Insane Watercooling Queries

Chronictank

Chronictank

Chronictank

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Insane Watercooling Queries - fishtank resevoirs

I am starting a new project of insanity by attempting to create a "fishtank pc", using the fishtank (with fish in naturally) itself as the resevoir.
So my queries.
How much water is needed in the resevoir to ensure the equipement stays cool roughly?

How "clean" does the water have to be before there are problems cycling it?

Are there any other things i should be looking out for?

I am a complete water cooling noob and havent even considered it before now :)

Thanks in advance
 
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welshtom said:
I think the amount of copper in the loop kills the fish.

Tom
Click to expand...
you can get filters to fix that :).
The main thing that concerns me is the ammount of heat and the speed of the flow of water needed to sufficiently cool a CPU
 
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Thought up another question, in a watercooling rig most people put in coolant,
what are the implications of not putting this in?
Bear in mind i am not overclocking this is simply to see if i can make it :)
 
Chronictank said:
you can get filters to fix that :).
The main thing that concerns me is the ammount of heat and the speed of the flow of water needed to sufficiently cool a CPU
Click to expand...

I think the fish being cooked could be another concern ;)

Depending on the fish I would imagine that the temp range you would have to keep the fish in would be quiet narrow. Algae, No Swearing! would be a super breading ground. Bad idea IMHO.

However, you could always seperate the tank into 2 halfs which would work
 
Raikiri said:
I have to say this has been done before ;)
I'll see if I can find the worklog
Click to expand...

yea, and the fish died, hence my post :)

the kit was up for sale in the MM recently that that worklog was done on :)
 
The only way I can think of would be for the reservoir to be suspended in the fish tank so that the fish tank absorbs any heat from the reservoir. The problem would be how efficient that heat transfer could be - maybe suspend the fish tank in the reservoir instead. If the fish tank is only slightly smaller than the outer tank with the gap between forming the computer's reservoir? That might work.
 
i was actually thinking of circulating the water in the fishtank,

Fishtank - > Water Filter -> Radiator -> CPU -> Copper Filter -> Inverse Filter(to cool water) -> Dissolve Current -> Fishtank

That way the coolest water is at the CPU which in turn heats it
 
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If you use the fish-tank water to the PC you will get algae build up in the tubes, radiator and block. Bad idea! Bacteria and algae will just love that nice warm environment and it will be a bugger to clean.
 
Ok fish will die, pipes will get clogged with crap, you cant get a filter to remove copper from the water (and if you can it will kill any water flow you have), the temp of the water for the fish will be wrong no matter what. If you put tropical fish in you need higher temp water which kills your cooling, if you put cold water fish in you need colder water and the heat from the water going round your PC will kill your fish.

So all in all i would say just dont even try it. I keep tropical and marine fish myself and they take a lot of work if you look after them properly, and if yolu dont want to look after them properly you shouldnt be allowed them in the first place.
 
fish dying depends on the temp in the resevoir, which is what i am trying to figure out how hot the water going into the system needs to be. Goldfish are pretty resiliant creatures, so if i can keep the water temp at 30oC they should be fine
You can get copper filters
http://www.southbroadwaytropicals.com/ItemPages/FilterMedia.htm

Algae and Bacteria will never reach the cpu cooling block as i will use a filter to remove it so that is not an issue, for example using:
http://www.theaquariumshop.co.uk/eheim-2222-external-filter-o-43.html


Ah well something to try in the future, atm its far too costly for a mess about :)
 
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bacteria will grow in your water-cooling loop unless the entire loop is sterile which would mean the water being probably poisonous to the fish. We don't put additives in the water for nothing you know. The only fish that could survive in your water-cooling loop's fluid would be plastic ones.
 
fish are quite good at school we pored all the chemicals in the tank and the fish never died

Never know if the became meutants tho lol :p
 
Copper gets covered in a layer of copper oxide when it corrodes this stops it contaminating the water and harming the fish.

It's also why they use it in water pipes ;)

Fish tanks also use filters which get rid of all the crap in the water, and btw bacteria will grow yes but the bacteria is needed to keep the nitrogen cycle going underwater, without it ammonia would build up and the fish would die.
 
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Do it!!!

Use tropical fish, the heat off the cpu etc will keep em happy..well as happy as ya can be in a 3ft x 6ft glass tank 24/7.

Filters sound good for manny reason one being your own health and safty, also not blocking the pump and block

How about a loop as such

Fish tank, filtere, pump, cpu, rad fish tank

The rad will just cool that water down a little bit just to make it safe and not kill them fish
 
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