Taking down chiller: word of caution

[andylee]

Looks like the weather is cooling down for the year, so I decided to take my chiller off line today.
I run the pump and the chiller off a controller, so the pump only runs when the temp is >79 and the chiller when temp >80.

I disconnected the pump and blew (with my mouth) the water out so that I wouldn't drip water all over the place. I kept the return tubing in my sump while I was doing this. As I was working, I noticed the smell of sulfur from the chiller and lines (remember rotten eggs from high school chemistry?) I think I blew some old, anaerobic, standing saltwater with hydrogen sulfide back into my tank.

Thankfully, everything looks OK so far (it's been an hour or so).
What I think happened is that the chiller and pump haven't run for weeks because it hasn't been warm enough. Water in the tubing and chiller body sat stagnant and began to go bad. Hopefully, it's a very small volume compared to the tank and sump. I am warming up some water for a change anyway.
Next year, I will program the pump to run for an hour or so every day to avoid this problem.

 

[KathyC]

Good advice!

If you haven't changed your carbon in a while, you may want to do that tonight and a water change would also be a good idea, if not tonight then tomorrow...just to be on the safe side!

 

[pecan2phat]

I use to run my chiller setup like that also but because of the stagnant water issue, I just plumbed it through my return.

 

[albano]

I use to run my chiller setup like that also but because of the stagnant water issue, I just plumbed it through my return.

+1...I will disconnect for winter, but otherwise, I let water constantly run thru chiller !

 

[tomtoothdoc]

i run my chiller with a separate pump which pushes the water through the chiller 24/7.
i run the chiller year round since i have halides, it doesn't kick on as often in the winter but still kick on after the halides come on. will change to leds some time in the near future.