chiller or not to chill

joe1123 · Sep 3, 2015

how do you decide to get a chiller I am setting up a 60 gallon acrylic reef. I would think that I need a 1/10 power chiller. and how much do they cost on average to run?? (more than heaters?)
I don't have a central ac unit and it wouldn't be to my best interest to run my hang on ac im my room$$..are there any alternatives that are affective?..i live in the san Fernando valley and it get hot some times
I wouldn't think it would be something that I would have to run yr around right? ( just like my hang on ac that I only put in the summer time)

pciscott · Sep 3, 2015

You need to keep your tank under 82, if you can't do this with fans and evaporation than yes you will need a chiller. A smaller chiller will run longer and a larger one can bring it down to fast unless you keep it very stable.

If you have plenty of surface area and a open sump fans can work, but I run chillers on both my systems as a safety and in the hot days it is cheaper to cool the tank than the whole house.

A 1/10th would work, prices vary on used equipment and you tend to pay a premium in the hot months. I recommend if you do buy used that you ask seller to hook up to a pump and run some water through a bucket and see that it cools the water.

Chillers do take more energy than heaters so you will need to read up on stats of the model you are looking at. New models sometimes are more efficient, the new Teco Sea Chills use half the power of traditional chillers and can save you money over the long haul.

If your place does get hot a chiller will add to the heat in the room. My chillers are in my garage along with a extra fridge and ice machine. On a hot day when they are all on my garage is a sauna and my electric meter spins like a top!

ngvu1 · Sep 3, 2015

You mention "room", so is the fish tank in the living room or in your "small enough" room? If the tank is in a small room with door and the A/C window option is possible, I would go with the window A/C and hook up fan for the tank. This way it is a lot more efficient. About the cost, it is depending on your usage and the tier you are in. Hard to answer that question without the information

e92Monster · Sep 3, 2015

as long as your tank doesn't fluctuate too much, you should be good.My tank always runs hotter around noonish, its been getting up to 83 lately but everything is fine, and stays about 80-81 the rest of the day, fans will do the job

Dragon3435 · Sep 3, 2015

Mine stays at 85-86 but everything still doing okay even at that high temp. I had a chiller on before until it broke down on me.

ngvu1 · Sep 3, 2015

Can we see some of these "seem fine" corals pictures? I was rushing back And forth when the temperature passing 80. Maybe I am way off on this temperature thing. Well I do know that when the tank stays near 80 degree for a week or so, all the turbo snails start saying good bye.

ReeferJ · Sep 3, 2015

Mid 80's is what many coral prefer, many reefs around the world hover from 80-90. We are taking many animals from many oceans and trying to find a parameter to keep them all happy. If you keep coral that naturally grow in shallow lagoons, or shallow reefs, temps up to the high 80's is no problem. If you have coral that is from lower depths, those temps are going to be a problem. I keep many stags and SPS that occur in shallow reefs and when my system hits lowish mid 80's in the summer I get the best growth and color. I have been doing this for 20 years, 10 of which were in Tucson Az in a house with a swamp cooler and no AC. I have never used a chiller, only fans for evaporation.

Also Turbo Snails occur in the sea of cortez. We used to have a permit to collect them and wed drive down from Tucson. In the summer that part of the sea was 95 degrees and those turbos did just fine.

ReefCentral has a few really good threads on tank temp.

Water temp in Tahiti when I was there last summer was 84 and that was the end of their "winter"

Tangwich · Sep 3, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq_UZo3cpk4

Dragon3435 · Sep 4, 2015

Yeah even my xenia are still fine at 86 to 87 majority of the corals come from equator and they are usually very warm there beyond the temps we try to keep them in. Personally I think even 80 is bit cold for them. My tank stays at 85-87 all day and night nothing dies.

chiller or not to chill

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