Any recommendations for a chiller

[paperdoll]

I'm thinking of setting up a 2-3 ft marine tank with corals. My room temp is about 25-27 degrees (from what I observed from the thermometer in my nano tank) Is it necessary to get a chiller? Any recommendations for chillers and how much do they cost?

[Tanzy]

Is your tank in an air con room?

It is only necessary to get a chiller if you use MH or lotsa PL or if you are keeping SPS which coincidentally also require lotsa light. Don't forget water pumps contribute heat too.

[ong]

If your room temp always at 25~27 then don't waste $$$$ on chiller. Just get a cooling fan around $30+. Anyway, just FYI, a chiller for 2-3feet tank will cost from a range of 800-1000 SGD.

[newdamsel]

If the temp is really 25~27, i guess can even do away with the fan as topping up of water is troublesome AND introduces lotsa salinity stability problem... stick with nothing.. anyway having sps in nano is extremely diff..

[anakjoh]

I use MH and it does wonders to the only coral I have - catseye. Only problem is temp is 27/28 with and 25/26 without. And I have to top up with distill water every 2 days.

I know someone who diligently place a frozen water bottle in the nano every day.

[BlueTerror]

You guys try this Ice Probe thing? It's like a heat sink for ur tank. Dunno if its selling here

[Creetin]

Ice Probe? wats that? issit like some kind of device to plug into ur tank and which will keep ur temp down?

[BlueTerror]

yes check it out here.

http://www.coolworksinc.com/iceprobe.htm

[Sinn]

looks cool...

any idea of price?

[Achilles Tang]

Well... I would recommend a good and tested gas compressor-type chiller, not those which use peltier technology like the ice-probe... those are only suitable for small tanks.

Teco is a good brand and so far from what I know... it's the most reliable one in the market as people tend to upgrade to Teco after trying other brands... I consider a chiller as one of the most important equipment after lights or filtration... as you don't want to risk recreating El-Nino in your coral tank... BLEACHING caused by heat spike.

Happened to me coz of carelessness and bad luck... and being out of town... I lost a few prized corals. I still 'heart-pain' thinking about it.

[kelstorm]

I consider a chiller as one of the most important equipment after lights or filtration... as you don't want to risk recreating El-Nino in your coral tank... BLEACHING caused by heat spike.

Happened to me coz of carelessness and bad luck... and being out of town... I lost a few prized corals. I still 'heart-pain' thinking about it.

same here... thus now, i decided not to keep corals until i get my chiller.. and again, no hard corals.

[Chris]

Teco is the one to get...reliable and effective. BTW, is setting the temp at 26 alright?

[Achilles Tang]

Better to set at 25 coz the thermostat will activate the compressor at 27.

25 to 27 is better than 26 - 28.

[Tanzy]

Teco is very reliable but most expensive.

AT and Chris,

You can set the hysteresis for the chiller to be 1 degree so that it fluctuates less. Don't trust the crazy digital readout of the chiller, it's inaccurate. Use a separate thermometer instead.

My chiller is set to 27.0 and hysteresis is 0.8, temperature fluctuates from 26.5 to 28.0 but the instruction sheet is next to my chiller so I can't get it right now.

[mv3i]

tanzy and all ,

question : .... if you don't trust the digital thermometer on the chiller and uses an external one .... the chiller/compressor start/stop is still dependent on the one in-stored on the chiller .... only when you have a external temperature controller ( probe in the sump or tank ) connected to the chiller then you can control the compressor ??? .... right .... ( IMO, that should be more efficient/reliable, as the temperature sensing by the pumped in water to chiller is not reliable ... hence the tank temp should be taken using the external probe for a more reliable reading ) ... anyone doing that ??? i like more info on that ....

[tigerkayu]

for those with lots of experience with corals.

If we intend to keep corals from warm tropical & shallow waters, do we need chillers?

Any idea what's the temperature like in this condition and how does it compare with our room temperature?

Reason I ask is this. Chiller is an expensive investment. As a newbie, I'm not ready yet to throw money on a chiller. My water temp. without chiller can be maintained around 29 - 30 deg C. I'm trying to challenge the assumption that u need chiller to keep corals, because surely there are many available corals able to survive in warmer waters?

I'll be happy if anybody can provide a few species that can.

[Tanzy]

mv3i,

When I got my chiller, I'll spend days sitting next to it watching the temperature and monitoring the on and off cycle while fine tuning it. At first I calibrated the chiller thermometer to match with the actual water temperature, but I gave up after a while because the chiller thermometer is affected greatly by the heat exchanger. When the compressor starts, the chiller temperature readout will start rising very fast because the chiller itself is getting hot but after a while it will start coming back down. When the compressor switches off, the temperature reading will also start increasing rapidly because the fan is off and all the heat is going into the pipes then drop again pass the cut-off point.

What I do is play with the settings of the chiller so that I can maintain a reasonable range of temperature for the water. It is all trial and error so it can take a lot of time.

Theoretically if the cut-off is set a 27 and hysteresis is set at 0.8, if the chiller thermometer is accurate, the water should maintain a temperature between 27 and 27.8, but in reality it does not. The chiller will cool the water until the pipes read 27.0 but the water is actually at 26.5 because the pipes are warmer due to heat from the heat exchanger.

It's really difficult to explain what I'm doing unless you see it for yourself.

[Tanzy]

If we intend to keep corals from warm tropical & shallow waters, do we need chillers?

Yes, because the seawater is cooler than the air in the day. A small body of water in an aquarium will have larger temperature fluctuations than the sea too.

Any idea what's the temperature like in this condition and how does it compare with our room temperature?

Air about 29, water about 27.

Reason I ask is this. Chiller is an expensive investment. As a newbie, I'm not ready yet to throw money on a chiller. My water temp. without chiller can be maintained around 29 - 30 deg C. I'm trying to challenge the assumption that u need chiller to keep corals, because surely there are many available corals able to survive in warmer waters?

You can try but you won't get very far. 29-30 is pretty hot for most corals. You don't need chiller if you live somewhere cool or in an aircon room. There are some corals that will survive, but I'll prefer them to thrive. Mushrooms and zoanthids can do OK without a chiller but coincidentally they will also require less light. Once the light intensity increases, water temperature will also go up due to the heat produced by lamps.

Chillers are only absolutely necessary when MH are used because they are very hot.

[Phang]

Teco is very reliable but most expensive.

AT and Chris,

You can set the hysteresis for the chiller to be 1 degree so that it fluctuates less. Don't trust the crazy digital readout of the chiller, it's inaccurate. Use a separate thermometer instead.

My chiller is set to 27.0 and hysteresis is 0.8, temperature fluctuates from 26.5 to 28.0 but the instruction sheet is next to my chiller so I can't get it right now.

Can the hysteresis be set at 0.8????

I can only set it to 1.......

[Tanzy]

Phang,

Is your readout to 1 decimel place (e.g. 27.4)? You will need to set your chiller to 1 decimel place mode to set the hysteresis in decimels. You can ask Aquatechnic or I'll pass you the instructions in one weeks time when I get back.

[Phang]

No... not to any decimal placing...

This is so far what I have gathered...

P2-Temperature difference before chiller kicks in (usually set at 2 so chiller dun kick in so often)

P3-Minimum temperature setting (Preset at 15)

P4-Maximum Temperature setting (Preset at 35)

P7-Calibration for chiller's display with your thermometer (Mine set at -3)

Is the P6 the setting for decimal placing????

[Tanzy]

I don't know.

[Phang]

I will wait for your instruction manual....

[mv3i]

thanks tanzy ... you are right about spending hrs in fron of the chiller and tank lah .... gotto see what you did to your chiller ... hope it will be useful too .... i was thinking of getting a external temp controller or probe and re-connect it to the one in the chiller . hence the temperature sensing is done directly in the tank and would that be feasible .... is there a compatiblity problem with switching measuring probe .... maybe cedric can advise ?? or AT ... anyone

[Tanzy]

Ya, Cedric will be better at answering that. I don't know how to wire those things.