Will a 1/3 Hp chiller be okay for a 65 gallon tank?
- Thread starter Jg2691
- Start date
slief
RC Sponsor
It's definitely on the large side. How it works is that water runs through the chiller and when the temp gets above your preset, the chillers compressor turns on and cools the water. My concern with such a large chiller on a small tank like yours would be that it would drop the tanks temp very fast. Perhaps too fast depending on the controller that the chillers use. Some use an analog controller that will drop the temp 2-3 degrees. Others allow you to set a hysteresis so you can set the max drop. What you don't want to happen is to drop your temp 2-3 degrees is 15 minutes. A 2 degree drop should happen over the course of an hour or so. It's much less stressful on the tanks inhabitants.
45commando
New member
If the chiller is connected to a controller (even a cheap $30 Inkbird for example) then the chiller can be set to cool to 1 deg or less, so no shock issue. Possibly might cause chiller to prematurely wear if it has to kick on/off constantly, but that can be fixed by adjusting flow rate &/or placement of temp probe usually. HTH
Oversized chillers will short cycle ..... and likely require more through flow than the pump is capable of. Chillers are 'sized' based on the temp pull down for a certain volume. Unless you are looking to maintain your tank substantially below average ambient, 1/3 is waaaay to big. I'm using a 3/4 on my system, all 700 gallons of it ..... And the chiller is arguably too large :lol:
Ron Reefman
Active member
To the OP, I'm looking at building a new 70 to 80g tank with a 50g sump. I live in SW Florida and our house is 80 to 82F for over 6 months of the year and I'm looking at a 1/10th HP and will even consider a 1/15th unit. IMHO what you are looking at is way more than you should need.
JTL
New member
Ron, I'm surprised that you need a chiller based on your house temp. We keep our house at 80 and the tank stays a pretty constant 79-80 and I lose 1 gallon per day to evap.
Ron Reefman
Active member
John, so do my tanks. However, what about a power outage? I can't run my house A/C with my generator, but I can run a chiller. Or what is the A/C fails in the heat of summer when the A/C installers are at full capacity and it takes a week or longer to get a new unit installed? At least the chiller keeps my corals alive.
Kevin, it's Florida, get used to it! LOL! Where are you originally from, northern Canada? (just teasing)
Keeping the house at 80 also keeps the humidity down so it's perfectly comfortable. And even in May and November when temps outside get cooler in the evening, we open the house up to the fresh air and then close up and run A/C when it gets into the upper 70's at mid morning (yes, I'll start the A/C at 78 and then bump it up as the outside temps go up). BTW, my wife has been in SW Florida for 30 years and she thinks anything below 78 at night (with a big fan over the bed set at low) is too cold! LOL! I've only been here 18 years (from Michigan and Ohio) but even I'm starting to feel the same way.
JTL
New member
Ron, we were without power for 7 days to the hour as a result of hurricane Irma. My generator took care of all of my needs EXCEPT the A/C. The house was hovering in the 90 degree range so my solution was to freeze water bottles and use them to lower the water temp. Kind of a pain but it worked and there wasn't anything else to do so I had plenty of time. There is no argument that a chiller would have been nice.
We have two separate A/C units so if one were to go out I would still have some cool air but probably not enough to keep the tank cool.
My thermostats also have a humidistat that I have set at 58% RH. Since the A/C will continue to run until it hits the RH setting I sometimes have a lower temp in the house than what I set it to. Usually only about 1 degree and typically first thing in the AM. I often find that 80 degrees is too cold.
We have two separate A/C units so if one were to go out I would still have some cool air but probably not enough to keep the tank cool.
My thermostats also have a humidistat that I have set at 58% RH. Since the A/C will continue to run until it hits the RH setting I sometimes have a lower temp in the house than what I set it to. Usually only about 1 degree and typically first thing in the AM. I often find that 80 degrees is too cold.
