Temp. Control with chiller

balistikb

balistikb

Member
I just got a chiller and it is working great. Brought down my temp to 76 degrees. My problem that I am having is that I see a big fluctuation in temp when I come home from work and look at the memory. Min is 76 but max will be 78.6. I don't want my temp to change so much. My control on the chiller is a dial thermostat and not digital. Could this be it? HAs anyone ever delt with this? Any advise? I know someone is going to say heater, but I would rather find out why this is happening before I put something to work against the chiller.
 
therealtoddius

therealtoddius

Member
Sounds like your controller does not have the capability to control the range of temp variance just the temp itself. Most units are like this so the chiller does not have to run so much to control temp. I use an external contoller on mine and it has the option to control the amount of variance on the temp before the chiller kicks in. I also have mine set to a 2 degree difference. I doubt 2 or 3 degrees is going to hurt your tank over the course of normal daytime heating.
 
balistikb

balistikb

Member
Thanks, I would like to try and keep it down to a minimal temp change though to lesson the fish stress. What is the external contoller? Why did you get one of those? Would that solve my problem?
 
therealtoddius

therealtoddius

Member
I have a delta star chiller and they do not come ith controllers so you have to buy and external one. A external controller is a box that has a power plug and a pluggin that goes to the chiller or heater you wish to control and there is another wire with a sensor attached that you put in the tank or sump for the controller to sense your water temp. Then you just set the display on the contollers screen to the temp you desire and set the temp variance It displays the water temp and where you have the controller temp set.
The only way this would work for you would be if you bypassed your existing controller on your chiller and then hooked up an external controller but like I said and greg also said 2 degrees is not enough change to stress your livestock. A depth change or normal daytime heating in the ocean can be that much.
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
I'd say your is normal...actually pretty good. Both controllers I have came with adjustable variance, even set at a one 1 degree variance its actully more like two.
One thing you might do is raise your temp up a few degrees. 76 is on the low end, if you raised it your chiller might not have to work at all.
FWIW, I have ran temps from 76-83. I find 80 to be around the best...for me.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Just one thought on temperature variance... The ocean is not temperature stable. There are warm and cool currents all the time, not to mention heating from the sun and cooling at night. If you have a 2 degree variation that's probably less than what animals in the ocean experience. :thinking:
 
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