use kitchen fridge for chiller?

[DallasFish]

Hello All -

I've got a 55g freshwater tank with golden dojo loaches. It's hot here in Texas, and even in the AC the temp in the tank hovers around 81 deg. I am considering adding egg crate and fans (carefully - loaches are jumpy), but wanted to run something else by you as well.

The aquarium sits right on the other side of a wall from my kitchen refrig/freezer. i was wondering about pumping water through tubing from the tank, through the freezer, and back. It would be relatively straightforward to drill through the wall and into the freezer compartment.

What do you think? Also, can I use flex copper pipe (for maximum heat exchange), or is that bad for fishies?

Thank you!

 

[bs6749]

Pop the lids of the tank and have a fan blow over the surface. Evaporation is a cooling process and should drop the tank several degrees. Why not just add ice cubes or do a large PWC to bring the tank down to the level you are looking for? Seems like much less work if you ask me. Much simpler too.

 

[meegosh]

Sounds like quite a bit of work, the drilling and all, but if you feel up to the challenge I don't see why not. It would have to be a pretty slow flow in order for the water to cool down enough. Maybe coil the line in the freezer so it stays in it longer?

bs6749, he can't really take the top off or he'll have loaches all over the floor! I've heard bad things about adding ice cubes also.

 

[neilanh]

It's a neat concept, but you have no way of controlling it if you do this. On cloudy or cooler days, the temperature swing will be much higher than on hotter days. You could set your heater to maintain the minimum temperature I guess, but then you risk the 2 fighting each other to maintain a balance.

 

[DallasFish]

Thank you all for the replies...