Do I need a chiller?

[Virginia Reef]

I have a 225g in-wall with a fish room behind it. This is in my basement. I have a large exhaust fan thru the wall to pull about 400-500cfm. The fan runs 24-7. My tank runs about 83 degrees +/-.

I have not tried a fan blowing directly across the tank surface for greater evaporation/cooling. Is this likely to reduce the temp by 4-5 degrees?

One concern that I have with a chiller placed in the fish room is that the warm air is vented right back into the room. I'm sure that the right chiller would help my problem despite this.

Are there chillers available that could be set up outside like a heat pump? I could easily put another hole in the house for this...either above or below grade. I'm concerned about the water lines freezing and bursting in the winter as well as the weather getting to the chiller itself.

Ade, I seem to recall that your chiller water line runs to the exterior wall of your house. Is your chiller outside?

 

[ade]

Yes my chiller runs out side under the stairs coming from the upstair deck. I did place a makehift roof over the chiller so that when it rains my chiller dosen't get wet. I have a 1/2 HP chiller on my 180, I only run 175 MH and my tank stays around 77 degrees.
I have sen people run their tank around 82-83 with no problems. I think that I would run a fan acros your hood to cool down the MH as well as cooling the water, down fall evap increases.

 

[REEFY1]

i have a 225 with 3 250's in my basement no chiller

 

[ade]

"I have a 225g in-wall with a fish room behind it"
Makes a big difference when you have your tank in an open room Chad, plus you have fans and AC.

 

[Virginia Reef]

Ade,

No problems with water lines freezing? Did you put insulation around the exposed lines? I guess that you could run a circulating pump 24-7 to avoid the freezing issue? The chiller only turns on when your controller tells it to?

I could build a shelter around the chiller without much of a problem. Any particular thoughts on chiller brands or types for an outdoor environment?

I am currently using my exhaust fan to keep the room a bit cooler than it would be otherwise. I would prefer to run the fan from a humidity controller since it currently blows a tremendous volume of either heated or cooled air out of the house depending on the season.

I'll try the fan first and see what happens since that option is pretty cheap. I guess that my evaporation will go from 2-3 gpd to something higher. Oh well, that's just that much more kalk into the tank.

Reefy1,

My tank is in a 10x12 room. I run 2 Dart Sequence and 2 Iwaki 75 pumps in addition to pumps for kalk, calcium reactor, and fuge. Plus 3x250 watt MH and 4x55 watt T5 as well as 2 PCs for the fuge. I have an acrylic tank with 3 openings that are about 17"x17" so less open for evap than on your tank. Tank temp is now actually 84.4 since my wife had the firelogs on this evening. I'm CONSTANTLY battling her over room temp.

As always, thanks for your help.

 

[ade]

Yes I insulated the exposed lines, the water runs through the chiller 24/7 via a pump. I have never had any issues with freezing, I would think that it would have to get realy cold to freeze salt water that is 77 degrees that is constantly runing.
Not sure what is a good brand on the chillers. They are all high $$$$$ so they all must be good right....