chiller reccomendations

[jessp]

I think i'm decided on a type of calcium reactor and skimmer. I am unsure of what type of chiller/brand chiller would work well for a 90 gal tank. any suggestions would be appreciated.
jess

 

[Rogger Castells]

I have a 1/2hp Pacific coast that has work great for me and the customer service has benn excellent as well.
If I was to replace my chiller I would look into the Current line, I think they are one of the best in the market

 

[racermike27]

I have a Pacific Coast CL280. Got mine from premium aquatics, works like a champ. I don't have any fans in the new canopy but the chiller keeps my tank right around 77-78 without them.
I am running 2x 250watt SE halides and 2x54watt HO T5 actinics.
I like my pacific coast alot.

 

[jessp]

2 for 2, must be good. I would like to get 2 x 250 watt mh and vho or t5 in a 90 gallon tank. The ambient temperature never goes below 75 degrees.

 

[racermike27]

That seems alot like my house.
My house temp is normally any where from 76-78 depending on who messes with the Air condition that day!!! LOL
I have my lights are over a 90G.
When the chiller was not connected to the tank gets hot pretty quick when i initially set the tank up from the move. But the chiller has been keeping the tank stable for the passed week. And my house is normally not super cold. I am going to put my fans back on this week though so the chiller doesn't work so hard.

 

[jessp]

so even w/ a chiller you need to run fans. that is good to know.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8695937#post8695937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jessp
so even w/ a chiller you need to run fans. that is good to know.

You shouldn't, I imagine that may be a sign of the chiller been underrated for the job.

 

[bawla47]

ive ran a pacif coast cl-280 1/10hp i think on a 55gal and it did OK(ran quite a bit)

and currently have a pacific coast cl-650 now. 1/4hp

im adding fansnow as i made my autotopoff reservioir to automatically refill now. it runs a bit less, im hoping to get enough fans to just have the chiller kick in in extreme times etc.

my 1/4 hp uses 650 watts btw.
i think the pacific coast model numbers are how much wattage it pulls.

 

[jessp]

in addition if the chiller is underated you will pay more for it in electricity in the long run because it will be running for many more hours than the chiller that is bigger and can handle the job.

 

[jessp]

and when you run fans across the waters surface it evaporates the water thus cooling yet requiring much more water for top offs.

if you don't use the fans and just a chiller will you have to top off as much water or will the difference be insignificant?

 

[racermike27]

Well my main reason for running the fans is so the chiller does not have to come on as much since the chiller is more expensive to run than say two small DC fans.
I mean when I had the chiller and the fans running together the chiller would not turn on very much but it did come on during the hottest parts of the day.
The fans also promote heat exchange at the water surface by blowing fresh cool air over the surface. This will increase the rate of evpaoration thus lowering the tank temperature. Kinda like when people sweat on a hot day. So I mean having both is no harm. I would definitely say the chiller is underrated if the unit runs all the time along with the fans together.
I run both my chiller and fans with the reefkeeper2 so it turns them on and off when needed. Anyways I guess you could only run the fans but i prefer both, at least having both one can kind of act as a fail safe if the other takes a dive.

HTH

Mike

 

[racermike27]

In my last sentence i meant to right run only the chiller.
But as to your question about top off
right now with just the chiller i find my evap rate to be about the same as when I had both running.
So there is not a signifcant difference.

In my instance when the tank is hot enough the fans are the first to come on. If the tank temp still rises a bit then the chiller will turn on and bring the tank back down to the safe margin. This has worked great for me.

 

[bawla47]

one note, if your out without power, or your a/c breaks especially during the summer. you will wish you bought one! floating ice ALL the time and costant worrying is NOT fun.

had to do that for 3 weeks last summer, as 1 of my lines going to my house was fried. had to wait for permits, and FPL to cut my power. the fans didnt cut it without ac.

 

[Abengochea]

I got my pacific coast chiller used from Bawla and it works great.... quiet too. I do have fans in the canopy since keeping the T5's cool is supposed to keep them working efficiently.

 

[whaler1582]

i use a current chiller on my tank, haven't had any problems and it is totally silent. i have heard bad things about the pacific coast chillers like as they get older(not more than 2-3 years) they can become noisy, i personally never had good customer service from them, but have only dealt with them a couple of times. but, i highly recommend the current chillers.
Josh

 

[jeffbrig]

I'm very happy with my chiller. 1/3hp aqua logic delta star. It's set up on my patio, and I ran plumbing through the wall to it. No fans for me, so I have pretty low evaporation (=low humidity indoors, and less load on the AC). Even with nearly 300g of water, this chiller does well on my tank, running for about an hour each time it clicks on (set to 81 +-1).

 

[jessp]

i was looking at some 1/10 hp pacific coast chillers. they say on some websites that it will function on a max of a 110 for 10 degrees of chill. Is a chiller something you should overdue like a skimmer. Or are the ratings pretty acurrate?

 

[jman77]

I would run Fans across the water..... it will raise the humidity and evap rate .... but shouldn't be that bad with the lights you are adding.

Be also aware that the return pump and Skimmer pump can add alot or little to the water temp depending which ones you get...

 

[bawla47]

i would take there ratings with a grain of salt.

i think youd be happier with a 1/6 hp chiller , unless your going to be running plenty of fans and only need to use the chiller as a small boost or a backup to bring the temp down.