Using the earth to cool out door tank

[Masonreefer]

hello this is my first post so please go easy on me. I have 2 tanks in my home a 90gal and a 75. I'd like to get into the fraging game and I may of just came up with a dumb or brilliant idea. I have been looking into starting 2 40gal breeder tank setup. But the operating costs of the lights alone may run upwards of 200$ a month not to mention the upkeep of said lights. Luckily I live in sunny florida so I can harness the out door light for free. The only concern Is the tank overheating, as there are days it gets up to 98°. Has anyone tried to run pvc in a deep radiator style stm into the soil about 10 feet deep to cool the water. My mentality is that I may be able to harness the sun and cool the water via thermostat controlled switch to pump to keep the tank at perfect temp on the hottest of days. Keep in mind, The temp of my soil 1ft under ground is 74°

 

[sde1500]

But the operating costs of the lights alone may run upwards of 200$ a month

An interesting idea I have no experience in so can't help you there, but I want to address this. I can't imagine you spending anywhere even close to that on a couple 40 breeders.

 

[Jase4224]

The way I see it is that you can truly use the sun to your advantage buy purchasing solar panels that would pay for the electricity to run the system (and your house). Growing corals to frag in the sun isn’t really preparing them for aquarium lighting and adding the problem of keeping the system cool. I feel like you are creating two more problems in order to fix one. Solar panels pays for the cost of running lights and cooling. This is very affordable in Australia but I have discussed this with another member of the forum here from the US and apparently you guys pay more so perhaps not as affordable? Over here you can’t afford NOT to buy solar panels.

PVC isn’t a very good conductor but it might work, I guess you would need quite a lot of it underground. You are also adding the cost of a pump to run cooling. Could you use fans and an ATO?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

hello this is my first post so please go easy on me. I have 2 tanks in my home a 90gal and a 75. I'd like to get into the fraging game and I may of just came up with a dumb or brilliant idea. I have been looking into starting 2 40gal breeder tank setup. But the operating costs of the lights alone may run upwards of 200$ a month not to mention the upkeep of said lights. Luckily I live in sunny florida so I can harness the out door light for free. The only concern Is the tank overheating, as there are days it gets up to 98°. Has anyone tried to run pvc in a deep radiator style stm into the soil about 10 feet deep to cool the water. My mentality is that I may be able to harness the sun and cool the water via thermostat controlled switch to pump to keep the tank at perfect temp on the hottest of days. Keep in mind, The temp of my soil 1ft under ground is 74°

I set up my lab, AKA storage container in the Backwoods and I have a well and was planning to do similar to what you're mentioning, using the temperature of the well water with a heat exchanger cool down my my tanks. Only thing is I haven't got around to getting some good pumps to move the water around. You just got to have the right pump and a lot of PVC pipe underneath and you'll do good. Again if you go with pumps go with DC pumps I can move the water. So your electric bill is low, it still will be low compared to using Chillers.

One more thing if you're using plastic piping, use the type for hydronic Heating and Cooling, better heat exchange.