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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!)
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.
utter rubbish
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.