WarDog's Tank Thread : Episodic Trial And Error

[WarDog]

Lost all motivation to work on the tank this week what with the crazy heat. Temperatures in the house are around 41 C. Been hiding away in the air-conditioned confines of the bedroom.
Crawled my way out of the deep freeze to do a bit of work. Sweat was dripping down my face as I mounted 8 screws to the plumbing clips I picked up today. Yeah... that's enough!

Here are the pics. I was thinking to paint the back of the wood white, but my mind melted and I remembered the A/C. No one will ever see it anyways.







Thanks for looking. Comments/suggestions welcome.

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by JDigital

If you've got the extra GPH coming from your return pump I would tee it off to your chiller. Adding a separate pump will just add that bit extra heat to the system (even if you are running a chiller). That's just my opinion though... I've never ran a chiller.

Think I might just do this. I am running an Eheim Compact+ 5000. After fittings and head loss I should be getting 650gph to the tank. I think this is enough turn over, and I should be ok to tee into it for the chiller.

If anyone else has thoughts on this I'd love to hear them, thanks!

[gregzz4]

Every time I see that red pumbing .... oooohhh

41C in your house !!!!
When mine hit 37C with the heatwave 5-6 years back I installed 2 x 10,000BTU units and we cool the whole house now

A thought - how are you planning to keep a chiller running if your house temps are above it's rated intake air temps ?
41C is 105.8F
My chiller's ratings are based on max room temps of 90F and I easily hit 85-86 in the sump room if I don't monitor it. This can happen before I turn on the house AC and then it's hard to bring it back down. Luckily one of our AC units it in the sump room, but it doesn't help the chiller if I'm not watching it
82 in our livingroom translates to 86 in the sumproom, so not a lot of proper cooling going on
I'm currently working on plumbing the chiller's hot air out a window to alleviate the cycle of compounding hot air buildup, and am also thinking about a separate exhaust fan on a humidistat

Keep the build pics up when you can stand the heat !!

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

A thought - how are you planning to keep a chiller running if your house temps are above it's rated intake air temps ?

Good point, I never even thought of this. We had a 12,000 btu a/c in the living room last year but it couldn't keep up, so we moved it to the bedroom. I will have to figure something out. I am reading the temp off the thermostat control in the hallway, where it does feel hotter. I will need to get a thermometer and put it next to the tank to test. Worse case scenario we may have to invest in central a/c.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Comments/suggestions welcome.

I had a problem with a deadspot on the left side of my overflow, and it took me many days and tests to solve it

I had to split my return
My left side is running a locline Y fitting
Half of it points straight down towards the sand and the other across the surface towards the front of the tank to take away what would churn up the sand
On the right side of my overflow is the other locline, and it points towards the far right corner

[Aquattro]

Any way to install the chiller outside? Mine is in an external room off the side of the house.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Worse case scenario we may have to invest in central a/c.

Or just a second unit on the other side of the house ...

I run one unit in our master and one in my office/sump room
Back and front of the house and the furnace fan runs all summer

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Any way to install the chiller outside? Mine is in an external room off the side of the house.

I wish
Maybe that would work for him

All the heat from my chiller is enough to cause me to run my office AC when the house is still comfortable

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

I had a problem with a deadspot on the left side of my overflow, and it took me many days and tests to solve it

I had to split my return
My left side is running a locline Y fitting
Half of it points straight down towards the sand and the other across the surface towards the front of the tank to take away what would churn up the sand
On the right side of my overflow is the other locline, and it points towards the far right corner

Ah yes Greg, I have thought of this already! I am planning to add several more powerheads on the back glass of the tank.

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Any way to install the chiller outside? Mine is in an external room off the side of the house.

It's an option, not one the wife would be too happy about, but an option none the less. The tank is on the north side of the house on an exterior wall. That side gets shade all day and only moss and 'special' mushrooms grow there!

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Or just a second unit on the other side of the house ...

I run one unit in our master and one in my office/sump room
Back and front of the house and the furnace fan runs all summer

Every summer I tell myself I need to wire the furnace with a summer switch, and I never do it... and I'm a gasfitter! Who want's to bring their work home with them, right? Lol.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Every summer I tell myself I need to wire the furnace with a summer switch, and I never do it... and I'm a gasfitter! Who want's to bring their work home with them, right? Lol.

Understood
I used to love to help whoever I could, but after 23 years in my last industry, I dreaded everytime some family member/friend asked "Hey, can you ..."