Aquarium Fan Mount

A bracket for mounting a computer case fan to a rimless aquarium.

Inspired by devid89's aquarium fan mount, I designed a similar model that can be adapted to different sized fans and has an adjustable fan angle.

This design accomodates common sizes of case fans (80, 92, 120, 140) with no modification and can be modified to accomodate fans of varying thicknesses. The OpenSCAD files are hosted on github. Pull requests are welcome!

Instructions:

The files should work as-is for 5mm thick glass and a 25mm thick fan.

• In AquariumFanMount-Clip.scad set glass_thickness to the desired thickness
• In AquariumFanMount-Fan.scad set depth to the thickness of your fan

Required Hardware:

• 2 - M4x15mm stainless steel or nylon screws (holds the clip and mount together)
• 2 - M4x40mm stainless steel or nylon screws (holds the fan in the mount)
• 4 - M4 stainless steel or nylon nuts
• 1 - Threadlock (optional)

Control:

If you are looking for an easy way to control the fan Joey (aka "The King of DIY") has a video on how to build a temperature controller which could be used to control the fan(s)

Performance:

I'm using the pictured 120mm fan on my IM Fusion 20 (with the screen top on) and I am very happy with how this setup performs. I'm using a microcontroller to control the fan and my temperatures are very stable. I've seen it drop the temperature by 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd recommend trying something like this to help keep temps down or add some extra stability.

Evaporation:

A downside of running a fan for cooling is that it will cause more evaporation than normal. This makes having an Auto Top Off like these pretty important on saltwater tanks to ensure stable salinity. I haven't noticed a huge increase in top off water consumption but your mileage may vary. If you're looking for an inexpensive ATO check out this video from Joey. I've been running an ATO similar to this on a small freshwater tank and it works great. If you need a way of mounting your float switches check out my bracket design here.