Which Chiller?

[indir-emir]

Hi all,
Its coming around to the warmer months in Australia. And it gets real hot here in summer. 40+ and since my tank is upstairs it wont help with the water temperature.

So ive decided to dish out the money for a chiller Which is tough as im at uni

Im just a little confused as to which size im looking for. My tank is 4x 18 x 18, so about 67G (~250L). But displacement probably closer to 200L (sorry dont know in gallens to well ). Anyway the chiller i am currently looking at is this one:
http/www.guppysaquariumproducts.com.au/chilling-heating/hailea-chillers/hailea-hc-150a-1/10hp-chiller-marine-aquarium-to-400l/prod_38.html

That one says it rated for upto 400L. Would this one suffice? I would liek to keep the tank around the 26 or 27 degree mark. But please note that will be about 10+ degrees less than the outside temperature on most occasions (and im not sure on inside temp as we just built hte house recently and hastn been a summer here since building ).

I am also considering getting the HC-500A which is rated at 1200L, but a used one. At about the same cost... Would prefer a new one though.

SO my question is, would the HC-150A do the job?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[indir-emir]

How well would a fan system work?

Working in the IT indsutry i can get a butt load of fans for free/cheap lol. Converting the power from them would cost maybe 10 bux for the transformer? So can set up like 5+ fans easily for 10 bux... How well would this work compared to the chiller in my situation?

Not thinking about the amount of top up though, that will have to be at top up unit also on my buy list

Thanks.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Sorry you haven't had an answer yet mate. I know lot of the regulars on the marine forum at the moment are from the UK and our weather is rarely hot enough for us to have to worry about using a chiller so we don't have a lot of experience with them

I can't answer your initial question I'm afraid as I haven't used or researched chillers much myself. However I can maybe give you some advice with the fans.

Depending on how you set them up they can be fairly effective (maybe a 2 to 3 degree drop). However to get the most out of them you need to have them set up correctly.

some people just mount them to the top of the tank and have them blowing on the surface. This works but isn't the best way to use them. Ideally you want a smaller amount of water running over a surface with the fans aimed at that. This cools the water much more rapidly. Some ways to do it is to use a trickle tower type setup in the sump with the fans directed at it or to have a "tray" above the sump with maybe an inch of water that the water is pumped up into and the fans blow on this before it flows back into the sump.

Using fans you will evaporate a lot more water so an auto top up would be a must have imo.

I'm using 8 120cm PC fans running at around 8volts which are controlled with a TC-10 controller to switch them on and off (link below). This works for me but as I'm in the UK I only have to worry about drop the temp a couple of degrees for maybe 1 or 2 months a year.

TC-10 controller:
http/www.forttex.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13

 

[indir-emir]

Thank you very much for the respone Barney Very much appreciated.

I have been thinking for quite a while now, and have decided im going to buy a chiller and T of my return pipe to it. Tank has already gotten to 29 about 30 minutes before lights out on a warmer spring day (30 degrees C). So decided ill be buying the 150A.

Wouldnt happen to know how to T off a pvc pressure pipe (Its a clear vinyl pipe with some reinforcement, but essentially the smae as a vinyl pipe) so i can attach the chiller to my return pump?

Thank you

P.S That controller looks like a handy little tool incase the thermos are dodgy on the heater.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Hmmm is the pipe "soft pipe"? If so then just a barbed T connector should do the job. I would use spring clips around the hose to make sure it stays in place. I would also put a valve on the pipe coming off the T going to the chiller so you have more control over the flow rate going to it.

That is exactly the reason I bought the TC-10. I had a heater malfunction overnight which cooked my tank and I lost a lot of corals and fish in the process. The fact that it can also control cooling equipment was just an added bonus.

 

[indir-emir]

Yes it soft.. Well flexible lol, its still pretty tough. Barbed T connector. Got you. Will take a look in the local hardware shop tomorrow for it

Spring clips, not sure what they are... Can i use metal hose clip things which are used normally for fastening pipe to pipe (outside of water)? Or is that the same thing?

Im pretty keen on a TC-10 myself now

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yes it soft.. Well flexible lol, its still pretty tough. Barbed T connector. Got you. Will take a look in the local hardware shop tomorrow for it

Spring clips, not sure what they are... Can i use metal hose clip things which are used normally for fastening pipe to pipe (outside of water)? Or is that the same thing?

Im pretty keen on a TC-10 myself now

Yeah mate hose clips was what I meant as long as its outside of the water its fine to use metal ones.

I would highly recommend the TC-10 to anyone with a marine tank. It is fairly cheap and heaters can go at anytime which can result in you losing everything so they are well worth the investment.

 

[indir-emir]

Yeah handy piece of gear to have, that controller! That is on my list for when i get the money for it lol. My other tank is on ebay (for aussies ) in hopes that it will sell so i can buy an ro unit finally.

I have 3 different temperature gauges and all 3 read differently. Dont know which one to go with either... I have a stick on glass one which will say for example 26. While the digital thermometor will say 28.4. Then when i use a hand held digital temp gauge (put a piece into water then turn it on and it reads instantly) says 27.5..... Its a massive pain in the #16##### to know what the actual temperature is.. I dont know how to work it out yet :\ Going to get another stick on one and see what that says tomorrow lol. Should have one laying around. So the temp controller would come in handy here especially lol.

Thank you very much for your help barney.