Aquarium Chiller ... How do you hook it up ?

weatherman

weatherman

Member
I must be ignorant I guess ....
I have a beautiful 150 gallon reef tank and have NOW received a 1/4 horsepower In Line Sea Line Chiller. My house gets very warm here in Dallas, Texas, and even with AC I can NOT get the temp. down to 78-80 degrees...thus a chiller..
BUT, there were NO instructions on how to hook this up. I have a general idea, but does one end hook up (clamp) to one of your pumps in the tank to pump water in the chiller? Does the other end of the tubing from the chiller go back into the tank? I mean....does the other end just 'dangle' in the tank?
NO instructions are a killer. I guess Sea Line assumes you can do this yourself. I didn't even get the tubing and don't even know the size to get!!
You would think they would tell you that, wouldn't you? :notsure:
Any comments would be appreciated... :help:
Thanks.
 
frankthetank

frankthetank

Active Member
I live in Dallas, Tx area too. I started this particular tank last October. So I'm rather interested to see how the temp does during the summer.
Sorry, I'm no help to you on your problem though.
 
weatherman

weatherman

Member
Believe me.............temperatures are a nightmare here in North Texas when you're trying to keep a coral reef tank in the upper 70s to near 80. I have a California style home that has a lot of glass and with the air conditioners going constantly, I still have a tough time getting temps. to this status.
Good luck with your tank.........hopefully I can find a way to hook up this 'expensive' chiller of mine....
 
jimosburg

jimosburg

Member
I just ran my chiller through the circulating pump of my sump. Upgraded the pump for more circulation. pump is on my wet dry sump. goes through the chiller and back into the tank. I actually located the chiller in my basement and ran 3/4 line to the chiller and back up. I'll try to post a picture later
 
frankthetank

frankthetank

Active Member
Originally Posted by weatherman
Believe me.............temperatures are a nightmare here in North Texas when you're trying to keep a coral reef tank in the upper 70s to near 80. I have a California style home that has a lot of glass and with the air conditioners going constantly, I still have a tough time getting temps. to this status.
Good luck with your tank.........hopefully I can find a way to hook up this 'expensive' chiller of mine....
I've been a little worried about this because I have 7 windows and a back door in my living room. It's a loft. This is where my tank is. Good news, I replaced all the windows in the house about three years ago to those double pain, gas insulated whatever you call them windows. They're supposed to be pretty energy effecient.
We'll see?!?!?
 
sleasia

sleasia

Active Member
I have a pacific coast inline chiller. last summer I had it hooked up so the output from the pump connected to the input of the chiller and then the output of the chiller connected to the return to the tank. now this tank is plumbed to the basement and its sump is in the basement where it stays cool So I am using the chiller on the new tank which is going to be reef and which sits in front of and below two family room skylights and will likely get serious greenhouse effect. now I have a mag 9.5 pump in the sump pumping water to the input of the chiller and the output of the chiller goes back into another point in the sump. its working fine and keeping the tank at 78. however, its now inside the cabinet/stand and generates alot of heat in there when the doors are all closed, so I will likely just move the chiller outside of the stand. you can either hook them up inline with your main pump, or like the second set up use them with their own pump, but you need to be sure you do not exceed recommended head pressures. Mine for example does not want you to use pumps which exceed 20ft of head pressure. probably because it will blow apart the inside of the chiller eventually. I can get pics tomarrow of the current setup if you like.
 
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