Aquarium Chiller

the_bandit

Member
I don't know much of anything about chillers except that I need one. I live in AZ and have a 55g soon to be reef tank. I can have the tempeture changing constantly. It stays around 79-84 which IMO is bad! I need to know what type of chiller I should buy (1/4, 1/3, etc.) Can chillers be kept inside since my system is smaller? And about what is the price range. Any answers soon would be awesome.
 

teresaq

Active Member
look at the 1/13 hp which is up to 60 gal or a 1/10 which is for 80 gal.
T
they run 329.00 and up
 

the_bandit

Member
Ive got a fan blowing over the top right now and plan to keep that until I buy a chiller. About how much water will I lose of a period of a week?
 

scsinet

Active Member
How much water you lose involves too many variables to predict. The ambient humidity, system specifics, and how you've got your fan set up all factor in. Ultimately, the more water you lose, the more effective your cooling will be since it's evaporation that accomplishes the cooling.
With your system, I'd recommend looking at the largest chiller you can afford, up to about 1/4hp. The reason why is that chillers are expensive, but going up in sizes is only an incremental cost, so by oversizing the chiller, you are paying a bit more now, but if the time comes for you to upgrade tanks, you aren't having to buy the entire unit all over again. I bought a 1/5 for my 55g reef, and when I upgraded tanks, I had to drop $1000 all over again for a new chiller, where I could have spent a couple hundred more up front and avoided that whole cost.
Of course, don't go crazy... larger than 1/4hp and you'll have trouble meeting the minimum flow rate for the unit, and it will short cycle, wearing on the chiller and causing rapid temperature swings.
 
Top