cooling yet are quiet at the same time!

 

[bg2311]

Ive made a surprisingly effective system for my tanks. A SINGLE fan, powered by the apex 24v accessory port, gets me well over 4 degrees of cooling on a Reefer 350 (~75g). My tank used to spike to 82+ but now it stays within .2 degrees of 78. Waterproof 140mm Noctua fan. You can also daisy chain a bunch for larger tanks, because these fans draw so little power.

Noctua fans are great. Use them everywhere we can.