Not Exactly A Build Thread, But. . .

sparky:

if you want to get more out of that chiller put a fan in front to draw the hot air away from it or go to radio shack and get two 4" computer fans and attach them to the front and back of the chiller. you'll notice a considerable difference.

 

Yeah, I had a deposit of checks for $666 on Tuesday. I promptly took a ten dollar bill and added that to the deposit to make the number abit different.


Congrats on your chiller! Wow, you really needed it. Were there any issues with the sudden temp drop?

 

Good deal Sparky. That is a serious chunk of change. I'm doing everything I can to get rid of mine. I'm real borderline. I just went and got a Eheim 1262 to replace my Mag 9.5. Trying to get rid of as much heat as possible. I'll get that today.

I was in the same boat as you. Did not want to put all my return through my chiller. If you have a big enough pump to split flow that will work. But as you found out, you have to be careful not to short circuit and recirc the chiller and not the tank.

I had mine the same. Just made sure to get the return to the tank. If the Ehiem does not work, I'm splitting the flow. The nice thing for me is a controller. I will use my controller to turn my chiller on and off, not it's thermostat. The controller monitors tank temp, so recircing won't matter (sort of). The tank will be what the controller controls it at.

 

Good idea. Thanks for sharing.

 

As you know, I'm completely new to the world of chillers. I don't know what "good" is in terms of % of time it should run, how fast it should bring down temps, etc. I'll be posting some numbers later, and you; and anyone else with some experience can tell me if this chiller is performing as it should, or if I should get some fans as you say.

Cool. (unintentional, I swear!). Anyways, I've found that selling stuff off is usually less a good thing than I originally thought after the deed is done. More than once I've said, "Man, if I didn't sell that thing, I wouldn't need to buy a new one now." If I could give you my opinion--if one isn't hard up for the money--with resale value usually impossible to recoup; why not just hold on to it. You'll never really know if you'll need it in the future. Especially is you are "on the edge" as you say.

 

The only issue I had was when my Kole looked at me real serious like and said, "So what's to eat, man?"

Other than that, everyone's happy.

 

if you notice the tank temp higher than wanted, then try the fan. even if the chiller is working correctly keeping the heat away from any chiller will help. do you have a spare pump for that chiller? keeping up on it will save your tanks life.

 

Dude, trust me, it's a tough one. I don't really need the money, but am feeling a little guilty of the skimmer purchase.;D

My Mag 7 that drives the chiller is bad. It heats the water all by itself. I put my chiller back on the other day and it was a difference. So I don't wan to run a chiller just to cool a pump. Waste of electricity.

I'll give the Eheim a shot. If I am comfortable with the result, maybe... I can still try a fan. I don't run any now. But not soon. It has been unseasonably cool here this year and we still have august to come. I would really hate myself buying another one next year. Plus it is only a 1/10th, which is all I need. So that is good.

 

Nice chiller and install pics!

 

I'm not sure I understand the "if you notice the tank temp higher than wanted" part. The tank temp is constant now at the chiller's setting. I picked 78. The chiller turns on at 79, and off at 77.9.

The part I'm clueless about is how often it comes on, stays on, etc. And now that I mention that, I have some numbers for you, and anyone else who can lend an experienced ear.

The chiller comes on at 79. After 12 minutes, the temp is 77.9 and it shuts off. At midday, when the halides are burning, the 77.9 temp lasts for 30-33 minutes. That's the cycle.

I actually sat with a stopwatch for a few hours watching TV and took note of on/off times. Here's today's scenario:

The chiller came on at:
11:45-11:58--total time on 13 min's
12:31-12:42--total time on 11 min's
1:13-1:24----total time on 11 min's
1:54-2:05----total time on 11 min's
2:35-2:46----total time on 13 min's

This makes for a grand total of 59 min's on. Let's call it an hour.

I did the math, and during the 3 hours noted above, it was off for 2 hours.

That means the chiller is running 33% of the time, or 20 min's per hour on average. More precisely, it runs for 12 min's, then shuts off for about 30 during peak heat producing time of day.

Are these numbers normal for a 90 gallon tank with 700W of lighting?

Thanks Guru, and anyone else.

EDIT: BTW I've created a thread just for this question here.