Ok hoes, this is the current project i am working on,


Alright, if you cant tell from my badly(very) scaned sketch, what i am doing (ala Wixx, thanks for the inspiration) is putting my aqurium and my PC together. My main goal by this is to water cool the system by using tank water in the process


As you can see by the sketch, the cooling system should consist of two independent systems, the distilled water from the PC passes through coiled copper tubing inside the heat exchange. The cool water from the tank will be passing though the heat exchange over the copper tubing , then back into the tank again, both cooling the system and airating the tank.

Hopefully once it is finished i hope to also include salinity, pH sensers etc, to automaticly mointer the tank via the computer.

the tanks is going to be 50 gallons and it and the pc case will be entirely lexan. i have all of the lexan and i am am will be begining the tank soon, but i wanted to get some feedback first.

What do you think? Comments? Questions? Flames?

EDIT- Sorry if the pictures are showing up my webhost is having some downtime. should be fine by the morning though

That's a cool idea 'goat (sorry, no pun intended), monitoring the tank from the pc will hopefully make it a proper symbiotic relationship...

BUT is the water in the tank going to be cold enough to do an effective job of cooling? And is the tank going to lose heat quickly enough? (or maybe you _like_ bolied fish )

I guess you're just going to have to try it & see - good luck dude, and don't put any fish in the tank until you've got the system (especially the tank temp stable).


ps - that 2nd sketch - you didn't do the "artwork" on the inside of Radiohead CD's did you?

With the amount of water in the tank the, the tank should lose heat quickly enough( i like tropical fish anyway, so a warm water aquarium is cool). If nessicary i also have a few aqurium chillers simalar to this


That will reduce the temp of the water(hopfully).

Heh, wow, I actually contributed something useful to someone else. :-)

Initial impressions:

• Make sure you don't directly use the tank water to cool the CPU. I already researched that and it's going to require one helluva filtering system & pump.
• I'm concerned simply passing the CPU's hot water through the copper tubing will be insufficient. You may wish to research putting additives in the CPU cooling loop to transfer heat (such as ethylene glycol).
• I would require the design to have at least one flowmeter inline with the CPU cooling loop. Better to engineer the sensors in when you built it rather than shoehorn them in later, eh?
• Measure five times and cut twice.
• Do not join the Lexan together with silicone sealant. Use "plastic welder" to melt the pieces together, and then seal with silicone.

This idea was raised in another thread and I had some real concerns about how this is going to work. As I said in the other thread, you are probably going to kill alot of equipment or alot of fish.

If you use water that is suitable for the fish, it will not be non-conductive and therefore ANY spill is extremely dangerous too your gear. You will also have very real problems with biological growths in the cooling system which will seriously gum that up. If you have ANY disimilar metals in this system, (Aluminum, Copper, Stainless Stell, etc.), then you are going to have corosion problems like crazy. The only way to prevent that is with additives that are going to kill you fish very fast.

I am sorry but I just don't see a realistic way to do this. But you can do something similar if you put a "Barrier" at the bottom of the fish tank, like a lower level, that is the cooling system reservoir, or along the side and make it thin so that you view the fish through the reservoir. Then you can keep them seperate and the close proximity will still pass some heat between the two.

Anyway, those are the problems I see, some could be worked around, but I really don't see you working out all of them. Good luck though.

Wixx, If you look really closly at the drawning youall see glycol labaled. I had already planned on using this in the CPU cooling system. Already have the "plastic weilder". And of course im not going to pump tank water directly on the CPU

LC, what other forum? Have a link. I have considered using platic tubing or acrlyic as apposed to copper, but i was concered about the heat transfer propertes? But useing plastic or acrilyic as oppesed to copper would alliviate the corrosion problem. With that taken care of i wouldnt see any other major problems. If you do let me know?

Quote: Originally posted by scapegoat I have considered using platic tubing or acrlyic as apposed to copper, but i was concered about the heat transfer propertes?

Polyethylene Tubing: Good to about 150°F.
Vinyl Tubing: Good to about 170°F.
Silicone Tubing: Good to about 400°F.

Don't worry about the other thread, I have restated all my comments here. I think your missing something in this.

Not all water blocks are all copper, some have aluminum parts, the same for radiators, and some pumps have metal components. There are hose barbs, and other parts involved and only if you are very carfull in your selection will you avoid mixed metals. Even one small part that isn't copper will cause some level of corosion. Next, the reason almost Everyone uses distilled water as a cooling fluid is because it's non-conductive. And that is so you don't damage something when you have a spill or a leak. "When" is the operative word here, not if, when. You will spill a drop, or a glop, or get a leak or something. You will get some on your hands and touch something and I mean this, it will happen and your fish tank water is going to burn something up.

You see, you have to pull maintenance on a cooling system. You have to fill it, blead out air, change the fluid when it degrades. You don't just hook it up, turn it on, and forget about it. Sooner or later you will have to clean it and with fish tank water you are going to get algae and other crap growing inside and have to do it even more often then normal.

I am not telling you that this is impossible, I am telling you that it is entirely impracticle and will cause you much grief. I am also strongly suggesting that you rethink your plans and come up with something that satisfies your goals and is much more practicle and will give you more pleasure then heartache.

That's all I will say about this unless you ask me directly, I am willing to help you if asked to figure out solutions. But if you continue in this current direction.....well I do wish you luck, your going to need all you can get.

Ok im sorry lcpiper, i dont think i was clear enough on the original post. But the tank water is not actully going to be used in the CPU cooling circuit.

That will probably be a distilled water/glycol mix. i not be using a radiator, although i will progably using swifttech waterblocks, The heat exchange element will have to be custom built. The tank water will never come in contact with the distilled water(hopfully, barring a major leak )

The cool tank water will be passing over the distilled water in the heat exchange were the distilled water will be flowing though coiled copper tube, or as i stated in the last post, maybe acrlic or plexi tubes. ill try to get a more detailed sketch of my plans.

With this in mind i dont see how how the normal PC system cooling would be affect by the tank water, barring some minimal cleaning, which is normal in fishtanks anyway.

That sounds so much better, truely. I was beginning to wonder why I was the only one that was seeing a problem and now I know why. It was because I was the only one way the hell out in left field

Ok then, no radiator..... then the effectivness of your heat exchanger will be greatly effected by the difference between the temperature of the water being cooled and the temperature of whatever is being used to cool it.

So lets say you ran copper tubing, (much better thermal transfer properties then silcone or plexi), in a coil through your a reservoir that is part of the fish tank water system. If the fish tank water is cooler then ambient by a little, then you should get decent cooling for the water cooling system. The heat will be transfered to the fish tank water to warm it for the fish.

What about this, picture your fish tank with an insert of copper that runs the entire length and height of the tank and creates a seperate one inch deep reservoir for the cooling system on one side of the tank. Tap into each end with a hose barb, one at the top, another on the oposite end at the bottom at the same heighth as your pump fitting.

Now water is pumped from the bottom of this reservoir to the blocks, then flows back to the top of this reservoir where it transfers the accumilated heat through the thin sheet of copper into the fishtank water. If you need additional cooling then you can add a separate peltier water chiller to the water line after the pump, or cool the fish tank water with a separate unit like the one above. Build and run the system for awhile without the fish and when you figure out the average temperature of the fish tank then you can select fish that are happy at those temps.

All you have to do is properly seal the hose barbs and the copper sheet.

Ok, i posted an update of the pic(See first pic), maybe that will be a little bit more explanitory, Dont worry about not understanding my, i dont understand myself half the time.

As you can see, the tank water is going to run into the resovior in the back of the tank though 2 filter, then into over the heat exchange unit( where the distilled water will be running though the coiled copper tubing).

Ya in know what your saying about the temprature. The temp should be below ambiant(slightly)

What you said about the copper sheets is pretty intresting, do you think there would be an considerable gain over the existing design?

Well it would be a very simple design and would give you a lot of surface area for thermal transfer, (the entire area of the copper sheet), and you would completely eliminate the need for pumping any of the tank water to a reservoir for the heat exchanger.

In fact, I would think that if you put pump outlets to force a water jet effect against each side you could increase the thermal transfer. Sort of like agitators. Rough up the surface of the copper, etc. But you can always do that after you see how well it's working as is. Filling the system would be easy too. Even changing the water in the cooling system, just add valves and drain tubes at each end of the reservoir, issolate the res, drain it, then fill with straight distilled water and flush it. Then complete the refill and add additives.

I think there is one major issue being ignored here. throw a penny in a live fish tank and see how long it takes for the tank to go dead.copper is a poison to fish. at least to my biology teachers fish tank it was. we were always throwing in a penny and buryying it in the rocks so she wouldnt find it. it took a couple days, bu the fish always died. something to think about. why not use all aluminum parts. not as good a heat conductor, bu tyou cant have it all.

That's a good factoid right there. However, I doubt that factoid helps, because the thread is two years old. Just look out for dates bro.