Redneck DIY Chiller?

[fish farmer]

Use solid blocks of ice, like 2 liter soda bottles or juice bottles.

Granted I wasn't dealing with the downright sizzle of the southwest, but I took a trip to Florida a month ago, 70's to 80's, with one cooler, a couple of frozen juice bottles and small hotel fridges to refreeze mid trip. I kept a lot of things cool for two to three days at a time. I bought two bags of ice during the 13 day trip and still had good milk for coffee on our last day.

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

I was thinking more along the lines that a fan-based cooling system would evaporate large amounts of water, and that an ATO system with frozen/cold water in a type of large styrofoarm cooler drilled with an outlet line might be used as the replacement water. Wouldn't that keep the water source cool for longer periods of time with minimal heat gain through the small drilled hole?

You may have a point. I'll have to give this some thought. The question is would the fan combined with the chilled ATO water be sufficient to maintain low enough temperature?

I may have to rethink this (Having trouble finding a Inkbird with waterproof submersible probe). BRS and other online outlets seem to be on backorder.

There are a couple of videos on how to construct a redneck portable AC unit using a Styrofoam cooler, ice, dryer vent material, and a cheap desktop fan. Maybe just blowing cool air across the surface will be sufficient to keep the tank cool enough.

 

[laverda]

Well, that's part of the challenge. Could I keep the ice in a insulated cooler through the night? Would it be possible to keep it cold for 12 hours, then add more ice bags at the end of the day? The second part of the challenge is would the water returning to the tank be too cold, creating a brief shock to the system? Won't know unless I try it.

Right now I have nothing in my QT, but I have it set up and cycled in the event I need it on a moment's notice. I have no room for it in the house and the coming summer heat is a concern. I'm just spitballing here to see if I'm overlooking anything.

I think your asking for problems. The water returning to the tank will be very cold the first time it comes on and anytime it has been off for a while. Basically the tempature of the water returning to the tank will vary a lot. From close to 32 degrees to just a little below tank temp if it has be running a while.
I have a 50 gallon cube QT tank in my garage in southern CA. The temp here can get into the100s occasionally. It can also get cold. I have put some 1" pink Styrofoam on the back and one side to help keep the garage temperature effect less. I use a fan on an old Aquacontroler 2 to control it and have a very basic ATO. If the tank temp gets above 82.5 my lights shut off. This workes great for all but the longest and hottest hot spells. If I am concerned it may get too much hotter, I drop a small frozen bottle of RODI water in once or twice a day.
On my old frag system of three shallow 60 gallon tanks stacked above each other. The tanks were mostly enclosed on 3 sides with 1" Styrofoam. I could fully enclose it with Styrofoam sheets, if needed. Mostly in water, in this case. It had 2 fans and more surface area to keep it cool enough in summer.
A simple fans blowing across the waters surface works amazingly well at cooling a tank. A fan blowing against the sides of a tank will help but not nearly as effective.

 

[Chris99999]

This sounds interesting. If you have the freezer space, freezing that water is very low cost. Curious if this worked out. For 10 gallons I think this would work. Any results yet?

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

This sounds interesting. If you have the freezer space, freezing that water is very low cost. Curious if this worked out. For 10 gallons I think this would work. Any results yet?

I'm still working on the details. Haven't found a temperature controller yet.

 

[Irregardless]

Doesnt Amazon sell super cheap chinese chillers?