Cooling alternatives to running a Chiller... ?

T

tonyespinoza

Premium Member
I'm planning a 200g display with 160g sump/fuge.

The display is shallow (18" water height) and 36" x 72" (rimless/braceless).

I'm planning to light with 6x 400W HQI (20K) in mini-lumenarc reflectors, but probably pretty high, maybe 18" off the surface.

In addition to running fans across the surface of the display, I'm hoping to dissipate heat in the sump. I remember reading somewhere of someone having water run across a sheet of acrylic against a set of fans (increasing evap) and getting a real temperature decrease this way.

Is there anyone out there running alternative methods of cooling?

I will certainly have a chiller in place, but want to design the system to minimize it's usage. The ambient temperature here stays below 80 almost year around, and with so much surface area to work with in the sump (34" wide?), I'm hopeful that some alternative method could help minimize the electrical.
 
Re: Cooling alternatives to running a Chiller... ?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12250355#post12250355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tonyespinoza
....Is there anyone out there running alternative methods of cooling?....
Click to expand...
Work fine - last long time.
(cheap too)

chiller.jpg
 
I use cold tap water circulated through a plastic coil in my sump, then out to my yard to water plants. It works very well. It is on a temperature controller, and costs next to nothing to run, especially since I would water anyway.

But it won't work if your tap water runs up to close to tank temperatures.
 
the tank is peninsula style so i could also put in a fan to the outside to suck air in or push air out at the sump and/or display level. my question on this is how to avoid making the room too drafty... should i use a bathroom fan? would those work horizontally, or would they be too "leaky"? the climate here is such that we only heat - we never need to cool, so maybe this is a bad idea...
 
I remember a thread a long time ago where someone routed his tank's drains into a a 4 inch PVC wye and connected a fan to the curved, downward-facing opening. I wish I still had the link, so hopefully you get the picture. I'm goona give this one a shot in addition to the usual fans running over the sump.
 
irrigation tap water is a good idea! what kind of plastic coil did you find?

I just use several hundred feet of thin plastic tubing from Home Depot. Polypropylene, I think. It's all coiled up. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12254287#post12254287 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
irrigation tap water is a good idea! what kind of plastic coil did you find?

I just use several hundred feet of thin plastic tubing from Home Depot. Polypropylene, I think. It's all coiled up. :)
Click to expand...

You've got enough normal pressure in your household supply to push water through several hundred feet of tubing? I'm assuming you are using standard 1/4" stuff....

I was going to look into specialized heat exchangers, but if a bunch of cheap tubing is effective that is certainly more cost effective.
 
If you have a sump room put the largest water container and plumb it with the sump. Flow does not have to be high, I use a small ehim pump (80 GPH) from the sump to a 150 gal tub then gravity back to the sump. This cools my 330 gal and allows for easy water changes. Just drain the tub and fill it back up with RO water and mix, its offline for only 4 days while it fills.

This keeps my 330 gal SPS between 76-79 with 2 400 watt Mh and 3 160 watt VHO

Also that a lot of light are you sure you need that much?

Bill
 
You've got enough normal pressure in your household supply to push water through several hundred feet of tubing? I'm assuming you are using standard 1/4" stuff....

Yep, regular tap pressure is adequate. I even dial it back in the early part of the spring/summer when the water is cooler and has a bigger effect. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12252119#post12252119 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
I use cold tap water circulated through a plastic coil in my sump, then out to my yard to water plants. It works very well. It is on a temperature controller, and costs next to nothing to run, especially since I would water anyway.

But it won't work if your tap water runs up to close to tank temperatures.
Click to expand...

This is what I do also but not for irrigation, I run my supply tap water through 100' of tube through my sump to supply my RO/DI water.

In the summer I'm always making more water dew to higher evaporation rates. It also brings the water temp up on my tap water for my RO/DI so I don't have as much wast water.
 
do you put a booster pump after the 100' of tubeing? Id think youd see a pretty good pressure drop after 100' of small tubeing.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12256845#post12256845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sjames
do you put a booster pump after the 100' of tubeing? Id think youd see a pretty good pressure drop after 100' of small tubeing.
Click to expand...

No, as with any RO system the PSI drop is only momentary. The filters only let so much water through, and the restrictor valve only lets so much through as well.

It only takes a few sec's for the PSI to get back up to system PSI.

This will happen regardless of how much tubing you have in your system 1' to ????'
 
We've use the technique Randy is talking about as an emergency fix whenever a main chiller on any of our coldwater tanks breaks down. I've also never had a problem pushing tap water through 100 feet of tubing (although our tanks are larger, so I was using 1/2"). The only problem that we've run into is that when you need it the most (e.g. summer) the tap water is running at 68 degrees and the benefit is greatly reduced. If you don't have access to a temperature controller that will actuate the water valve, you can just turn the water flow up or down to get marginal control, and them have a heater set to turn on if the tank were to overcool for some reason.

Here is an excerpt from my Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques book where I describe a case history of using a fan to cool a large tank:

In one example, when a 1500 gallon reef exhibit was test-filled, it was discovered that the light coming in through the skylights, the additional metal halide lighting and the large number of pumps all contributed to raising the aquarium’s water temperature to 83 degrees, six degrees above the target temperature of 77 degrees. A 20” - 1/6th hp fan with airflow of 7500 CFM, was attached above the tank, directing air horizontally down the length of the aquarium, with the lower edge of the fan about 6” above the surface of the water. This lowered the water temperature to within a scope of 73 to 77 degrees. However, this wide temperature range was not acceptable, and was caused by the variations in the evaporation rate resulting from changing humidity levels and daily fluctuations in the room’s air temperature. By plugging the fan into a Goldline chiller controller (model SP-33) it was possible to reduce this temperature range to one degree, between 76 and 77 degrees. The controller would now operate the fan when the aquarium water warmed up in the heat of the afternoon, and then be turned off in the early evening when the water was cooler.

Jay Hemdal
 
My chiller is still in the box 2 yrs later. Our systems sound similar. I have a large 200 plus sump in the basement next to the air handler for the central air. Other choice could be add a duct to the central air to the stand base.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12252796#post12252796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralnut99
I remember a thread a long time ago where someone routed his tank's drains into a a 4 inch PVC wye and connected a fan to the curved, downward-facing opening. I wish I still had the link, so hopefully you get the picture. I'm goona give this one a shot in addition to the usual fans running over the sump.
Click to expand...

it's called bong cooling. It's mainly used by people who use watercooling for their computers. It works like this:

full.png


I don't need to explain where they got the name from :p
Experience with people who use it on their computers are pretty good. The only downside is that it evaporates alot of water en you also loose a bit with because of the spray that escapes. you can solve that by placing a bit of foam in the top, and making the top high enough.

Peopel who use it for their tanks also tried placing bioballs in the PVC pipe. This way the water makes way more air contact (that's what's cooling it). Forming of nitrates should be minimal because it's in free air and you can easily clean the balls out. i guess you could place the bong right in your sump in stead of making a closed loop systems like used with computers. just let the water get out at the bottom.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12284846#post12284846 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DinX
it's called bong cooling. It's mainly used by people who use watercooling for their computers. It works like this:

full.png


I don't need to explain where they got the name from :p
Experience with people who use it on their computers are pretty good. The only downside is that it evaporates alot of water en you also loose a bit with because of the spray that escapes. you can solve that by placing a bit of foam in the top, and making the top high enough.

Peopel who use it for their tanks also tried placing bioballs in the PVC pipe. This way the water makes way more air contact (that's what's cooling it). Forming of nitrates should be minimal because it's in free air and you can easily clean the balls out. i guess you could place the bong right in your sump in stead of making a closed loop systems like used with computers. just let the water get out at the bottom.
Click to expand...

Yup, that's exactly the idea. The one I remember seeing here, used 4 inch PVC I think. I was thinking of adding a diffuser plate instead of the bioballs though. Certainly agree on how much this will increase evaporation, but top-off water's still a lot cheaper than running a chiller.
 
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