How to hook up ICE PROBE Chiller & 8g BioCube

[wmo168]

Hello,

 

After searching all the forums and testing 2 different chiller for my 8 gallon Oceanic BioCube, I finally figure out a great solution to the problem.

 

I live in South Florida where it get so hot in the day and I need to keep my tank at 79, before I have a 5 Gallon and everything did die off even with AC it goes up to 85 in some day, now with my new Tank I want to put coral and keep the tempature constant.

 

I setup a new 8 Gallon BioCube I bought and transfer my old rocks in there...

 

CHILLING SOLUTION.

 

At First I bought a $300 1/20hp JBJ Chiller but it turns out to be too strong for my 8Gallon, it bring the temputaure down 1 degree or 2 degree within minutes and the tempature sensor in the chiller is not accurate for the small tank because of the flow so it don't even stop when it goes down to 70... I guess you need a good flow pump and it is suitable for 12g to 25g tank... I end up selling it... Then I search online for another small nano chilling solution, I know ICA Chiller exists but Nano Tuners and Nano Customs don't make those anymore so I am only stuck with the ICE PROBE, I end up getting the ice probe for $189 with Tempature controller and when I got the unit it is a BIG UNIT and it require drilling to the tank which doesn't work for 8G Nano eithers.

 

Here is the solution, I use the same method and creating a enclosure from PVC and plumbing parts I got and try to hook it up externally, after 5 visits to Home Depot and few solution and test out many different PVC parts.. and some enclosue I make also causes leaking, after a week of trying I finally came up with one that works. I use a toliet PVC mount base plate 2" dia with have a flat surface, I then drill a hole for the iceprobe to fit and then have PVC pipe plumbing parts mounted one input and one output using plumping glue. 2" PVC Parts. The enclosure inside is small enough to keep pressure and allow water to thru with my Mini Jet 606 pump. I also use the Clear tube I got from homedepot for this purpose.

 

I am able to bring down my tank tempature 4-5 degree over time from my room tempature, now my AC is at 80 and my tank are able to go down 77 or more.. (haven't try it lower) since I set my tempature controller from the ice probe to that setting but I am happy it stay constant.

 

I mount the unit under my $12 ikea stand and you can hardly see it from looking at the tank above. All I do is to cut a empty area in the hood for the in/out tubing to go thru chamber 2 to chamber 3.

 

SEE MY PIC Below and you all know what I am talking about... Great solution for your mini chiller solution.

[Rocket]

Nice, but a it looks like your tanks guts fell out. Good job though.

[qbical]

i have been looking at that probe for quite sometime, quite interesting on how u did it pretty sweet idea

what do your tank temps normally run now?

[wmo168]

i have been looking at that probe for quite sometime, quite interesting on how u did it pretty sweet idea

what do your tank temps normally run now?

 

My room tempature with AC usually about 79 to 80,

 

but with my light on I can get it down to 76 but could be more but I limited it by my tempature controller so now it is around 78.5 to 79.5 before the chiller it usually be around 83-85 with light

[qbical]

think it could help cool a 29gal biocube?

[soundcrd]

I'm still convinced that chillers like this should not be this expensive. I mean, all they really are is a couple hunks of metal with a fan attached... I don't see where the expense comes in. I've been thinking about how to make one for cheap. Maybe if I have problems with my temps once I get my tank up and running I'll try it.

[evilc66]

It's a little bit more than a couple of chunks of metal. Most of the cost in this unit is going into the machining of one of these "chunks", then the rest is going into the TEC unit (the part that actually cools the cold side probe) and the support electronics and power supply. Plus, add in a fee to recoup engineering and tooling costs. DIY one and see how much it will cost you.

[davidncbrown]

My DIY drop in chiller that I am building uses the same idea. It is all centered around a TEC or peltier device. Good idea with the Ice Probe, I too had the same idea but I wanted to try to make my own from scratch and see how much it cost me/how hard it is. I have 5 peltier coolers left to play around with. I'm worried my heatsink and fan isn't big enough now that I've seen the one on the Ice Probe. How well does the temp controller work on your Ice Probe? Where did you place it in your tank with relation to the input and output hoses of the chiller?

[wmo168]

The expensive part is to make a temperature probe with controller unit which cost $50 from ice probe to control the temperature