Chiller
 

Hey guys,

I'm looking into buying a chiller for my tank (90 gallons) and am wondering what size to get. So far I'm thinking about a Pacific Coast chiller but thats about as far as I've gotten (they seem to be the best bang for your buck). What are y'all running on what sized tanks and are you happy with them??

Thanks
Christy :)

Oh and if anyone has one for sale PM me :wink:

i have a 1/4 horse csl chiller that worked double overtime for years in the texas heat and did me very well.

Christy, ambient heat is a big factor to consider aswell. Mine is a 1/4hp PC hooked up to three tanks total near 300gal. Tanks and chiller are located in the basement. Also its a lot cooler around here.

Its also nice to have a good dual controller of some type. Temp should stay pretty solid without having the chiller and heaters fighting each other.

I haven't experiened chiller fuse blowing problems as some others have.

Christy, don't tell anyone I told you this but.... Home Depot has an air conditioner on sale for $98..... Limit two per customer.
Maybe that would work?

Doug

How can anyone have use for a chiller in calgary, vancouver i can understand sorta. But i have 4 heaters and just get the temp to 82 but only with the lights on.

Well our basement gets stupid hot in the summer (who would insulate a basement ceiling in BC?? :rolleyes: ) so I was looking at air conditioners but the basement windows are ridiculously small.

I went out to HD and checked out the $98 one (thanks for the tip Doug :biggrin: ). Those are sweet but they are too big for the window. :sad: The house owner doesn't want to remove the window so I guess I am out of luck unless I get a $600 vertical one. :confused: I might as well get the chiller.

Dual controller?? Could someone please explain this??

Christy :)

A duel controller is used to control both the heater and the chiller
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=ct-mhc150

What I meant by dual controller is that a temp sensor triggers the on/off function of your chiller as well as your heaters. Some chillers have the controller built-in with a recepticle where you can plug in your heaters. Other chillers have remote contollers not built-in (eg. CSL if I remember right.) Some only control the cooling part and you rely on the heaters built-in switch. In the last example you may either run in to a situation where the heaters are on while the chiller is running or a temp fluctuation.

Good grief. Its a good thing I have that money tree growing out back :razz:

Thanks for the info Kari :biggrin:

the pacificcoast has a dual controler built in Christy. how big is your tank? Brad's worked good on his 150 which was about 150 gal of water, mine works good on my 100gal of water now that I think I figured out the fuse issue.

Steve

If your planning on a chiller you better get out there soon and fertilize that money tree. Lately the best bang for the buck is $699 for the 1/4hp PC from our good buddies at J&L. Thats just my opinion and I haven't been shopping.
Check with Steve and Brad if they resolved their issues with that model before spending. Also, can I have a frag of that tree?

Hehe all the frags are mine :razz:

Yeah my tank is a 90 gallon. I was looking at the 1/4 HP one.

Christy, I meant to use the Air Conditioner in the room doesn't have to go in the window. I'd assume though that this would increase your evaporation rate or maybe not... with the air being dried from the AC... hmm

Doug

Doug are you sure that would work :question:

All you would be doing was recirculating the air and producing heat.....


Wendell

Christy

I just bought a chiller for my 90 the other week. What I ended up with was a 1/6 horse Coralife. I was going to get the 1/4 but the local store only had a 1/6 in stock and suggested I try it to see if it would work. Even during our last heat wave when my house was 90 it stayed at an even 78. I might still upgrade to the 1/4 but the 1/6 had worked out well. I'm running it on a Hydor 325gph pump and that seems to do the trick.

just my 10 cents worth :)

cheers

Yeah I saw that in the store. The price sticker was a bit shocking to me though :razz:

I thought I'd try one out from that canadianmarineaquariumsupply place. Hopefully it was included in the half price sale. I see in that other thread some stuff wasn't included, I guess I'll have to call them tomorrow.

Christy :)

Wendell, no idea if it would work or not. I figured if it's an air conditioner it will cool a room right??? I've never used an air conditioner so I haven't got a clue. A couple years ago when my basement was an oven I was giving some thought to an AC to try to cool the area down. It seemed a more affordable way to go but if you don't think it will work then I guess it's just another waste of money.

Doug

Doug, its kind of the same thing with a chiller or a/c. A chiller removes heat from the water and transfers it to the air. Then the room gets stinking hot unless it is exhuasted elsewhere. An a/c will work the same with air being cooled. The heat energy has to go somewhere.

air conditioning is a limited fix, my tank will run at 12 degrees above ambient if I am running no fans or chiller. With the chiller I can run below ambient no problem, but with an air conditioner you have a few problems.
first problem is air has a heat capacity that is 1/4 of that of water, so cold air will take 4 times longer to cool something that the equivalent mass of water,

two, if your tank runs at 10 degrees above ambient now for a air conditioner to work you will have to keep the room temp at 10 degrees below what you want the tank to be.

three, a room air conditioner will not limit temp swings as good as a chiller.

and finally using a room AC to cool it will be a lot more expensive in power bills than a chiller as you have to cool down a room with pretty much constant chilling on hot days instead of targeting a more efficient cooling medium as a chiller does.

Oh and ducted room AC's start at 600.00ish also

Steve

Christy,
I got my 1/6 Corallife for $700 and the Hydor 325 pump for $45. Scott said if I wanted to upgrade to a 1/4 it would be another $150.00. But hey, if you can get one for 1/2 price Good on ya ! :mrgreen:
The only thing that worries me about 1/2 price sales like that is what if you get it and it is deffective :eek: ....... company is closing, would it still have warranty and such??

Cheers

Nice thing about AC is that not only do your fish receive some relief from summer's heat; you do as well :smile: !

Wondering now about making one of those water fall/evaporative coolers for on the sump with a fan.... anyone ever tried this?

Doug

Sounds like a great way to coat everything in Salt. :razz: :mrgreen:

Well upon further research, the "chiller" I bought is actually just a heat exchanger. It doesn't have any coolant in it so it can't lower the tank temp below room temperature. I tried to cancel the order but its already been shipped. I guess I'll have to see what I can do with it. Anyone have any creative ideas??(besides using it as a footrest/paperweight :razz:)

We have one room that stays pretty cool so I thought I'd try putting it in there and switch the fans in the lighting hood to something larger (they're just those little computer fans)

I guess thats what I get for trying to save money :rolleyes: :razz:

Christy :)

I saw something neat the last day that 'may' help.
I was visiting a guys place and he had sw tanks.
They were plumbed to a 100g sump in the basement.
He had a temperature controller on the system such that 1 circuit operated a heater, and the other a solenoid that open/closed a valve.
This valve was plumbed into the cold water supply line, and fed some coils in the sump, then down the drain into a waste.
I am not exactly sure on the construction or materials, but this looked like a relatively cheap 'chiller' since colder water here is free.

just a thought....

Sounds like a great idea but our water here is metered :sad:

that be a little expensive then.
oh well...

well, thinking about it again, it does sometimes take all blinkin day to make a 5g container of RO/DI water :rolleyes: . I'm sure I could do something with the waste line perhaps, thats pretty cold water.

damn talk about a waste of water!

what did yo uend up getting? do you have a link?

I don't know specifics, but how much 'free' water would be wasted?
Compare that to about $750 (just skimming aboce) and I know what I'd do if I had this problem.

Rick has disabled the link. But its this one

http://www.aquadirect.com/store/cust...&cat=70&page=1

I really need to stop being such an el cheapo in this hobby :rolleyes: :razz:

Well if I didn't have to pay for the water it would actually be free. It doesn't take long to hit $750 when you're running water down the drain all day. Even if it was free, it seems like an incredible waste of water unless you're collecting it at the other end for something (watering gardens or something).

JMO.

Christy :)

well it should help with a good hood fan.

Yeah thats what I'm hoping :biggrin:

wouldn't take long for you to spend more money on water than you did on the chiller and power.

Steve

I bought a portable AC unit for around 600$ from The Brick. Fits any window, it is also a dehumidifier.

Works great.. everyone can enjoy the cool air, not just the tank :) which is not stable a t 79.9

yay!