Chiller staying on too long??

[90reefernyc]

Is this normal?
I have a a 350 gallon system with an Oceanic 1 hp chiller which is rated for 500 gallons: http://www.oceanicsystems.com/assets/008/15829.pdf. I have noticed lately that its always on after the lights have bin on for a couple of hours already. the chiller seems to run constant till about a half hour after the lights go off. I have an Iwaki 70 RLT feeding the chiller which has a rating of 1500 gph and the chiller is rated for 1,000 - 2,000 gph. What could be causing the chiller to run constant??

 

[Henry Bowman]

The unit may be low on freon ?

 

[90reefernyc]

Its about a year old? could have a leak I guess how can I check it out?
Thank you for the reply.

 

[rdelong]

Is it getting good enough ventilation? Once the air passing over the condenser coil gets above 90 the chiller will lose efficiency in a hurry.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

where's the chiller located in the system and in your house?
what's the set points?

 

[rdelong]

I had one that I thought was losing charge once. I found an Air Conditioning company that also worked on small sealed systems like ice makers and wine coolers. They have to use these special valves to tie into the system and check the charge. Even in the shop it's not cheap ~ $200.

 

[Henry Bowman]

I agree with the ventilation issue. Chillers need to have good airflow to work their magic.

 

[90reefernyc]

It in my "Fish room" with the rest of my equipment. Its a small room that I have an exhaust fan and another fan that circulates air in the room. I also have an AC duct that flows in that room but only when the AC is on. The average air temp now in the warmer months in that room get to be around 90. What do you guys suggest?
Thanks...

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

vent chiller exhaust to the outside if it's heating up the fish room (and thus reheating your system).

 

[90reefernyc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14988127#post14988127 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
vent chiller exhaust to the outside if it's heating up the fish room (and thus reheating your system).

I will try this first and then start to worry about freon
Thank you

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

some other tips

some other tips

I don't know what temp you're striving to maintain but back in the early 90's it was widely accepted that 75 degrees farenheit was an optimal temperature for a reef aquarium. Nowadays, 80F is much more widely accepted as the "best" temp to shoot for.
Evaporation can be as effective as a chiller in many situations IME.
(I once had a chiller and sold it.)

If you have a controller you can program it to turn off halides when aquarium temp reaches a predetermined set point (84F for example).

 

[90reefernyc]

I currently control it with my Profilux and have it set to turn on at 78F with a cooling diff of about 2 degrees so basically turns on at 80. Do you think I should adjust the turn on temp to higher than 78? I am trying to mostly keep SPS corals.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

for SPS

for SPS

I'd set chiller so it effectively maintains tank temp no higher than 83