Cooling methods

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Brandon1393

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I am curoiuse what all you use to cool your axolotl tanks :D :D:D


:ufo::ufo::ufo::ufo::ufo::ufo:
 
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Thx Kaysie but i meant what other people does i saw that page btw :D
 
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sorry didnt read first part of sentence can you give me a page to other discussion
 
There is a search function on the forum. The button is located near the top, to the right of the page, near the log-out button.
 
Hi Brandon,

for the start of summer I used an Ice Probe chiller as it was small and not noisy (also cheap!). I found this food for when the ambient temperature was about 86F as it dropped my temperature 6-8F. But now that I am in the middle of summer (lots of 95F+ days) it is not so good. If you have a tank larger than 15 gallons I wouldn't recommend it. I considered buying one of the expensive refrigerated chillers but my partner was concerned about the noise :p But now I wish I had so it would have been ok all summer...

Anyway so these days during the heat I fridge my axolotl during the week at 46F and put him in the tank on the weekend when I am home to monitor the temperature. To control the temperature on the weekends I use bottles of frozen dechlorinated water and I find as long as I am consistently changing them when they melt it is very easy to keep the temperature on 65-68F.

Hope that helps! Most people I know personally with axies tend to use the frozen bottle method or live in an air conditioned house so don't have to worry too much.
 
Hi Brandon.
I use ice water bottles, polystryrene foam around three sides of tank, turn off the light and looking to acquire a fan. When all else fails, and we get a run of 35 degrees celsius plus days, the fridge is a great option.
 
My fridge runs temps 4 degrees celsius wont this kill my axolotls? I am in Ipswich so it gets in the 40's here in summer. I plan to use the polystryrene on al three sides as well as large frozen bottles of water forthe lil guys.
 
Not sure about how tolerant axies are of temperatures below 5C. I have always heard to keep them at 5C or above. Most fridges have temperature settings that you can change to make the fridge a bit warmer. My fridge can be kept at 8C, which is fine for me as I don't keep many perishable foods.

Polystyrene and frozen bottles are good but you have to be fairly watchful on hot days as tank temperature can creep up very quickly.
 
hmm... i was thinking to make my own fan by using a computer fan.. i got heaps of computer fan lying around my house, so i guess it's time to make good use of it.

so i got a computer fan, how do i connect it? any electrician in the house??
btw i tried connecting the fan to a phone charger... it works, but the fan isn't spinning fast enough to cool the tank down. i later realize that the phone charger has an output of only 500mA.

so how do i d.i.y my own mini fan??
 
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml
Dont know if it helps
 
doesn't really help much tho... i got the idea from there, the problem is how to connect it to a household electric socket.

at least tell me the equipment require to D.I.Y the fan so that i can get it from an electrical shop
 
Ill ask hubby when he gets home tonight he is a computer nut, builds and fixes them. He might know how to do it.
Ill let you know as soon as I ask him.
 
Sorry I asked hubby and he said he would only know how to set this up by battery.
 
There's a guy at work that may have some ideas. He converted my chiller from US to AU current for me so hopefully he will have some ideas about the cooling fan :D Also my partner may have some ideas but he is away for a few days. When he gets back I will ask him as well.

Edit: There is an electrical shop where I bought the stuff to convert the power called Jaycar - http://www.jaycar.com.au/. There are a few around so I guess you could ask one of the shop attendants as they might know. But yea, only been there once so not sure if that is something they do.
 
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lazylilsnoop said:
doesn't really help much tho... i got the idea from there, the problem is how to connect it to a household electric socket.

at least tell me the equipment require to D.I.Y the fan so that i can get it from an electrical shop
Click to expand...

When I prepared my DIY thermoelectric chiller (which needs work) I hooked up the peltier and the computer fan to an old power source for a computer. It's a box about 3"x6"x6" with tons of molex cables coming out of it. I bought a molex for my fan/peltier at radio shack and then hooked them to the computer power supply after finding out the voltages online and presto, 12 volts at 50 watts and considerable amperage (5?). If someone you know has an old computer this would be perfect, but be careful with that power source as they can be very dangerous if exposed to water as there is a lot of power and exposed innards.

I had a hard time finding any other power source besides laptop power supplies which are a bit expensive. If you manage to find one, I'd like to hear it!
 
I use a switchable power adaptor (don't know the right word...looks like a small power unit for a laptop and costs about 7 €) where you can switch between 3, 5, 9, 12,... volts DC. Simply to be plugged into the power outlet. Usually they come with different jacks; i simply cut the cable and connected both wires.
I will make a photo, don't think my description was very helpful ;)
 
Phoenixtear said:
I use a switchable power adaptor (don't know the right word...looks like a small power unit for a laptop and costs about 7 €) where you can switch between 3, 5, 9, 12,... volts DC. Simply to be plugged into the power outlet. Usually they come with different jacks; i simply cut the cable and connected both wires.
I will make a photo, don't think my description was very helpful ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, I looked at those too and they don't provide enough current. Most are .5 amps or less. The biggest I found was 1 amp and I needed 5 for full functionality. I have a feeling the original poster needs near that much current also.
 
Output 5.4VDC 0.500mA (my old nokia charger)

i tried that... too little power... cant even cool me down.

so which should i use??
 
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