Water Cooling and Fishtanks?

mikeb55121 asks: "Today I was refilling my fish tank and was thinking about water cooling for my computer. As I spilled the water on the ground I realized that I was pouring cold water in to my fish tank and that I had tropical fish and right then it struck me! If I could just hook up my fish tank and computer together so that it would use watercooling by using the water out of the fish tank to cool the processor and then go back in to the tank and keep them warm. In my head it works out just fine however I don't know if it would be practical in reality. If such is possible, it would be pretty tight since it would keep my processor, fish and me happy, all at one time! If any one actually is going to try this, please email me, as I would like to hear about your results and to know if an idea of mine actually works for once!" An interesting thought! If any of you have pulled something like this off, please share. (And post pictures if you've got 'em!)

Comments

Probably a bad idea.

[Unknown Poltroon]

1 word, fish stew.
Seriously, i was thinking of this myself a while ago, but I only have a 10 gallon tank. I'm pretty sure that using it as a heat sink for anyhing much above a 486 would heat it to the point where it kills the fish. For a larger tank, or a small pond(I have a lager turtle pond in the living room. Large for a pond in the living room, at least.) it might work. I would try it on an empty tank first, to see how the temperature balances. However, i have thought of combining the waterpump with a waterfall effect for the pond. The only problem is if anything goes wrong with the pump(happens a lot), fried chip. But I would love to see if anyoe ocmes up with a working concept behind this.

My thoughts on the subject

[ninewands]

Most freshwater aquaria actually require water coolers to keep the temperature down to what the fish can stand. IIRC, the correct temperature for a freshwater tank is approximately 68F. Marine (saltwater) aquaria are somewhat more temperature tolerant, having a recommended temperature of 78F. However, the water movement requirement of a marine aquarium demands so much pump capacity (again, IIRC, I had something like 1350 liters/minute of total pump capacity in my 55 gallon marine tank) that the 10 degree "flex" in temperature ranges was insignificant.

If you allow for the heat generated by the 80+ watts of recommended fluorescent lighting needed for a moderate-sized tank (say 50-75 gallons), the problem that arises is one of keeping the temperature DOWN to the recommended range. Last time I looked at the price for water coolers for a decent-sized aquarium, it exceeded the cost of a mid-range PC (D00d, you're getting a Dell!).

Not wanting to throw (figuratively speaking) cold water on a promising research project, I SERIOUSLY think you are going in the wrong direction by planning to hook up another heat source to your tank.

Two things...

[ivan256]

First off, Ignore all the people saying it would cook the fish. Obviously, you'd include the same sort of radiator setup you would in a PC watercooling situation, otherwise the water would continue to heat up until it was as hot as the CPU and you wouldn't have any cooling anymore. You could use temperature controlled fans on the radiator to control the tank temperature.

Secondly, and more importantly, how would you keep crap from growing in your hoses and radiator? Your radiator would be clogged with green hairy crap in no time. Then you'd get horrible flow and inefficient cooling. There is no need for such a large resivoir for your PC water cooling unless you want few fans. You definatly want some horibly toxic life killing chemicals in your coolant though.

Re:Two things...

[Will Dyson]

The second is a good point. One way to keep that from being an issue would be to have a closed loop of cpu coolant (with toxic shit in it), that dumps its heat to the fish tank through a heat exchanger (perhaps spliced into the return line from a canister filter, so as to keep most fish crap out of it).

Of course, if the heat exchanger coils leak, your fish will die and bacteria will grow in your waterblock. But that is a risk you take for being l33t.

Use an under gravel filter, power head, and tubes

[eugene ts wong]

My brother bought a 80 gallon (approx.) fish tank. Because he got bored of it after a while, I ended up taking care of it. From my exerience, I've always kept the tank heater at the lowest setting, and the tank's temperature is usually right in the middle of where it should be. Unfortunately, I can't remember what that number is, because I busted the thermometer so long ago.

Anyways, it all depends on how hot your room and computer is.

As for keeping the hoses clean, use an under-gravel filter combined with a power head, and some tubes. I would recommend exposing the water to some air before it goes back into the tank. This will oxygenate it and help to stablize the temperature.

Algae is a bit of a problem, but it all depends on the type of algae you have local to your area. It should be easy to take care of if you have a pipe cleaner.

The biggest problem I see with it, is that you shouldn't be using metal tubes and devices to pass the water through. The metals might leave deposits and/or trace amounts. It still might be useful however, to put a coil of rubber tube in the computer to let it absorb heat from the air inside the computer. I doubt that it is what you're looking for, but I'm sure that it would make a difference.

I'd be interested in hearing how you make out.

Sincerely, and with thanks,
Eugene T.S. Wong