Keeping Nano Aquarium Cool

viet658 · May 17, 2006

I was wondering how everyone here is keeping their nano's cool. I was considering buying a chiller but thought it might be overkill for a nano aquarium. I live in California and it is starting to get warm here. The aquarium temperature during the day is about 90 degrees. Is that too high, should I be worried?

SkiFletch · May 17, 2006

Yes, 90 is too high :huh:

. Is the room the tank is in air conditioned? The easiest way to cool a nano is to use a lot of fans both in the hood lighting, and pointing at the water surface to aid evaporation. If aircooling isnt up to snuff, then a chiller would be in order.

viet658 · May 17, 2006

SkiFletch said:
Yes, 90 is too high . Is the room the tank is in air conditioned? The easiest way to cool a nano is to use a lot of fans both in the hood lighting, and pointing at the water surface to aid evaporation. If aircooling isnt up to snuff, then a chiller would be in order.

There is air conditioning but it would require that I turn it on for the whole house. I have a JBJ 24g and it has two fans in the hood. I will try to open the hood and use a bigger fan to blow across the surface of the water. How many degrees do you think a fan will help? Thanks for you help.

SkiFletch · May 17, 2006

Wish I could say but i have no experience with a tank that size

smithrc · May 17, 2006

I've been having a few probs myself (nothing that bad though)...

the problem with the nanos is that by adding a lot of fans increases evaporation a lot (thats the idea) with the quantity of water being low, this causes swings in salinity....

I put a desk fan on mine over and over night lost approx 800ml of water... in a 40l system thats quite a lot...

steelhealr · May 17, 2006

I have the same tank. If you can get the temp to stay below 84 just for the summer, it is not optimal but do-able. 83 and lower would be better. Cooling methods include:

1) A/C
2) crack the hood and blow a fan across it
3) DIY and insert upgraded fans (a PITA)
4) expensive chiller
5) if not critical, disable/remove one pump if you have more than 1

SH

viet658 · May 18, 2006

I was surpised how much the temperature dropped just by opening the front part of the hood and blowing a 16" fan across the surface. The temps dropped by eight degrees. Now it is around 82 degrees. I will definitely try Steelhealr's suggestion of turning off non-critical pumps if the temps increase during the summer. Thanks for the help guys.

SkiFletch · May 18, 2006

Evaporative cooling is powerful

Glad to hear your heat problems are resolved. Now just make sure to keep an eye on your topoffs

akilles-13 · May 19, 2006

I seen this interesting chiller, just for the nano cubes. Not sure if it works, maybe someone can comment if anyone has it.

Should be easy to add into tank, as a modification.
Heres the website Nanotuners/Chiller
This item priced is about $90.00.

steelhealr · May 19, 2006

Not sure if we'll see a lot of those here. Device seems incredibly small to produce a large heat reduction, but then, I don't have one. SH

SkiFletch · May 19, 2006

steelhealr said:
Not sure if we'll see a lot of those here. Device seems incredibly small to produce a large heat reduction, but then, I don't have one. SH

You'd be surprised SH, that is a Thermo Electric Cooler (TEC) and under the right conditions, a unit of that size could generate up to 190 watts of cooling. They are the simplest of heat pumps and are essentially just a plate of thermocouples. You pass electric current through the wires and one side of the plate gets hot and one gets cold.Their only downfalls are that heat energy still has to be removed from the hot side via a fan and their co-efficient of performance (~0.4) pales in comparison to compressor chillers (~0.8+). Its their compact size, unique construction, and lack of sensetivity to orientation that makes one choose a TEC chiller over a compressor chiller. TECs are very popular among computer overclocking enthusiasts who employ exotic system cooling.