Running a Chiller in the Basement

[bigdee65]

My tank is located on the first floor and I would like to add a chiller but I would rather not put it in the same room as the tank. I was thinking of plumbing it down into the basement if possible but I am not sure how that would work. My sump is under the tank so would I have to put a pressure rated pump off the sump and then down to the chiller and loop it back up? Would that work or would the pump be to much for the chiller?

I know people plumb these things in other rooms and sometimes outside but I am not sure if I could do it with a lot of head pressure going out of the basement.

Thanks for any help.

 

[henryjd]

BigDee65,
Any thoughts of moving your sump to the basement and then you need a return pump back to your tank. Alot of IWAKI and MAG pumps will move water up 15-16 head.

 

[henryjd]

BigDee65,
Any thoughts of moving your sump to the basement and then you need a return pump back to your tank. Alot of IWAKI and MAG pumps will move water up 15-16 head.

 

[Joshua1023]

That's how I would play it. If you are going to drill the holes large enough for tubing to a chiller, you could just as easily plumb a basement sump and use the cabinet for actual storage of supplies.

 

[bigdee65]

I was thinking of moving the sump down in the basement but wanted to see if it was possible just to have the chiller down there. If I move the whole sump I am going to have to build some sort of stand for it because we have had a few floods in the past that have gone over 3 feet That might be more work than I wanted to do.

 

[noodles9987]

bigdee,

I have all of my plumbing running to my basement. I originally ran my entire 90 gallon system with a pan world 150 ps. This is 1100 gallons/hr @ 27 ft max head. They also rate this at 714 gph @ 13 feet. The unit is 180 watts. price 215.00

I just changed out the pump last week and I now am running the system with a pan world 200 ps. This new pump runs 1740 gps at 0 feet and 1110 gps at 24.5 feet. The unit is 290 watts. price 239.00.

I was very happy with the smaller pump. However, i've added so much into my sump, that I needed extra water flow inside the sump and I just wanted to have 1 motor doing it all. I am very pleased with the set up. This 1 pump runs my chiller, uv, sand bed filter - we'll, it runs everything.

In terms of running it in your basement, you can place your sump on an old desk, or work table to get it off of the floor. It doesn't have to be pretty, just functional. Also, the best benefit of having everything in your basement is no noise. You would be very happy to rid your family room of the noise from the pumps, etc. Good luck.

 

[Reef55]

I have a first floor tank, with sump directly under it. I have in the basement the return pump and chiller.

Tank overflows into sump. At end of sump, I have a bulkhead fitting, going to pvc pipe that goes into the basement. The chiller is first in line, followed by the return pump (a velocity T2), which sends the water back to the display on the first floor.

 

[DarG]

I you want the sump to stay upstairs and just the chiller downstairs, You can always run the input from the sump to the pump all the way down into the basement and just have the pump and chiller in the basement. You would still be best serves with a pressure rated pump to pump the water through the chiller and back upstairs. Point is, you dont have to pump the water down and then back up. You can just plumb the input to the pump from the sump down to the basement along with the return from the chiller. And no, a pressure rated pump wont hurt the chiller.

 

[1badbrd]

i recently plumbed to the basement and now i'm fighting the cold. I need to add another heater just to make it easier to maintain temp.

Right now the heater is on all the time becasue the AC vent just so happens to blow onto the sump. (wasn't planned)

 

[rickh]

You just need to get bigger MH lights