Which Chiller would you buy?

[Genesis1:21]

I'm ready to buy a chiller for my 90g reef tank. I can see the volume of my tank doubling in the near future too. So, I'm thinking that I get a chiller now that could handle a 180g.

Which chiller brand and size would you recommend and why?

Thanks

[pbnj]

I'm ready to buy a chiller for my 90g reef tank. I can see the volume of my tank doubling in the near future too. So, I'm thinking that I get a chiller now that could handle a 180g.

Which chiller brand and size would you recommend and why?

Thanks

1/4 HP

[Derek]

How much are you trying to chill the water? If you are trying to keep it at 78 to 80 you can just use fans. They will be quieter and not use as much power.

[Genesis1:21]

I'd like to keep my tank at 77°. My tank runs about 2 -3° hotter than the room temperature. So I'd say worst case would be that I need a 8 degree drop.

[Timfish]

How much are you trying to chill the water? If you are trying to keep it at 78 to 80 you can just use fans. They will be quieter and not use as much power.

+1

Fans will cause more evaporation obviously but as Derek pointed out if you look at cost of operation they're a lot cheaper than chillers and a lot quieter and should keep the tank at or a little below room temperature. What some people don't realize is 12vdc box fans will also run at 8 or 10 vdc as well and are even quieter the caveat being they're running slower hence less airflow.

[offroadodge]

+1 for 1/4hp...JBJ Titanium... Ive owned 2 and have yet to have a problem with them.

[+Hydro]

1/4 hp JBJ is the most affordable quality chiller, aqua logic is also a nice chiller but they can get pricey.

You asked why a 1/4 hp...keep in mind first you should size all of your cooling 20% more than you need. A 1/4 hp chiller is capable at most of creating 3000 BTU of cooling but generally the actually put out about 50-75% of that. MH lighting produces about 4000 BTU for 1000 watt lamp so lets say that you have (2)250 watt MH lights producing about 2000 BTU of heat. If all of this heat were absorbed in to the water then you would be at max capacity with a 1/4 hp chiller. But since your home air conditioning takes away most of these BTUS the leftover onese need to be handled by the chiller.

The 1/4 hp is just that, you might could get away with using a smaller chiller but it will be running constantly while the lights are on which is not the way it is designed to run, it should be able to cycle on and off in order for it to last. Having a larger chiller ulimately will not cost you any more for electricity, it simply runs less and will last longer.

Having the chiller in the room with the tank is not a good idea if the room starts to get hot, this heat will absob into the tank. All of the heat from the aqaurium plus some will come out of the back of the chiller. If you simply exhaust that heat next to your tank then it will be absorbed back into the water....causing the chiller to run more....causing more heat to be absorbed in to the water and so on and so on. We sell ChillKing chillers that are made to be used outdoors for that very reason They are the highest quality chiller on the market and the most efficient but our models start at 1/2 hp so that is why I wouldn't recommend it, just more than you need. The 1/2 hp retails for about $2,400 so that's pretty heavy for cooling aquariums.

[austinite79]

I posted a topic about this on RC. Maybe it will help: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1841105