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just wondering, does anyone uses some kind of DIY cooling device?

i really don't have the money for a real aquarium AC, so i thought i might have some external evaporation device to lose the extra heat.
anyone tried something like that? anyone has another solution?

I've never had the need for them, but this might interest you : http://www.petfrd.com/forum/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=6

those coolers are for open tanks only, and they increase evaporation by a large extent (that's how they work).

i think the same idea could be implemented for an external cooler:
1. have a shallow container filled with water placed near the tank.
2. attach the vents as shown on that link
3. connect the tank with heat conveyer

the connection between the cooling container and the tank is the big problem. i think a tin rod and a magnet could do that quite efficiently. attach the rod to the tank from the outside with the magnet, attach some kind of insulated wire to the rod, and place the other end of the wire in the cooler (strip the part that is in the cooler).

do you think it will work?

No, I don't think it would work. Evaporative cooling in a main tank will cool the tank some, but it wouldn't cool enough to be able to use a secondary cooling tank and then transfer the lowered temperature to the main tank in that fashion. The only way to do something like that externally, I would think, is to created an open sump filter which is cooled in that fashion, having the main tank water pumped through it and cooled by the fans.

I have heard of some people using window ac units... placing the coils of the unit in a sump or tank, but I'm not sure how one would go about that effectively.

Does the temp in the tank get dangerously high for the fish, or is it just higher than you'd like it to be?

on bad days room temp could rise to over 90F :-(
i don't want to evaporate my tank, because it will change concentrations in the tank considerablly.
it will change soon (better housing, better insulation), so no need to invest heavily in such a construction.