It's getting pretty hot around here and my tank that's being fishless cycled had reached close to 90F, so I thought I'd find a cheap way to cool it down before I add my fish. I've looked at some aquarium fans, but they all have pretty low airflow, even the ones with four 8 cm fans only produce a measly 50 CFM, not to mention smaller fans tend to be noisier because they need to spin faster to produce the same air flow as larger fans.
After researching for a couple of hours this morning on
DC fans, I believe I have found the best value for money fan, so I went to the computer shop to get it. I already had a 12V adapter on hand from some old appliances and a pwm speed controller from an old computer cpu heat sink. So I got to work.
This is what you need.
1x fan
- Cooler Master (R4-L2R-20Cx-GP) 90 CFM
LED Silent Fan- 120cm- 2000rpm- 19dBa. (The x in the model number represents the color of the
LED, comes in three colors, R for red, G for green and B for blue). Remember the model number, because they make another 12cm fan that only produces around 40 CFM.
- Under $8, amazing value for the 90 CFM airflow.
1x 12v adapter
- If you have a regular 1A adapter, you can connect 2 of the above fans, since the fan is rated at 0.35A
- Look in your storage room, you should have one laying around from old appliances, if not, you should be able to pick one up for around $7 at the electronic store.
Instructions
Step 1) Cut the end of adapter, you should see two wire. One with writings on it, that's your negative wire, you should connect the black wire from your fan to it. The other wire with a white line on it, that's your positive, and you should connect your red wire to it (or connect both the yellow and red to it if you want).
Step 2) If you have a computer fan controller. You should see just plug your fan into the slot, and then splice the red/yellow/black wires to the adapter like in step 1.
Step 3) If you have electrical tape, now it's time to wrap the exposed wires with it because you don't want exposed wires. Or better yet, buy a couple of those plastic caps for it. They should set you back around 10 cents each.
You're done. Place and the fan on your tank and affix it with fishing line or whatever suits your setup.
It only cost me $8, it's super quiet for its 90 CFM airflow, and it has dropped my tank temperature by around 3F by having it blow under my aquarium tank and across the water (need to verify the result over the next few days). The only annoying thing is that the fan is lit with an
LED light, I might have to find a way to kill it. I'll get an extra fan tomorrow to see how it effects the temperature.
I'll post pictures when I make my second fan tomorrow or the day after.
What about the noise level?
Linear Mode
