are chillers worth it?

I run fans on top of my 75. Temp runs 78 to 80 like clockwork even in the Florida heat. I evap about 1.5 gallons per day but I think its a small price to pay so that my tank runs cool. As of now I don't see the need for a chiller.
 
onano thats part of the problem, i don't want any change in temp not even 2 or 3 dagrees , somone told me that one of the S's in SPS stants for stability and with out that i will never acheve my gole, wich is to have a colerful healthy SPS tank. so i thank you all for your advise , and im ganna go ahead and listen to my friend who told me that in order to keep these coral you need to have the right equiptment so thats why im gana get a chiler and after that im gana get a DAS protien Skimmer and through out my peace of junck coral life one.:)

so thank you everyone for all your advice,
connor
 
DAS rules.

Still think the chiller is a waste on a tank that size. Figure out what is adding so much heat (such as an inefficient return pump or bad choices for creating flow) and run more fans on the canopy.
 
A chiller was the greatest investment I ever had. I live in Socal and my tank has been getting to 83-84 with T5s over it and the temperature outside is only in the low 90's. I just bought one last week because I know it'll get hotter in the coming weeks. My algae problem disappeared immediately and the temp is about 76 all the time. Everyone in the tank is lovin' it!

Also with fans I had huge noise problems and 3-4 times the evaporation rate. Not fun
 
2-3 degrees? I would believe that alk, pH, etc fluctuate very little in the ocean, but I know for a fact temps can change more than that. I distinctly remember times SCUBA diving where we'd go through what felt like a significantly colder current or something, so I can't imagine a few degree swing causing any problems whatsoever, so long as it wasn't outside the range of temps where the corals can thrive.

jds
 
Im not a weather man... but I have learned that Humidity dictates how good your fans work as much as the temperature. Its much harder to evaporate water into air that is already filled with moisture!

HBtank... the point of my question was to illustrate this point. Consider yourself lucky that you dont need a chiller...

Im in Houston and am not so lucky... so I am building a DIY split chiller to go on my 30 gallon.
 
I know... I know. As I said, sometimes there is no choice...


I am just trying to emphasize it should be a last resort, especially when it is regarding 2-3 degrees. This is a specific case we are discussing, right? Not the worst case scenerio...

And I think the reason I get away with it is I planned the lowest wattage I could on all submerged equipment, give or take 20 watts. It really cuts my heat, and with all my fans focused at ventilating the lights, it works well.

It was not all luck.... Though drier air does make it a "breeze".. har har har...

I could keep my tank well below my current 79 if I wished. It was good planning IMO. All my submerged equipment is only around 120 watts total. :bum:

FYI my house has no AC and I sure don't live in the north pole. It is well above "room temperature" in the summer inside my house.

But then if it was crazy humid and hot, you gotta do what you gotta do...
 
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i tried to without and after 3 days of >104F in the house and my corals starting to melt I had to bite the bullet and spend AU$ 2000 on a decent chiller. Fans and frozen water bottles just werent reliable enough and couldn't cope with the australian summer.
But if i were you, i would try it w/o chiller first.
For me, the chiller is worth every cent !
 
Well worth it for me they are cheap (ish) here and I live in the hottest city in the world so its a no brainer.
I have run tanks with a fan here but got through so much ro/di water and calc that the cost of the water was creeping up towards the value of the chiller!
 
Since moving to Washington from California I have tried to use just a large fan on the sump in an effort to reduce the use of the chiller but its not possible with the 2-250's and 400mh I can take the tank from 78 to 86 in a matter of 3 hours without the fan and with the fan I still can hit 84 nudging 85 and I am evaporating about 2 gallons a day in water so its not like evaportive cooling is not working its just not enough and we have not been over 85 here... Like stated before there are some of us who just do not have an option but to run a chiller; and I mean whats more power right I only doubled my electric bill with the tank whats more$ in power :-(
 
2-3 degrees? I would believe that alk, pH, etc fluctuate very little in the ocean, but I know for a fact temps can change more than that. I distinctly remember times SCUBA diving where we'd go through what felt like a significantly colder current or something, so I can't imagine a few degree swing causing any problems whatsoever, so long as it wasn't outside the range of temps where the corals can thrive.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Look at where these corals are coming from. Look at where they evolved. Very few reefs stay within 2-3 degrees per day, and often see more than that within a few minutes. They are perfectly well adapted to deal with the changes. People have done stress tests on them, and they don't show stress responses to fluctuations or even elevated temperatures (up to about 90) unless they've already been acclimatized to stable temperatures. The ideas that reefs are stable in nature and coral reef animals are stressed by fluctuations are complete myths.
 
I understand that there are some 900 watt mh tanks, "hottest cities in the world", and 104 degree houses to deal with... I was not trying to say chillers are never needed.


This is not the scenerio being discussed...
 
wrassie86 lots !! lol
i have 4 powerheads in my tank for good cerculation ,
one lage retern pump that pumps water from my sump to my tank and one medium size pump that pumps water through my phosban reactor to my UV then to my refriguim.
sorry i don't no the exact # of watts each pump uses.

thanks,
connor
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10233407#post10233407 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scuba connor
wrassie86 lots !! lol
i have 4 powerheads in my tank for good cerculation ,
one lage retern pump that pumps water from my sump to my tank and one medium size pump that pumps water through my phosban reactor to my UV then to my refriguim.
sorry i don't no the exact # of watts each pump uses.

thanks,
connor
Click to expand...

Well heres my view And I'm not downing chillers since they do have there place and i own one.But I agree with HBtank and what he is saying to ya ,about buying low watt efficient pumps and good venting for your lights.If your using maxijets they produce alot heat for there size along with mag pumps.The problem with having a chiller in your bed room is chillers can cause a nasty cycle of heating up your room then heating up the tank so it runs more.I used to keep mine in a very large walk in closet and it could heat it to 115.
If you have a window in your room why not add a small window A/C unit and cool your room instead of heating it up.
You could use the money saved for the chiller to buy pumps like Tunze that don't add heat to the water.
I had 2 Tunze 6000's in a 75g holding tank and that thing rocked with flow,it was pretty much perfect for SPS.Quiet one pumps i think are also pretty good at keeping temps down.Maybe alittle rethinking of what you have could make big difference in your temp problems.
Like i said i re thought my pumps and now my chiller just sits next to the tank not hooked up.

Also Ive been keeping SPS for some time now and i have to disagree with your friend about keeping temps rock solid. in fact i believe it sensitizes them more.so then when something does happen your SOL because they were not used to a little temp swing. But i still no more than 3 degrees in a day.Alk and calcium must kept pretty solid.
 
yes somewere down the line i will be perchising a calcium reactor, so this way i don't have to keep adding A AND B every day.
:smokin:
 
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