Temp Control

[Michael Wainfeld]

Lacking either a Zone VI compensating timer or a Haas Intellifaucet I tried the 'ol fishtank heater trick. I worked great! I'm lucky in that my darkroom is in the basement with a separate zone. I keep the thermostat at 68, and keep 3 gallon jugs of water so to start all my chemistry is 68 degrees. It usually drifts down, from evaporation, I suppose. The submersible heater kept the developer temp constant, while the stop, fixer, etc drifted down to 66, no big deal.

[Jim Ewins]

After reading the morning paper, I have major problems with temper control.

[Peter De Smidt]

Titanium or plastic aquarium heaters are also available for a reasonable amount. They're less breakable than the glass ones.

[neil poulsen]

Maybe it's not needed, but one could also consider a small waterfall pump for those table top decorations. They work at right angles (water from horizontal inflow that's pumped through a vertical tube. So, one could lay it down on its side in the opposite corner and better circulate the water past the heater.

[Wallace_Billingham]

Maybe it's not needed, but one could also consider a small waterfall pump for those table top decorations. They work at right angles (water from horizontal inflow that's pumped through a vertical tube. So, one could lay it down on its side in the opposite corner and better circulate the water past the heater.

I used to be into Aquariums and breeding tropical fish big time, then I got married, had kids, and lost the space to do so :(

Anyway I have often thought that it would be very easy and pretty inexpensive to set up a sump system for tempeture controlled water baths using readily available aquarium supplies.

You could take a cheap 100 gallon or so plastic Horse Watering Trough from a farm store and put two heaters in it one on each end. Then you use what are called "poweheads". They are submerseable water pumps that you can fit a hose onto the end. You could put them into the trough and run the heated water into the waterbath around the trays. Then all you would need to do is rig up an overflow that would dump back into the trough.

It would actually be pretty easy to modify a darkroom sink or build one out of plywood and epoxy paint where the water flows from one end to a drain on the other that drops down into the trough.

The whole system could be made for less than $100-$150

I used a similar system for my breeding tanks as they all used the same water but it was more complex so the fish did not jump out or get sucked down into the sump

[Tom Monego]

I have a dial thermometer from a temp control unit, in my last d-room I had it hanging in a 3/4 inch pipe off of the out line shower control. This worked very well.

Tom

[Vincent Malaud]

Titanium or plastic aquarium heaters are also available for a reasonable amount. They're less breakable than the glass ones.

Do you have a specific model to give us? Do they have a thermostat as well?

[Peter De Smidt]

I have had a 300 watt Won Brothers titanium heater for about a decade. Yes, they have a thermostat at the end of the cord.

Try Googling "titanium aquarium heater".

See also: http://www.aquacave.com/Heaters.aspx

[SW Rick]

Sherman Dunnan has a great post on his site- I like what he did to create his tempering tank:

http://www.dunnamphoto.com/tempering_tray.htm

[Peter De Smidt]

Yep, that works great. I do the same thing. The only tricky part is getting the temp right, as aquarium heaters are always off. It's not that hard, though, and once set, you're good to go.

[Vincent Malaud]

Oh thanks for the tips... very nice indeed! Do you think a submersible pump is needed to tray process 4x5 negs in a setup similar to the photo posted by the author of the thread?

[Peter De Smidt]

Yeah, I think it's a good idea, as the pump evens out temperature.

[sepiareverb]

Call me crazy, but I keep the room at 70°F. :D