Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Hardware

Water Cooling and Fishtanks? 34

Posted by Cliff from the two-things-that-MAY-go-great-together? dept.
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!)
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Water Cooling and Fishtanks? More

Water Cooling and Fishtanks?

Comments Filter:
  • and then when you stop using your computer, and then cpu cools off, and then the water cools off, all your fish will die of shock! :D
  • 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 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ninewands ( 105734 ) on Tuesday December 25, 2001 @02:14AM (#2748862)
    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.
    • From everything I've read about Marine tanks it's the opposite way around - Marine tanks often need expensive coolers while Tropical fish tanks need heaters. Maybe it's because I'm looking at coral reef tanks (think mega lamps for the coral) and not fish only marine but I don't know any tropical fish owners who have $1,200 coolers... We've had Discus fish (like blue gills but from the Amazon) and they have quite a high temperature requirement (72? 75?).

      As for the project - I'm not sure about it but one thing I'd definately do is have high flow rate and large diameter tubes. Fish crap is going to build up in that thing - especially if it is a slow flow. If the processor is a high temp AMD you might be cooking fish crap. Not good in terms of cooling and bacteria counts...
    • >1350 liters/minute of total pump capacity in my 55 gallon [~220L] marine tank

      b/a = complete recirculation of the water in just under 10 seconds. Sounds more like the piscean equivalent of a wind tunnel...

    • Actually, freshwater tanks generally require heaters, not coolers. But, the temperature can't vary too much, or most fish will die from shock.
  • Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about how a fish tank works. In fact, less than nothing... I know stuff that's wrong. :-)

    Mike, could you perhaps use a really long piece of plastic tubing? Just coil the tubing on the outside of the case like a big cinnabon. (Secured with duct tape, of course.) The ends of the tubing could run back to the compressor? The pump? Whatever it is in the aquarium that circulates the water and makes the bubbles.

    The water would be around room temperature from the tank (plus a few ergs for fishy metabolism? minus a few for evaporative cooling?) Or, for those with no fish in the equation, 15 degrees or so from the tap.

    Water has something like 64 times the heat capacity of air. As long as the water kept flowing through the cinnabon, it's bound to take some heat away.

    I don't know how efficient this would be. Would the actual amount of cooling make up for having to leave the case on the box? In either case, a hell of a conversation starter.

    Ellen
  • It's nice in theory, but I don't think the heat from a cpu would be sufficient enough to be act like a 80 degree submerisble heater. A typical submersible heater has about 14" sq. of surface area versus a CPU with 4" sq. A small source of heat generating 100 degrees F. travel most likely, but air or a water solution, to the water tank, to then disperse the heat and all of this with a pump in the system to cycle the water, I guess in order for this to make a difference is to ensure the pump is cycling the water at a fast rate, the heat disapater in the water tank has maximum surface area, and the solution is quick to absorb and lose the heat.

    Overall, have fun and post your results, I'm curious to know, especially with my 75 gallon tank for my turtles.
  • I don't see how this could be a good idea. The heater cycles just like the temp of my cpu cycles but the heater is tied to a thermometer and my cpu is tied to either Unreal Tournament or virtual idle.


    The only way this could work is if maximum cpu usage would NOT overheat the water. You could then still use a regular tank heater to make up the difference. Wow...the more I think of this it just might work. Someone needs to run some tests and let us all know!

  • Two things... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ivan256 ( 17499 ) on Tuesday December 25, 2001 @02:37AM (#2748891)
    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... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Will Dyson ( 40138 )
      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.
    • We used to have a house that was heated by a wood stove... big hulking thing out in the yard. The landlord had run water pipes under the ground into a heat exchanger, with clean potable water on one side, and the water from the wood stove on the other side... maybe something like this, to prevent the green googlies?

  • lazy way (Score:2, Funny)

    by redhotchil ( 44670 )
    you could just tape some tubing onto the glass fish tank and then run it inside your computer and SAY its water cooled, then you'd be really cool and wouldn't have to do anything

    all you need now is a webcam and a cheese website dedicated to tropical fish
  • These will get you started. The first and second links look very handy to your situation. They deal with water cooling and using a fishtank pump to pump the water over the CPU core using a home-made heat sink.

    http://www.agaweb.com/coolcpu/build.htm
    http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/wc1/
    http://www.gibtek.co.uk/hardware/watercooling.ht ml
    • I ran another search on google and found more hits that you should look at, most have pictures also, which are very helpful:

      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/a_bong/
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_black ic e/
      http://overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_cc_rad/
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_dden_ wc /
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_senfu _w c_na/
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_senfu _r ad_s/
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_senfu _w c/
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/a_janne /
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/28sep99 .s html
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/18sep99 .s html
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/16oct99 .s html
      http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/11oct99 .s html
  • Well - seems like most of the watercooling systems I've seen involved fairly large (1cm+) diameter tubing - I can see a fishy getting sucked into the intake, and taking a (fun, terminal, voyage through hell) wild ride through your cooling system...


    Wonder if the cooling block over the cpu would become a haven for high-heat loving algae?


    On another side note, I've toyed with the theory of ultra-large bore tubing - IE, basically sticking a tank of water right on top of the cpu, with fans blowing across the top, open to the air - let heat convection do its work, no pump - Though I'm probably missing some of the physics as to why such an obvious approach wouldn't work. If it did, and the fish were smart enough to avoid high heat areas, I suppose you could have fish right in the waterblock itself, with such a setup...

  • I agree with the people who said that the CPU heat won't be enough to cook the fish, nor will it be enough to sustain the heat alone.

    You will need a filter between the tank and your cooling line. Otherwise you'll get fish material (extrement, food, plant matter, etc.) clogging up your CPU cooling system, reducing the efficiency or possibly blocking it altogether. Which will fry your CPU.
    • 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

  • Notes (Score:3, Informative)

    by autocracy ( 192714 ) <slashdot2007@sto ... .com minus berry> on Tuesday December 25, 2001 @12:18PM (#2749397) Homepage
    People commenting on your pipes getting clogged should note that in this sort of a system, the water running through the pipes should stay in the pipes and release its heat by running the pipes into the fish tank and coiling them like a radiator from your car (back and forth at least twice).

    I've never tried doing this with a CPU, and am not sure what your fish can tolerate. Find out what the ideal temp for the fish is, then stick them in a smaller tank and run your CPU on full tilt (think SETI@home or the Bovine project) for 24 hours. Watch the temp of the CPU and the tank. Your CPU should have some setup to bring itself down if the temp gets too high, and this fish tank really won't matter too much because you won't have the fish in it - right?

    It should be fine, even with a smaller tank. A 55 gallon tank ought be near nothing. For tank lighting (if you do that), get some lights that don't generate heat. You should also have a tank heater if your fish needed it before. You CPU running at it's max constantly should still not come within more than one degree of what the fish is willing to tolerate.

  • One common technique is to have a closed primary loop containing distilled water. This is connected through a heat exchanger to an open secondary loop that contains ordinary water from a river, lake, etc. I've seen this used to cool high-power radio transmitters.
    • Why not a single loop running from a heat-dissipating surface in the tank to the heat-collecting plate on your CPU?

      As far as dissipating the heat into the tank, why not this idea:

      Garner/scrounge a large/long test tube or similar glassware(Hint - Got a dead electric heater around?), with a dual-hole stopper.

      Run two tubes into the test-tube, one to the bottom, one to the top. Feed your hot liquid in from the top, and draw from the bottom where the liquid has cooled the most.

      Suggest you keep a tank heater in the opposite side - all but the very cheapest are thermally switched, and that way it could cover for the CPU when the system is running under light loads.

      Be wary of people who start talking about using soldered connections or metal plates in the tank - It's easy to poison fish - The ecology is a tightly closed loop, and any small amount of exposed metal can translate into a LOT of dead fish.

  • CORROSION! (Score:2, Informative)

    by prisoner-of-enigma ( 535770 )
    As has probably been stated (but I shall restate) corrosion is the enemy of watercooling setups far more than most people give credit for. If you don't put some sort of anti-corrosion additive into your water, you're going to have black or greenish water (depends on waterblock material, copper or aluminum) in about four days. Forget algae growth and all that which might take weeks, corrosion will destroy your system in no time.

    Think I'm wrong? Go to www.overclock-watercool.com and look at the links on water additives like Redline's Water Wetter. Without it, the system had black water and a fouled pump in a couple of days. Of course, Water Wetter will swiftly kill your fish, too, so that's not such a "hot" idea.

    If you really want to do this you'll have to build a water-to-water heat exchanger. This is going to be a lot of trouble but if you really want to this would be kinda neat (in a geeky way). If you're unfamiliar with heat exchangers, look up info on nuclear reactors, who have two coolant loops. One is "hot" (radioactive) that cools the nuclear core itself (analagous to your processor), the second is the "outside" loop that never mixes with the "hot" loop but picks up heat from it via a heat exchange ("outside" analogous to your fishtank).

    Oh, by the way, you should check out the thermal dissapation figures of the processor you're talking about. My Athlon 1800+ dual setup (watercooled, by Koolance.com) puts out about 80W of heat per processor. I have five of these (I do 3D graphics) and they warm the room in the winter without any heat. Unless you have a truly massive fishtank (large thermal sink) you're going to overheat your fish. They won't boil, but it would definitely kill them.
  • Dude, calm down. You can download that screensaver off the internet at Fishtank screen saver [screensaverheaven.com]. If your not careful, you'll get yourself into a recursive loop.
  • Seasons greetings to all. As I stare out at the birds kneedeep in snow I am envious in the extreme of the chap who has to cool his tropical fish tank. I also envy those turtles in their lager tank. Much tastier than water. I am far too lazy to do the math , but I suspect that the heat from a CPU would make very little contribution to the heat stored in a tank of water. Are we confusing heat with temperature ? Please direct the flames to the fish tank where they will do more good.
  • The impurities in the water would wreak havoc on the cooling system. Additionally as others have said you would have to worry about over heating the fish. So you'd have to have a large enough tank where the heat from the water cooling rig was just a supplemental heat source and not enough to cook the fish to begin with.
  • is right up there with

    Fur lined sink; and Gasoline-powered Turtleneck sweater

    courtesy of Steve Martin

Slashdot Top Deals

Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers. -- Leonard Brandwein

Close