afmo
Fish Fanatic
there has been some interest in my DIY chiller in the nano section, so i'll post a guide if anyone wants to give it a go. Probably not good for chilling much more than 10 or 20 gallons but for nanos its great.
The goods:
Rubber-maid Thermoelectric freezer/cooler $49.99
Rubber-maid 12V AC adapter for cooler. $22.99
25 feet standard aquarium tubing $2.49
empty 2 litre bottle
Once you've acquired your items, wrap the tubing around the 2 litre bottle, taping at intervals to keep the coil in place. Remember to leave enough tubing for an inlet and outlet into the tank.
Place the coil inside the cooler. I had to cut a few inches off the top of the 2 liter bottle to make it fit.
This is the point where its kinda open ended. You need to affix one end of the tubing to some sort of water pump to keep it moving around the coil. However you decide to do this is fine, but i modded my Rio 90 to pump the water and still act as a power head.
I carefully notched out a spot for the hose to fit into the outlet of the powerhead, put the hose in, and put the nozzle back on, and wham, the water was a flowin. *NOTE - due to the diameter of the tubing, it may develop a type of vapor lock and water will enter the tube, but not exit. If this happens, you need to suck on one end to start the siphon.
And thats all there is to it. Here is the water flowing out.
it takes the cooler about 2 hours to fully chill, and if you find that its not chilling enough, you can either decrease the flow of the powerhead, or fill the 2 liter bottle with water and let it freeze.
There ya go
i got out of wal mart with everything i needed for $80 bucks. Sure beats a $400 chiller
The goods:
Rubber-maid Thermoelectric freezer/cooler $49.99
Rubber-maid 12V AC adapter for cooler. $22.99
25 feet standard aquarium tubing $2.49
empty 2 litre bottle
Once you've acquired your items, wrap the tubing around the 2 litre bottle, taping at intervals to keep the coil in place. Remember to leave enough tubing for an inlet and outlet into the tank.
Place the coil inside the cooler. I had to cut a few inches off the top of the 2 liter bottle to make it fit.
This is the point where its kinda open ended. You need to affix one end of the tubing to some sort of water pump to keep it moving around the coil. However you decide to do this is fine, but i modded my Rio 90 to pump the water and still act as a power head.
I carefully notched out a spot for the hose to fit into the outlet of the powerhead, put the hose in, and put the nozzle back on, and wham, the water was a flowin. *NOTE - due to the diameter of the tubing, it may develop a type of vapor lock and water will enter the tube, but not exit. If this happens, you need to suck on one end to start the siphon.
And thats all there is to it. Here is the water flowing out.
it takes the cooler about 2 hours to fully chill, and if you find that its not chilling enough, you can either decrease the flow of the powerhead, or fill the 2 liter bottle with water and let it freeze.
There ya go
i got out of wal mart with everything i needed for $80 bucks. Sure beats a $400 chiller 
