# Wine Cooler Vivarium



## Guest (May 15, 2005)

Has anyone tried making a vivarium out of a wine cooler like the one tha was posted from IAD? It looked like a really cool idea, and you can buy some of the smaller ones on ebay for $99. I am moving back to Houston from Southern California, and it's a bit expensive to keep the temps in the low 70's there. Even though most of the coolers I've seen have a high temp of 60 degrees, I figured that the lights placed inside would raise the temp to an acceptable level. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had done it and could give me some tips on how to install lights, what problems you've had, etc. 
Thanks,
Neal


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## Spar (Mar 27, 2004)

mind posting the link to the pic you were talking about? sounds interesting.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

I've thought of doing that too.


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## Guest (May 16, 2005)

Here's the link to the topic. 

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 34&start=0

It looks like this tank has the light source on the outside. I'm not really sure how it was done unless the top was cut out and some sort of glass or acrylic was placed. I was thinking of putting the lights inside to raise the temp a bit, but maybe having them flush against a top piece of glass would be enough. One of the pics shows the temp display and it shows 66 degrees. If anyone actually saw this tank, please speak up. 

Neal


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

This is somewhat similar to the "dorm fridge" aquarium chiller idea, but a bit more simpler.

Unfortunately, my chiller plan failed because the dumb bolt got stripped, so I cannot remove the heatsink fins and take out the cooling coils for placement into a sump. Also, my model will not let me remove the humidistat for a thermostat, another problem with converting newer, digital dehumidifiers into awesome chillers...

Anywho, I still have an old article from the International Carnivorous Plant Society's Newsletter about using a refrigerator to convert into a highland enclosure for Nepenthes.

However, unlike the dorm fridge idea, the system is not constantly putting heat in, unlike that of an aquarium (from lights).Plus, fridges were designed to keep things cool inside a box like this, so it could work.

However, putting the "lights in" probably wouldn't be a good idea, somewhat like the dorm fridge chiller idea. The cooling power of dorm fridges are too small to keep up with it, plus, they were designed to not run continuously, contrary to how an air conditioner or dehumidifier functions (except they shut off too after a while).

However, if you hooked it up to a temperature controller, then potentially YOU COULD do this, as it would override the fridge's thermostat, but I don't know if that could wear it out. One reason why I decided not to chance it with my dehumidifier, by making it run continuously, constantly turning off and on with a temp controller via power supply (NOT humidistat).


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