Naive water cooler system?

[jchor]

Hello experts,

i am very interested to keep newts.but i live in a hot tropical country singapore. the climate is hot year around... normal ambient temp is about 30-35c
and normal water temp is about 27-29c which is very bad for newts...and humans too!

i have done some reading about chiller and a good re-fridge chiller cost like a bomb at least $500. more so the electrical consumption is going to kill my wallet...
next comes the TEM chillers which is cheaper $100-$300 but much less effective, i doubt it will be effective in my country. TEM also consume high electrical power too.
plus they heat they emmit to the environment. it looks like cooling water but heating up the environment? how effective is this concept?

thus i have decided to come up with a Naive cooler system, as low tech as possible, as low power consumption as possible.

ok lets start with the basics:

1) Housing for newts - i do understand cooling a large tank like a 4footer 67gallon to 24-25c is impossiible without a re-fridge chiller even TEM cooler is not possible. thus the housing has to be smaller. i have choosen to use Ikea SAMLA plastic storage containers. these boxes are pretty transparent and cheaper compare to other brands. i have chosen the 17gallon model as the 34 gallon is too big to cool down logical. it also comes with a tight lid which can be drilled with 5mm holes for ventilation and most important to prevent newts escape. PERFECT housing!

2) Filter for Newts - i do keep fishes and i know power heads, pumps, canister filters all heat up the water. that will defeat the purpose of cooling the tank. thus logically air pumps driven sponge filters are the best. PERFECT filter!

3) Cooler system - well this is the main part, and my idea maybe a joke... but please bear with me...lolx. what i want to use is a Styrofoam box, filled with ice gel packs. Styrofoam box is a good insulator to prevent cold air/water to escape and they are easier to drill, cut than a plastic picnic box. ice gel packs are definitely better than bottles of ice right? anything better than ice gel packs?
next, how do u get water from the tank to the Styrofoam box? i was intending to use the air pump driven sponge filter output pipes to slowing pump water into the Styrofoam box much like a air driven outside filter. once tank water is inside the Styrofoam box it will be cooled by the ice gel packs.
now the headache part, how do you return the cooled water back to the tank? well we can use gravity slowing dripping back to the tank with a control valve, or we can use the air driven method again to slowly pump water back to the tank. i know this is a very slow process. and cooling water down in a tank may take many hours. but this method eliminate any extra heat load like powerheads, TEM modules etc...
this Styrofoam box cooler may even be able to cool 2 or 3 small tank at the same time! and no electrical costs! except the air pump running which is 8watts in my case.

Now this is just my Naive thinking.
some questions i have for the experts here.
1) how big should the Styrofoam box be? bigger better?
2) ice gel packs, are they really better or is there anything better? how many ice gel packs do i need? how long can a single ice gel pack lasts?
3) air driven water output and returns...i know they can be slow,,,but can they work?

i will start a drawing diagram and upload soon

thanks and have a nice day!

[jchor]

Hello Experts,

i have done some more research. it seems like pumping water from the tank to a Styrofoam cooler box will lose efficiency where heat will be gained thru the pipings and the tank itself as the tank and pipes are poorly insulated. and also this involves even larger volume of water in the tank and cooler....

1) Therefore i decided to build a "Newt Tank" out of a 17-15 gallon Styrofoam cooler box itself instead.
the front part of the Styrofoam cooler box will be cut out and replace with a 5mm clear glass or acrylic sealed with sillcone gule.

2) The Styrofoam cooler box will be painted with Mid Grey color acrylic paint to prevent seepage of water, surface protection and also better looking both internal and externally. Rock like colors.

3) A small 5mm hole will be drilled on the top back of the Styrofoam cooler box to allow the air pump tubing to enter and power the sponge filter and areate the tank.

4) Ice gel packs can be sealed in a Ziplock bags to prevent leakage and then placed into the Styrofoam cooler box to cool off the water. this needs to be replace each day.

5) More advance setup, will include a small TEM chiller fitted to the back of the Styrofoam cooler box to cool off the water.

what do u think folks?

[erik3333]

Well,I think it wil be really really hard to keep newts under the temperatures you mentioned. If you don't have access to a cool basement or something, I'd say you'll always encounter problems.

[tusken raider]

I can agree that you will always encounter problems with temperature but even though buying a chiller will cost you alot in one hit, it will save countless time and effort in keeping the enclosure cool in the future. You will also be able to handle heat waves and know your system will work, while your out of the house.

[jchor]

thank sirs for advice.

so for a 15 gallon tank will a TEM chiller do?
i intend to have 2 to 3 15 gallon tank. so i can build each TEM chiller for each 15 gallon tank.
buy a proper re-fridge chiller eg: TECO for each 15 gallon tank is impossible for me due to high costs and electrical costs...

and some experts here advice me not to use a single re-fridge chiller for powering 3 tanks. due to toxic from each newts can poison each other!

so this is a bit tough to decide what direction should i go?

please advice thanks!