DIY Aquarium Chiller

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DIY Aquarium Chiller

Power Amplifiers
300W 6x 3886 Power Amp 100W 2x 3886 Power Amp Gainclone Power Amp Jeff Rowland w/3886

Pre Amplifiers
6922 Tube Pre-amp 12AU7 Tube Pre-amp 12AX7 Tube Pre-amp Balanced Opamp Pre-amp Passive Pre-amp

Speakers
AAD 7001 by Phil Jones Vifa MTM Speaker OrCad Speaker / Crossover Simulation

Digital Sources
AW-D2 AD1955 DAC Marantz SA8400 Marantz SA-11S1

DIY components
PA150 3x 3886 PCB Guide Lundahl 1545a Audio Transformer

This aquarium chiller uses a 15V 15A peltier to cool my 20 liter fish tank. In my setup, I set the input voltage to 11V, so that the peltier generate less heat and operate at higher efficiency. There is a very useful peltier calculator that could help you to determine the optimum peltier operation point :

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DIY Aquarium Chiller

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http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

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My design goal is to lower 6 degree of water temperature. To use the peltier calculator, there are several parameters that I need to determine : Input Voltage, Heat load and the peltier hot side temperature. Input Voltage - I tried 12V and 11V on the calculator to see the difference between the heat generated, and found using 11V should be able to cool the aquarium while less heat is generated. Heat load - This would means the engergy gained by the aquarium water from the ambient temperature. To find this out, I did a measurement of how much time is required to heat up the 20 liters tank water by 0.1 degree. First I used a fan to cool down the water temperature to 2 degree below ambient and then stop then fan. After 6 minutes the water temperature rised 0.1 degree. Energy = Energy required to rise 1L of water 0.1 degree * water volume = 418 J/(LK) * 20L = 8360 J Time = 6 minutes = 360 seconds Heat Load = Energy / Time = 8360 / 360 = 23W So for a 2 degree temperature difference equals to 23W from the ambient, I estimate for a 6 degree difference, the ambient heat load will be 69W. Hot side temperature - This would equals to ambient temperature + heatsink efficiency * total heatsink load. I assume the ambient temperature to be 32 degree, the total heatsink load from the calculator to be about 200W. Now to find out the heatsink efficiency, I refer to this CPU cooler review link for the Thermalright Ultra-120 cpu cooler, which is the previous version of the Venomous X: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2001&page=5 . From the test results, the test load gained 12.4 degree for 125W of heat. That means the heatsink's thermal resistance is 0.1 degree per watt. The calculated hot side temperature will be 32 + 0.1 * 200 = 52 degree. The TEC calculator shows that with the above parameters, the peltier cold side temperature is at 18 degree, which verify this design is good for a drop of 6 degree. If I try the above calculations again for an 8 degree drop, the calculated peltier cold side temperature will be at 31 degree, which means the design won't work for a 8 degree drop. This calculation also showed that the importance of using a good heatsink, if a heatsink with 0.3 degree per watt thermal resistance is used, the temperature drop will only be good for about 3-4 degree. This 15V 15A Peltier has a Qmax of 150 watts.

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http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

Aluminum water cooler head.

Foam heat insulator

http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

This temperature control has a sensor which I can drop to the tank to measure the tank water temperature, it can be programmed to turn on or off at a centain temperature.

12V 30A switching power supply, I actually do not need 30A, but I like the power supply to work much below its rated output current.

http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

The most expensive component for this chiller - Thermalright Venomous X heatsink (and a 12cm 1600rpm fan), this is one of the best CPU heatsinks.

An aluminum bar, bolts and nuts:

http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

The construction is faily simple, use an acrylic plastic plate as the base, put on the foam, then the water cooler head, then the peltier, then the heatsink. I used the excellent Thermaltake TG-1 thermal compound on both side of the peltier. Finally I use the aluminum bar to bolt all the pieces together.

Here is the final version which I use a bigger acrylic plate to hold the temperature control, power supply and the peltier block together :

http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

My shrimp tank setup, the Eheim 2215 fiter pumps the water thru the chiller.

I set the temperature control to 25 degree. The hottest day here in HK since I made this chiller was 32 degree outdoor and 30 degree indoor, and it can cool the water to 25 degree. My estimation is that this chiller is able to cool 20 liter of water to about 6 degree below ambient. In the tank : red crystal shrimps, big one is 1.8cm long, the baby is about 2mm long.

http://www.shine7.com/aquarium/chiller.htm[16/11/2012 3:24:36 p.m.]

DIY Aquarium Chiller

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9 comments Redza Ramzan where did you get that cooler head? exactly where? Reply
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October 9 at 6:23am

Jake Pritchett where did you get that light?

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