use ice to cool down the tank?

**Wingless** · 18th Sep 2010, 13:36

hi bro and sis, i currently have a 1.5ft tank with sakura, red cherries and oto.. plant wise, i could only recognize moss, rotala and hairgrass.. my tank temp is around 25.8 (coolest) to 27.9 (hottest)..

currently i'm having this idea in mind..The picture below will roughly explain how my ideas is going to be..

since my tank is having a fan "on" for 24/7.. it means my tank water evaporates very fast.. so i always store a pail of water with a tube to top up water every alternate day.. my idea is to put a container with ice and cover it up, put inside the pail of water that i stored, then drip the water slowly (about 1 drip per second).. i control the drip by using the chopstick method (cut the end of the chopstick and stick it into the outlet of the tube).. so i won't have to top up the water and this could (?) keep my tank chilled?

will this works? all advice are appreciated!

Thanks,
MingXiang

**eviltrain** · 18th Sep 2010, 13:43

some miss calculation and your 1.5 feet tank will overflow.

**Wingless** · 18th Sep 2010, 13:48

yup i foresee that will be one of the problems.. i m trying to squeeze the chopstick in to control the amount of water coming out from the tube and have to check the tank every hour to see the water level in the tank. my tank is now 4/5 full..

**benjidog** · 18th Sep 2010, 15:14

With your drip idea, I am not comfortable about the possibility of overflowing???

Is it possible to put a small bottle of water (3/4 full) in the frezzer and put the bottle in the tank?

There are so many methods of DIY cooling, but it seems the best way is still a chiller.

I use a cooling fan for my 1ft shrimp tank but still have to top up water once in a while.
Sometimes, after topping up water, I lose one sakura shrimp.
If budget and space allows, a chiller is still the best choice.

**Wingless** · 18th Sep 2010, 15:55

haha, chiller is a bit off my budget and i am going in army soon.. i am enlisted in november so i don't plan to get one chiller now.. for now i just want to try as many DIY as possible.. looks like this isn't a good idea, time to think of another way to get the chiller effect :P

**Navanod** · 18th Sep 2010, 16:13

Bro,

Unless that pail is insulated well, that ice in a container would make almost no difference and will soon melt without lowering much of your actual tank temperature as the water in the tube would warm up to room temp before dripping into your tank.
The drip method is good for replenishing your evaporated water, but GH hardness will quickly creep up as you're just topping up water without removing any. Unless you're toppping up only with distilled water, or doing large water change weekly (at least 40-50% in total), I see no other way to avoid the high GH using a fan. Were you the one with the 21GH??

IMHO, 28 degrees is still not too bad. As long as you don't upgrade your filter pump or lights, your water should not heat up anymore and you can still keep sakuras. My old tank was 30 degrees with a fan and almost 35 without!!

**Wingless** · 18th Sep 2010, 16:19

hi bro, erm i am not the one with the 21gh.. i didn't measure anything else other than PH.. actually at first my idea was just to use the cold water to slowly topup the tank, but it seems like there's a problem with the design.. i think i just let the nature take its cause.. thanks all bros for the suggestion