Chiller plumbing and operation?

[soccerman77]

So I have an external chiller and I read somewhere that the flow of water through the chiller cant stop or the water inside will freeze and break the internal parts. I was planning on putting my chiller in line with the water pump in the sump and have it on a timer. Is this possible if I set the on/off timer to the right time, not to fast so the refugium has time to rest but fast enough to keep the water moving? If so what would this time be? Any insight on how to plumb this would be great.

 

[Phyxius]

Chillers usually have water flow through them at all time to keep the temp regulated in the tank. Mine is hooked up in line with my return to the tank and has water passing through it 24x7.

If you put the pump on the timer it would essentially only cool water during the time you had water actually flowing through the chiller. I think that is what you had implied??

 

[soccerman77]

yes. Say the timer is set for 3 min on/off cycles, you think this would be enough to chill the tank but give the refugium time to rest and not break my chiller?

 

[NightShade00013]

The longer the water sits in the chiller the colder it will get, so maybe instead of pumping it directly into the tank you can use a seperate pump and circulate it just in the final stage of your sump. This way if you choose to cycle the water to your tank it will not affevt the chiller.

It is sounding like you have the refugium in line with all of the rest of your sump. You may try and only run a portion of the water throught your refugium and the rest into another part of your sump. Most of the designs I have seen only run a protion of the water through the refugium so that it isn't overloaded. Then you will maintain good flow through your tank but not overload your refugium.