Jump to content

Stainless Steel Immersion Chiller


Shrimp>Wife

Recommended Posts

Hi Everyone,

I was inspired to make the stainless steel immersion tubes found in the following thread: 

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/topic/9455-cooling-multiple-tanks/

I made mine with the following materials

- x metres of annealed seamless stainless steel tube grade 316. Outer Diameter 12.7mm, Wall Thickness 0.9mm, ASTM 269. I got mine from Midway Metals in Sydney for $5 per metre.

- A hand bender, rated to bend thin walled stainless steel. Got one from ebay for $99.

- A tube cutter, again make sure it will cut thin wall stainless steel. I got mine from ebay for $32.

For 60cm tanks I recommend 3 metres of tubing

For 30cm tanks I recommend 2 metres of tubing

Your hand bender will have an inherent bend radius, using this you can calculate the length of tube that you will use up with each bend whether it be 90 degrees or 180 degrees and pretty much how much tube you will need depending on your design. 

NOTES: I used 12.7mm tubing as you can then squeeze 12/16mm aquarium hosing on to it snugly (if you are paranoid use hose clamps as well). I also used 12.7mm OD tubing as its the maximum diameter you can get a hand bender for that is rated to bend stainless steel. Do not get thicker than 1.0mm walled stainless steel it will be a nightmare to bend. Make sure your stainless steel is annealed seamless tube this is specifically made for severe manipulation. This is for freshwater application only... the guys at midway said this would last 3 months in a saltwater tank lol. Good hand benders are each made for one specific diameter only, make sure you get the right one for your tube diameter.

I am happy to post links to the ebay items if I'm allowed to.

I'm pairing this with an Eheim 2213 and a Resun cl 200 chiller to chill 2 x 60cm tanks and ultimately 3 x 60cm, I'll update once this is done and give some feedback on the temp differences. I hope the info is useful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_0928.JPG

Edited by Shrimp>Wife
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice @Shrimp>Wife.

BTW, has your wife seen your forum name yet?

:happy:

 

Anyway ... would love to see more pics of this when you have it all hooked up to the chiller, Eheim and tubes.

A drawing wouldn't be a bad idea either. 

Edited by jayc
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Quick update now we are all melting....

Ehiem 2213 paired with 2 x 60cm tanks, water flow is too slow. Temp difference between tanks is less than 0.1 degree. However on hot days the tanks slowly creep up in temp to 25 degrees, even setting the chiller to 21 degrees. Water has to travel to a max height of 210cm, the canister is sitting on the bottom shelf just a few inchs off the floor so I guess there just isn't enough grunt with flow loss via all the tube bends. Tried removing all the media,this made very little difference.

Replaced the Eheim with an inline Resun King 2FLV 1000l/hr, I run this externally with 2 x 12mm hose barb fitting to 1/2in bsp male adapters (package only comes with one of these other is a 19mm hose barb to 1/2in bsp). I set the chiller at 22 degrees and now both tanks sit at between 23 and 23.6 degrees. The delta between the 2 tanks varies from 0.1 to 0.3 of a degree.

The loss of filtering I compensate with Qanvee QS200 sponge filters packed with media and modded to run off an Aquael Mini Patfilter rather than an airpump. (Much quieter too).

 

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Few pics...a23a744470bb28f04b21b088ea756372.jpgae95059e60158bc5b3ee74bad515146f.jpg9ee5f33698e2a2b7838ab1cf0390f496.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Pump to chiller.

And securing immersion chiller in aquarium.721685dd1f50b166041f02918d4b4a34.jpg77dcf9c52713d9fff9c05f41f63ea6e6.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • sdlTBfanUK
      Thats a great photo, beautiful blue bolt, I hope it survived the molt without dropping the eggs! I think I can just about see some black dots (eyes) on the central egg but can't be 100% sure. I used to (and plan to again) do weekly water change of 10-15% but if you do too large or quick (not drip in new water) that would likely trigger a molt. What KH are they in, my new setup is sitting at (and refusing to budge) KH 3 and PH 7.5 so I may have to settle for neocaridina shrimp this time as opposed to the caridina I want, though not looking/deciding just yet, give the tank a bit more of a run in! Tap water here starts at kH 14, tds 320, when filtered goes to KH 0 and PH 6 but when put in the tank keeps going to KH3 and PH 7.5 despite 3 x 50% water changes???? You may be at 'maximum capacity' with only 20L tank especially if the tank is a cube type rather than shallow type?
    • beanbag
      Right now this tank only has blue bolts and golden bee (red bolts?).  The eggs start off all brown, but at the end, I notice that some are kind of a clear pink-ish color.  So I don't know if that is the egg color of dud or golden bee.  Picture of shrimp only about half hour before molting. The water is always RO + remineralizer, so it should be ok. The tank seems to still be on a "good streak" ever since I started the regimen of weekly water change, monthly gravel vac and plant trim.  The point being to keep the amount of waste low and removing moss / floating plants so that the nitrates go towards growing algae.  At one point, I had three berried females, but only netted about half dozen babies by the end, due to this early molting problem.  There might be about 30-40 shrimp total in 5 gallons, but still very few full-sized adults.
    • ngoomie
      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
×
×
  • Create New...