NYPDFrogman

Advanced Reefer
Location
Vernon, NJ
Rating - 100%
35   0   0
I'm not against chillers never used one, my thinking is if I'm going to pay to cool the tank I'd rather cool the whole room!

in my first apartment in Brooklyn I had a 90 gal reef with MH lights in a 10x10 room or should call it an alcove in my living room
I ran my A/C keep room at 70-72 degrees the tank was fine

just my .02
 

bad coffee

Inept at life.
Rating - 100%
27   0   0
look at the comparison on amperage

DS-5 1/2 6000 115 9.5


DS-6 1/2 6000 230 4.8

Hope this helps

watts=volts*amps

ds-5= 115*9.5=1092.5 watts to run it.
ds-6= 230*4.8=1104 watts to run it.

so actually, the 115v is marginally better.

I agree with the whole room AC. I have a chiller because I can't get a bigger AC in my living room.

My PCI 1/10th is a pressure HOG. I feed it with an eheim 1262, and I'm getting less than 400gph out to the tank. So check the minimum flow rates on whichever chiller you choose. Then you'll know if you can T off your return, or you'll need an additional pump.

One thing to think about is venting your chiller. If you're putting the hot air right back into the room your tank is in, you're fighitng yourself. try to vent the chiller to a window or a hallway.

B
 

carpediem212

Member
Location
Queens, NY
Rating - 100%
4   0   0
I'm looking for a chiller as well. Don't have the option to chill the room as the tank is in the middle of the hall way. Good point on venting the exhaust away from the tank room. I will most like be getting the 1/3 Tradewind drop-in for my tank, just don't want any more pumps in the tank.
 

meschaefer

One to Ignore
Location
Astoria
Rating - 100%
30   0   0
I ordered the Tradewind Compact 1/2 hp. It arrived on Thursday but it had suffered shipping damage. They are sending me another one, but it will take another week and a half before it gets to me.
 

meschaefer

One to Ignore
Location
Astoria
Rating - 100%
30   0   0
That sucks - what will you be doing in the mean time?

Warm tank. If you read my other posts within this thread, you will see that I am not an alarmist about tank temperatures. My tank only got to 83 yesterday, and that is not problematic by my account. Air temps won't go much higher than yesterday for the rest of the week so I should be fine.
 

Bob 1000

Advanced Reefer
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
122   0   0
I ordered the Tradewind Compact 1/2 hp. It arrived on Thursday but it had suffered shipping damage. They are sending me another one, but it will take another week and a half before it gets to me.

Ummm Can you say this is probably a sign to use a fan or 2 under a custom made hood....lol

I'm looking into the Vornado orsome other brand someone recommended on the Vornado thread... Just because they are smaller and I can fit 2 that will work 2x as much as my 1 box fan...
If I had to go with a chiller I would want to go with something that can do double my water volume much like my calcium reactor or sump or skimmer...
That lay out has been working for me for years...
Don't sell yourself short...
Hope all works out for you..
 

meschaefer

One to Ignore
Location
Astoria
Rating - 100%
30   0   0
Ummm Can you say this is probably a sign to use a fan or 2 under a custom made hood....lol

I'm looking into the Vornado orsome other brand someone recommended on the Vornado thread... Just because they are smaller and I can fit 2 that will work 2x as much as my 1 box fan...
If I had to go with a chiller I would want to go with something that can do double my water volume much like my calcium reactor or sump or skimmer...
That lay out has been working for me for years...
Don't sell yourself short...
Hope all works out for you..


As I mentioned earlier in this thread using a fan is not really an option for me in this set up. I already have humidity issues in my fish room which are alleviated by venting, but I would like to avoid adding to them through the use of a fan. I can remember the humidity level in my office when I had my 65 gallon tank in there, and this tank has almost four times the water volume. The amount of evaporation that would be needed to sufficiently cool the tank would add way to much water into the tank room atmosphere. I can just picture rain clouds building up in there.

I had played with the idea of building an evaporative cooling tower so that I could vent the humidity outside (see the first post in this thread for details). I think that this would be a great alternative to a chiller. They work on a commercial scale, and with some tinkering I think they would work great on our tanks. Unfortunately, I have had some personal issues arise recently which have cut back on the amount of time I have to tinker with such things. Since I don't have the time to play with it, I need something that will work the first time and cause me minimal amount of headaches going forward.

Using an air conditioner has also been suggested. This also does not work extremely well with my current set up, especially since I would not get to enjoy it. Since the tank is in wall, the AC would need to go in the fish room in order to efficiently cool the tank. While this would work, it is just not that efficient in terms of ongoing cost. Why cool the entire room when I just need the tank cooled. I know that the upfront cost is significantly more, but this is really not a concern of mine.

Finally people complain that the chiller, just puts the heat back into the environment where it will heat the tank back up, causing the chiller to come back on. Not a problem, as the chiller will be vented outside.

IMO 90% of people out there don't need a chiller. In this case, I think I just happen to fall within that 10%.
 

meschaefer

One to Ignore
Location
Astoria
Rating - 100%
30   0   0
In terms of sizing, the Compact 1/2 from tradewind is rated up to 450 gallons (I have about 280 gallons total volume). At least with chillers, there is a point at which bigger is just waste full. I worked with the owner of Tradewind to properly size the chiller. I gave him the details on my system and he gave me a breakdown on how many watts each chiller would use to cool my system for a specified temperature range. The compact 1/2 was the most efficient for my system.
 

cali_reef

Fish and Coral Killer
Rating - 97.3%
36   1   0
Matt, I typed a long reply to your post few days ago, I guess it did not post :(.

Try to put the chiller outside of the room if all possible. Venting is not as efficient, I tried that with my cube tank. As for getting a chiller sized for twice of the load needed, that is a stupid thing to do and is about as un-educated recommendation as using a 220V chiller because it uses less AMPs :lol2:.
 

meschaefer

One to Ignore
Location
Astoria
Rating - 100%
30   0   0
Matt, I typed a long reply to your post few days ago, I guess it did not post :(.

Try to put the chiller outside of the room if all possible. Venting is not as efficient, I tried that with my cube tank. As for getting a chiller sized for twice of the load needed, that is a stupid thing to do and is about as un-educated recommendation as using a 220V chiller because it uses less AMPs :lol2:.

I feel cheated for not getting the lengthier response.

Venting is probably not the appropriate way to describe what I want to do. I am basically building a stand that will let the chiller "Sit" in the window sort of like a window AC. I don't have the room to get the whole thing outside of the house, but I think I can get half of it out side.

Allegedly my replacement was being shipped out today, and the damaged unit was being picked up at my house.
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top