Chiller Questions

[CA2OR]

What is the point of a chiller? How does it work? Do you set the temp at the lowest acceptable and have a heater in sump at the lowest also? I don't understand.

[CA2OR]

Does anybody?

[huskerduck]

My chiller only comes on after Halides have heated the water, you set it at say 78 or 79 and when the water gets 2 degrees warmer it turns on until the water is that set temp.

 

My Chiller pickup is in the sump by the sock filter and returns right in front of the return line in the sump.

 

Running Metal Halides 10-12 hours during the summer, I dont know how anyone avoids running a chiller

 

A chiller is basically a window airconditioner the water runs through I think.

 

And yes my heater is also in the sump but it only powers up when the halides turn off ( and probably several hours later)

[CA2OR]

Hmm....does anyone know what the ideal GPH for a chiller is. I have a 60g tank if that helps.

[huskerduck]

Very, very slow if possible. Many tap into their return line and valve it to make it as slow as possible but not create air

[Byrd]

My chiller is a 1/10hp and requires a 265-500gph flow through it. I have the pump that runs that in my sump.

With all my pumps and lights etc. my chiller is running off and on all day and even at night when the lights are off my tank never dips low enough for my heater to even kick on., which is how its set, heater kicks on below 76, chiller kicks on above 78.

 

My Chiller is set at 79 so my tank never gets above 78, average is 77.7.

 

Look at chllers, you will see what tank size they are rated for and they will also say what GPH they will require. I am pushing 400GPH through mine, have not heard of the "slow as possible" I suppose it all depends on the chiller

[racefan]

The guys over at nanoreef.com said the slower is better school of thought is "if the water is going through the chiller too fast(ie:too large of a pump giving too many gph) it will not cool down because it does not have enough contact time with the freon in the chiller" that's how it was explained to me anyway.Makes sense,but I would think it would have be really buzzing through there to not cool down.Of course that would depend on the temp. of the water your trying to cool. I have a 29gal bio cube with a 1/10 hp chiller & a Rio aqua 1400 pump & my chiller has almost never came on.I have not had it during a summer yet so we'll see.

[huskerduck]

400gph is slow, I dont own a pump, powerhead, Koralia........ anything that only pumps 400 gph

[Byrd]

 

Look at chllers, you will see what tank size they are rated for and they will also say what GPH they will require. I am pushing 400GPH through mine, have not heard of the "slow as possible" I suppose it all depends on the chiller

 

I had to send my chiller back as it quite working, I was using a MJ1200 which pushed the water less than what was required-they still covered it under the warranty but if the manufacturer recommends "x" for using a product they produce I have to assume they know what is best.

 

Not being defensive so dont mis read but every one has opinions and maybe the guys at nano reef have some idea of what is going on, but they aint the manufacturer-(laugh)

 

Here is the brand I have, you can see what they recommend;

 

http://www.current-usa.com/primechillertower.html

Good luck Eric

[racefan]

Byrd

I agree with you. On nano reef they kept telling me that I only needed a MJ 1200 for my chiller. I feel that the manufacturer knows their product best & went with one closer to their recommendation.

[CA2OR]

Hmmm....well I guess I will let you guys know how it goes. I am building my own Chiller. I already experimented with an idea I had for a chiller under $30 and it worked just fine. But it is a temp fix. I am looking for something a bit more permanent and I have an idea but I need to know flow rate as I don't want my lines to freeze.

[Byrd]

Much braver (or crazier-LOL) than I. With easily over 3K in livestock, that idea just freaks me out-:eek:

Good luck Bro

[CA2OR]

Thank you. The reason that I am so brave about doing it is that I don't actually need one so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

[huskerduck]

Byrd

I agree with you. On nano reef they kept telling me that I only needed a MJ 1200 for my chiller. I feel that the manufacturer knows their product best & went with one closer to their recommendation.

Does the manufacturer know his product best, or do they want your chiller to run twice as much therefore burning out faster for you to purchase another since " it kept your tank cool". I wish the manufacturer of my Ford Expedition EL knew their product best and I wouldnt be dumping full brake jobs on it every 20K miles for $600. I cant wait til it needs a whole new front end at 120K, the hundreds experiencing this already on 2007 and later are only paying 2k in parts and $1500 in labor.

 

Pumps = heat unless external, buy a chiller and add a heat source ( pump) and yet another device to fail when needed most, Hmmmm. Just size your return pump accordingly and "T" off it through the chiller, therefore you're grabbing the most heat after all the goodies in your sump have added their heat to the equation.

 

While on the subject of pumps and using MJ-anythings Ive noticed Maxi-Jets cute little GPH charts that usually say something to the effect of " at 1' of head" not sure how they word it but if the outlet is higher than 1' this will drop the volume of water and drastically. The one part of the equation they completely ignore is "friction loss" which can have a huge impact on water flow, probably the most actually. In a perfect world water would travel completely straight through a pipe and have little friction loss if the pipe is BIG ENOUGH as to not restrict the water at all, every 90, barbed adapter and every inch of pipe creates friction loss relevant to the original volume and pressure.

 

If water is flowing out of your chillers final outlet completely filling the pipe/tubing and moving at a steady rate as to not introduce air and a chiller manufaturer says you burned up the chiller, I would say find a different chiller manufacturer that doesnt rely on flowrates in making their product reliable. The only issue I could even remotely consider the effect being is ICING and if a chiller can freeze up with 79 degree water moving through it, I WANT that chiller!

 

An interesting test would be take your source piping and fill a 5 gal bucket and time it, then hook up the chiller and fill the bucket and see the time difference and see what friction loss is created in such a simple system, the results may prove interesting and the reason behind 400gph. It probably takes that to create a steady flow.

 

Not getting defensive, just saying.

[ThePremiumAquarium]

Just a thought and something to consider. I run my chiller pretty much only in the hottest weeks of summer. It is a 1hp chiller and requires a fair amount of flow simply because of its size. I have somewhere around 1000gph-1200gph moving through it and then into the display. It has worked really well for me for a few years now and keeps 800g of water at the 78 degree mark. The manufacturer recommends roughly 1200-1400gph so I figure I am just a hair under that. Chiller size is going to have alot to do with how much water you want running through it. I would try to stay near the manufacturers recommendations though I don't think that running a little under is a bad idea. Really I would think that the smaller amount of water would just come out cooler than the larger amount though I would think you would ultimately get the same number of BTU's pulled from the water.

[huskerduck]

Garrett

 

Frags doing well thanks man!

 

Your systems in a garage, a nice cool garage! My system is in an equiptment room with unducted 400w Metal Halides ( this needs to change!) as well as the heating furnace. My chiller runs daily within an hour of halides coming on, Im guessing the rooms temp is 85 degrees with all the factors involved. One of my main things I need to do is vent the room to the outside with a damper but I figure my return vent is grabbing alot of the heat.

 

1200 gallons per hour on your chiller WOW. I have a 3/4hp Pacific Coast chiller that was told to Tee off the return and have "flow" I may have to call them and ask them if I need another GenX 4100 pump just to run my chiller!

 

My chiller pops on about every 15 minutes for about 1 minute, maybe 30 seconds and that room is HOT as long as the Halides are running, in the summer when airconditionings running and the basement stays constant 68 degrees, my chiller rarely runs.

[markdadof2]

Thank you. The reason that I am so brave about doing it is that I don't actually need one so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

 

Just make sure you have a way to turn your chiller on/off or you may have a problem with too much cooling!

Love my chiller. One less thing to worry about - especially while on vacation during the summer.

[Frank]

I was talking to a guy a work.. This is all he does and flow is everything lack of flow will cause you to burn up your chiller. If the water sit to long in the cooling tubes it cause damage.

[huskerduck]

Well I did a flow test today out of curiosity and Im running 130 gph through a http://www.thereeftank.com/compare-chillers/sea-line-sl-500a-1-2-hp-aquarium-chiller/spec/

 

it recommends 400-800 gph

 

It was used when I bought it, and its been run this way for about 2 years and even sat full of salt water for a year by mistake, Im guessing I should increase the flow before it blows up.

[ThePremiumAquarium]

Some chillers are meant to cool water down to the 40's or 50's. I am sure that the water that ends up coming out of your chiller still isn't that cool. I would think that as long as your water temperature coming out of your chiller is higher than what the chillers manufacturer says it can cool you shouldn't be doing much, if any harm. I could see how such a low flow might be harmful in the long run but at the same time I could see how too much flow could turn out to be uneffective.

 

Glad to hear the frags are doing well!!! I would see about running a bit more water through your chiller if posible. That isn't a whole lot of water running through a 3/4 hp chiller. I would think that 400-600gph would ease my mind a bit.