Lypto's Cold water reef (hopefully picture heavy)

[Lypto]

Hey Nano-Reef!

 

I've decided that I'd like to take a shot at a cold water reef, and after digging in the old equipment a little, I realized I have most of the parts lying around. Chillers are expensive, and I love to make things, so decided to take an old office water chiller and turn it into an aquarium safe water chiller. I had some titanium tubes from another project, and they were pretty cheap, 3$ each from ebay. They're a little short and a little thin, 1/4 OD and only 12 in long. Most in tank coil chillers use a Titanium coil where the cooling end filled with gas is directly in the tank, But I don't have the tools (or Licences),  to work with the whole soldering and welding/ weird refrigeration gasses it would require, Instead, I'm using the cold water from the chiller and pumping it through the titanium tubes I've bent. The benefit from this so that I can use multiple 1/4 tubes in order to move heat in a smaller area, as well as having the force from the pump have a little more room than just 1/2 to 1/4, now it'll be 1/2 to two or three 1/4s at 80 GPH, as well as being able to disassemble and reconfigure everything, or even add more coils alter on.

 

The main tank itself will be a 2.5 gallon tank with a tiny cheap HOB filter and Macroalage until I can acquire some cold water organisms like strawberry anemones. I'm not sure of the lighting yet, But I think I might do  DIY LED strip. It's cold water, so the only organisms for a while will be low light. Cold water usually needs more water changes than warm, from what I've read, so the size may be a little easier to keep up with.  I may upgrade to a 7.5 Gallon rimless i've been saving for something nice.

 

Opinions are always welcome and always appreciated, I'm new to cold water and any help in the form of advice or constructive criticism is awesome.

 

Here's the mount for the Titanium tubes in CAD to be 3d printed: (if anyone wants the STL file em lemme know)

 

 

 

[Lypto]

In descending order:

1.Here's the lowest temp I've gotten from the chiller so far (I know, much lower than it needs to be, also probably inaccurate)

2.Here's the bent titanium tubes 

3.And here's the tank I plan to use.

 

[Lypto]

Ok! the 3d printed part is all done,pretty much all I need now  to get cycling is the adapter for the 1/2 to a 1/4. Maybe I should 3d print my own( PLA in cold fresh water really shouldn't do anything, bacterial growth would be at a minimum), and some sand and rock. city beach sand is nasty a lot of the time, maybe use some sifted sand. I'd love to grow some native macroalages, there's some really pretty varieties around on the west coast.

Here's the cooling system set up. I had to heat bend the mounting bracket a bit as it was too large , nothing a lighter and some finagling couldn't fix.

 

 

[Tamberav]

Ooo looks great! Following along