Which Pacific Coast Chiller?

[Potsy]

I'm going to be ordering a Pacific Coast chiller from you guys pretty soon, but I'm not sure which model would best meet my needs. I have a 75 gallon aquarium with about 10 gallons of sump water lit by two 250 watt de halides. The room temperature is around 75 degrees during warm months and without a fan blowing across the water, the aquarium can get up to 90 degrees. With the fan, I have maintained the temperature at about 83 - 84 degrees (and sometimes it creeps up to 85) for the past four years. The livestock isn't stressed as far as I can tell. I am getting tired of dealing with the rapid evaporation though.

Which should I order, the 1/10 or 1/6 hp model? If I can maintain my temp at 82 degrees I'd be happy with that - so around an 8 degree pull down - or 10 degrees to be safe. I also intend on building a canopy or tall "lip" around the perimeter as I'm getting tired of fish suicides so that might limit air flow.

Also, which pump do you recommend for the chiller?

Thanks for your help!

Erik

 

[Jeremy B.]

Hi Erik,

If you can vent the chiller really well, ie...keeping it out of the stand and not letting the room warm up from the chiller at all, then the 1/10hp would probably be enough for you. You would need to keep it running at optimum specs though, and keep that room no warmer than 75* in the summer. You would need a true 400-500gph through the unit to achieve this.

Personally I think the 1/6hp would be a little more "comfortable" to run, with less worry. Having said that, if you're going to go with the 1/6hp you might as well get the CL-650 1/4hp, as it is only $10 more right now.

Keep in mind that no matter which one you choose to go with your tank will take about the same amount of electricity to cool it between all three chillers, as the 1/10hp draws less power, but will run for a longer period of time to cool the tank. The 1/6hp and 1/4hp models pull more power when cooling but they will not run for as long of a period of time to cool your tank.

The advantage of the 450 and 650 models is that they have a dual controller on them, so you can run your heater off the same control unit on the chiller. HTH

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Potsy]

Thanks for your help, Jeremy. I went ahead and splurged on the 1/4hp Pacific Coast Chiller. A lot of chilling for a 75 gallon but I figure I'll have a bigger aquarium eventually, so why not?

Erik