Cool way to cool a Nanocube

[Juck]

I've been thinking for a while about getting an iceprobe mini-chiller for my nanocube,,, the tank temperature in Summer last year was 82 degrees pretty much all the time (I got my first Cube a couple of months before they were readily available on the market). 82 is ok but doesn't leave much room for emergencies like the A/C not working due to power cuts (happens here all the time).

The iceprobe is a simple enough design, a heatsink with a fan mounted to the tank by a simple bulkhead. But at $100 for the probe and the risk of drilling my cube, I decided to try something else.

I figured if a small heatsink could cool the tank a bit,,, how good would a BIG heatsink be? In fact,,, why not cover the whole backside of the damn thing with heatsinks?

Rather than use cheap CPU heatsinks, I bought a 2 foot length of extruded aluminum heatsink and cut it to the desired sizes. The extrusion is 5 & 3/8" wide and about 1" tall with a 3/8 base so I ended up cutting a 11.75" piece and two 3" pieces (there is not enough room back there to simply mount 2 x 11.75" x 5.375" heatsinks laterally). The fin height on the heatsink is approx. 1".

I cut the black covering off the back of the Nanocube (it peels off easily) and mounted the heatsinks to the glass using 2 part epoxy. The tank is full of fish etc. so I had to jerry-rig something to support the heatsinks while the epoxy cured.

The results were almost instantaneous,,, less than an hour after the 3 heatsinks were mounted, the tank temperature dropped 2 degrees,,, by the time the epoxy had cured it was down to 76,, a total drop of 6 degrees. All this without the use of a fan!

That was yesterday,,,I don't have a spare fan big enough to blow air away from the heatsinks, but I'll be getting one today. Heatsinks are far more efficient when there is proper air circulation so I'm expecting big things,, perhaps another 6 degree reduction,, maybe more.

My digital camera is shagged so no pics until I get a new one,,,,, here's a crap drawing of the placement of the heatsinks:

Phear my photoshop skillz:

 

[Juck]

Oh yeh,, cost,,,the 2 foot length of heatsink cost $32 including shipping. Figure $5 for the epoxy which I had anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm curious to know how this goes. Air cooling is actually one of the least effective methods. Also I don't know how your heat sink is going to do because generally the temperature difference between the ambient air and the unit being cooled has to be very high (the thing needing cooled must be smoking hot). With a smaller difference (such as the few degrees between ambient air and tank temp), you get less effective cooling.

But if it works, then that rocks. As I said, air cooling is not the most efficient. But it's easy to use cuz it's simple.

If it works, you should upgrade to water cooled. Pipe up some coolant jackets around the outside of the nanocube.

-me

ps i want to see the pix of it w/ the black part taken off, i was contemplating doing the same.

 

[Juck]

I'm not a physicist but it's working really well so far,,, the house is kept at 72-73 year-round,, the tank always runs 81-82ish,, so there's a bit of a differrential there I guess. There's no real air circulation near the tank right now except for maybe a little from the a/c which blows in that general direction.

I'm not bringing a CPU or an Amplifier temperature down 100 degrees or anything like that,, but I was impressed with 6 degrees for such a passive system.

 

[tinyreef]

i setup a similar unit last summer and i seemed to get a lowering of temp (3~5F) the best i can figure.

i've never had the iceprobe but from what i've seen isn't it based upon the same concept as juck suggests above?

 

[Juck]

Yup,, the iceprobe is the same principal,, just smaller:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant ... =Minichill

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, in general, passive methods appeal to me. Path of least resistance and whatnot.

Don't forget to post pix when you can

 

[Juck]

Yup, and I can't see the heatsinks either. For me,, the uncluttered look of the Nanocube is the main reason I bought it,,, no mod is good enough if it spoils that look (hence no skimmer!).

 

[Anonymous]

i know!

after seeing the pic in the other thread, i really am tempted to clutter it up.

http://www.aquariareview.com/tanks/nano/skimmermod.jpg

 

[Juck]

I'm sure there's a way to jam a simple homemade limewood skimmer in the back section somehow,,,if I could keep the water level a tad lower back there. Considering there's probably only about 7-8 gallons of actual water in most cubes, it should be more than enough.

I need to think about that,, been putting it off.

 

[Anonymous]

You can build a little overflow box like this if you'd like to lower the water level in the back, while maintaining the same height in the front--
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t ... t=overflow

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I'd take the time to construct a DIY skimmer if there was an easy way to do one of the jet-nozzle ones. I'm not going to be messing around with any of those gimpy airstone driven skimmers. They should all be collected, spit on, put in a rocket and shot into the sun.

 

[tinyreef]

hwar,
the problem with diy'ing the injected skimmers is still the collection space/funnel and the hob space it takes up just like the seaclone you showed. you could probably diy a AC300 with a little PH to generate the bubbling but catching the foam is where the sculpting/skill of the plastic comes in imo.

the airstone types aren't bad as long as you keep up with cleaning them out. i diy'ed a upflow UGF with an airstone letting the foammate collect onto a larger (1/4") tube inserted into the top of the upflow tube. it worked pretty well (lots of gunk, not just foam) for six months but the constant cleaning finally got to me (everyday).

don't get me wrong, pound for pound the injection skimmers are my choice, hands down. i only consider the airstone types when space/setup constrains the choice (usually nano situations).

 

[Ducman996]

Not to change the supject.....I am very interested in seeing pictures of that heat sink, Juck. I too have the 82°F problem. If this really works I would like to try it as well. I have been thinking about how I can install a fan too help cool the light bulbs. My problem is controling the air flow. I was going to try to make some type of duct. To introduce cool air into the bulb housing, but I have been able to fingure it out. It your idea works, it would save me a lot of hassel with this fan idea.

Thanks agian for the information

 

[Anonymous]

ducman i read a few posts about how ppl did that (make a duct), and it worked out for the. i tried searching and was unable to find them for you though

 

[Ducman996]

thanks for looking, I too was not able to find any thing about it.

 

[Juck]

Okeee dokeee

I meant to update this thread but my 75 sprang a leak in the bottom seal last week so I've been a tad pre-occupied smashing all my SPS's into frags while shifting LR into rubbermaids etc. Joy

Aaaaanyway,,,,,

I decided to do this again on my second Nanocube in my office. I epoxied a single large heatsink (like #1 Heatsink in the diagram in my first post) to the back after cutting away the black covering.

I mounted a small CPU fan (identical to the one I have in my nanocube hood) to the heatsink and set it going.

Result: A drop from 82 degrees to 74 degrees over about 3 hours. Bear in mind, this cube has two 24w bulbs AND 2 ballasts in the hood. Before the heatsink, I had to keep the fan in the hood running 24/7 just to keep the temp at 82.

I am one happy camper.