Using ice-probe to cool 2ft tank

[stillife]

Hi,

I was told by marine tank enthusiast that I could use ice-probe to cool down my tank (30deg) to 26deg. Has anyone has good experience using ice-probe?

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_Aquari..._iceprobe.html

I'm concern how to setup the probe on my 2ft tank.

Appreciate all suggestions or share your experiences.

Thanks!

[uklau]

For the size of the tank, I think a chiller will be more cost efficient than an ice-probe.

[stillife]

I do not have much space to house a chiller and the power consumption is quite high to operate....

I have thoughts to move the tank to room, but I only turn on aircon for the night....in the day, it may be too hot.....too much temp fluctuations may cause more "casualties" right?

hmm......beats me.

[lEddyl]

high tempature is ok for almost all plants.
Air-con at night, i'm also having tanks in my room. no fans/chillers. temp at 31-32ºC
only thing i notice is...plants are nicer in my other tank(with chiller)

you should do a search here on ice-probe.

[Ibn]

You can get similar results just using a clip on fan. That's all that the ice probe really is.

The ice probe works well if the ambient temperature doesn't get too high. I tested it against a PCI 1/10 chiller to see how effective it would be. Ambient temperature in the room was 29C. The chiller moved the tank bank down to 25C (this is over a 3.5 gallon pico reef tank with 150W MH) quickly, while the ice probe could only bring it back down to about 28.5C the entire time.

[Tetra Lover]

Hi

I am using 2 iceprobe chillers to cool my 2 ft tank. My reason for using the iceprobe reasons is almost the same as you: I do not have sufficient space at home to house a chiller and my house Commanding Officer (CO) will nag at me for the heat and noise produced by the chiller.

The ambient temerature is 30 degrees. With the two TEM chillers, my managed to get 26 degrees on average and 25 degrees on a rainy day. I tied my two iceprobes to two corner bars of the tank stand.

Hope this help.

Cheers

[zyblack]

Ice probe or chillers will probably be good for shrimp tanks especially for the expensive crystal red shrimps. The problem with fan is the high evaporation rate and inconstant temperature. For shrimp tanks the best is not to disturb them often and that includes not doing water changes or top up every other day.

[stillife]

Hi

I am using 2 iceprobe chillers to cool my 2 ft tank. My reason for using the iceprobe reasons is almost the same as you: I do not have sufficient space at home to house a chiller and my house Commanding Officer (CO) will nag at me for the heat and noise produced by the chiller.

The ambient temerature is 30 degrees. With the two TEM chillers, my managed to get 26 degrees on average and 25 degrees on a rainy day. I tied my two iceprobes to two corner bars of the tank stand.

Hope this help.

Cheers

Hi TetraLover,

Mind to post some pics to show how you actually install the two ice-probe? Also the cost of two ice-probe could be close to 600 bucks...dat could be close to the cost of a mini chiller...of cos, if space and heat or noise is your primary concern, I think fan should be the best alternative.

I saw the iceprobe physical dimension, it would be quite bulky to mount...I'm still figuring how to mount them so that it doesn't look so "heavy" or crampy...

[tonylai]

Think iceprobe for 2ft tank is not pratical. It probably won't cool your tank anymore then fans can. As for electricity, a small chiller probably uses less electricity. Iceprobe is constantly on, consuming like 60-80Watts of energy 24hrs a day. But if you get a small chiller, it may draw 300watts of energy, but it probably works only 15 minutes an hour or total of 6hrs a day. Eventually they use similar amount of energy... But you probably don't get as low a temperature for iceprobe since peltier coolers aren't that efficient...

[stillife]

Hi,

Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions. I guess TonyLai is right, the cost could be higher to on the ice-probe 24 hrs and not able to achieve optimum temperature. Guess I have to consider chiller.

Pardon off trek abit.
BTW, any chiiller to recommend for 2ft tank? Resun is it good? Any folks outthere using Resun? Any comments?