I need a favor from someone

Can someone take a temperature reading of a tidepool in their area? make sure it is a tidepool with lots of life in it. I am trying teeh average temps for the tidepools are 67-70 degrees fahrenhite? I can easily get my water to about 65, but I want the animals to be happy to. I dont want to go buy a chiller for a 5-10g tank.

In the long run I don't think that will help you. Tide pools can be like bathtubs in the hight of summer, but remember that it is only for a short period. The tide comes in and out twice a day and cools them. I think these critters can handle very high temp, but only for a short period of time.

I don't think my tank died because it hit 75 deg. I think it died because it never cooled down. Like every animal, under stress many biological functions are slowed, altered or suspended. That is the killer... IMHO

I know, I know, not what you wanted to hear... But I WE both are going to need to figure a way around that.

NOW, it is worth mentioning that the animals here are different that the average water temp is likely a LOT colder. I KNOW I need a chiller now.

Why happened to your fridge contraption?

You see, heres the thing. The fridges are not meant for constant heat exchange. that much heat exchange hurts the engine. I want to set up a 8 gallon. Completely diy'd and custom built. i was thinking of building my own Eco chiller. An eco chiller basicly forces water to evaporate. Ill make a sketchup design later and show you guys. It will consist of a few stages of cooling using about 6 fans. over here, there is really no way of getting the water down to like the mid 50's without gettign a chiller. I think if I equip this tnak with a combination of the diy eco chiller and other fans, I can probably keep the tank at a sustained 58 degrees. I also have an iceprobe chiller which is a peltier unit. If I need to I can use that to brign the temp down about 5 degrees, but it sucks electricity. I can also probably add a little piping in the fridge.

While your plan sound like it would work... it has a lot of parts, and from an engineering perspective every part presents potential failures in the plan.

What if we turn our plans inside out and instead of thinking of a way of running a our water through a cold environment, what if we run a chilled liquid through a tube submerged in the tank? Just a thought...

Another thought would be breaking this conversation off in to a new thread (or better yet, a STICKY) devoted to this problem and making DIY chilling systems? This board is about temperate reefing, and this problem is something EVERY person who joins this site will have to face at some point.

beleive me I am a true "engineer" myself. not professionally, but as a hobby. i plan to become a propulsion systems engineer someday.. I have built jet engines before. This is simple compared to one of them. not arguing, just stating that I am well capable to do it. lol

lol! good stuff. The challenge of putting all this together is MORE than 1/2 the fun, isn't it?

MacGyver has nothing on us aquarium crazies.

I'm still going to go the bar fridge route. There are enough references, videos and diagrams of similar designs that is must work for someone. But take good records of your project.. I just might be needing them in the future

lol. yep! the challenge is the fun part. And seeing it work is the best. I will tell you how mine gos. I need to find the glass parts though first.

We can make a sticky of another thread if you guys want. Rambo can make the sticky.

But an answer to your question, there is none, because tidepool temps are always changing. Your estimate seems reasonable though, however if you add PNW temps into the batch, it might be a bit lower.

hmm. well make the thread and ill sticky it. I am going to start the project after I am finished building my newest gas turbine jet engine. i just got finished making the turbine and shaft.

lol. anyways that was off subjet. i think i can attain a 10 degree chilling form the system I am building. i will need a massive ato for it though.

Honestly, I barely have an idea about what the thread will be about so you or Micheal can make it and you sticky it haha.

Refresh my memory, what is an ato?

ok. ATO- Automatic Top Off.

Oh haha. I've never heard the short version of the term .

28 degrees centrigrade for tidepools exposed to sunlight from south and south southeast in warmer part of summer. They contained shore crabs(hemmigrapsus oregonensis), barnacles, mussels(mytilus trossolus(I think)), some type of anemone, hermit crabs, limpets, snails, and some type of red algae. Shorline ocean temperature at the same time was 20-21 degrees C. The same pools contained tidepool sculpin(Oligocottus maculosus) and juvenile shrimp(pandalus danae) earlier in the spring. Not sure if this departure is exclusively temperature dependent. O.maculosus and pandalus danae could be found at the waters edge throughout spring & summer. These pools were quite high up, probably just at the end of the upper intertidal. They may even be above it and in the "splash zone".

The tidepools certainly sound interesting .

Yea, but theres better ones out there, as these are pretty small. If only I had some dynamite.