Are you "chilling" your reef? Why or why not?

[LRT]

Have to run chiller here in Az. It's already in the hundreds and my wife doesn't like to run the ac in the house if she doesnt have to.

 

[Quicklynx]

No, because for 10+ years my fish/coral don't care if its 81 in summer or 77 in winter.

I need to be here...

 

[Niko219]

The air conditioner in my room is pretty consistent and my heater is set at 77 Fahrenheit so no need for one

 

[Neil S.]

A lot of factors come into play when determining if you'll need a chiller or not for your reef tank. Where you live, the location of your tank, your lighting and more. With it starting to warm up outside I thought it would be a good time to discuss chillers!

What is a chiller?
Here is a simple definition from First Tank Guide: An aquarium chiller is really a small refrigerator which is installed in-line with an external filtration system to cool - or chill - the water as it passes through the system. When coupled with a thermostat, the chiller can prevent the aquarium from rising above a per-determined temperature.

1. Do you run a chiller on your saltwater aquarium?

2. If you answered yes, what brand of chiller are you running?


Image via MarineDepot.com

Neat question: Where I live, it is generally only hot for about 3-4 months total, with spring and fall only being accidents....or as one person stated "....8 months of winter, and 4 months of bad sledding...". So no, a chiller is not needed, nor is a fan blowing at the water. I do have a fan in the sump compartment which turns the air over in the cabinet about 15 times an hour so that does contribute to some temperature reduction as the air here is REALLY dry so the evaporative process works just fine to keep the water cool if the air temperature rises. (by the way VERY HOT is considered to be over 30 C ). The LFS do not carry coolers as regular stock.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

no chiller, tank is in the basement, always cool down here

 

[raffy026]

I use two chillers the main one an Aqua USA 1 horse power and second is my backup 1/3 artica. for my 180 gallon display reef in Puerto Rico, it gets hot.

 

[ReefLab]

I really don't get chillers to be honest. I keep my house 68-75° all year long, never worry about the tank temp getting high. If the AC went down and its over 90° outside its considered an emergency and will be fixed within the day/night (multiple 24/7 AC repair companies here). It gets to 105°+ in the summertime here in Las Vegas.

A garage setup is a different story..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I kept my aquarium cool, not with a chiller or fan, but with cold tap water run through a big loop of plastic tubing in my sump.
Water flow was controlled by a temperature controller and solenoid on the cold water tap, and the used water was sent out to the yard to water plants or keep the pond topped off.

 

[Petro27]

JBJ 1/3 HP on my 150 gal. - LED's & T-5's - mixed reef
JBJ 1/4 HP on my 55 gal. - LED only - fish only
and an extra JBJ 1/4 HP as a back up, for whatever reason if I have an issue with one of the working ones I have a replacement. Summers in Santa Clarita, CA, it's not uncommon to get to 115 degrees outside. A chiller is a must for me!!

 

[Mark Novack]

Do most of the people without chiller or fan have air conditioning? My tank would pass 30C without cooling.

 

[dbowman5]

No, I live in MAINE! I do run multiple heaters though.

see the dark spotted cow gently grazing the luscious green grass, well it was there must have eaten all the grass and moved on.

 

[sg88]

Yes. In Hawaii, central air, or even AC in living spaces is uncommon and I don’t have. But with global warming there has been a well documented shift in our Tradewind pattern to less than half the breezy days than when I was a kid in the 60’s. So my 15 gallon saltwater tank will reach 87 F in the heat of the summer. I use a Chill Solutions CSXC-1 thermoelectric chiller that keeps my little tank at 79 F. Never a need for heaters.
Just got an SCA 50 gallon with 17 gallon sump and am going to try to use two of the Tunze Aquawind fans. If that doesn’t work, will need to get a real air conditioner-type cooler.

As a related aside, I think it would be great if experienced reefers could work with marine biologists to study and/or breed heat tolerant corals to allow repopulation of our ocean reefs. With tens of thousands (or more) of tanks worldwide, everyone producing a little frag here and there could really make a huge difference.

 

[Chrisfish]

No chiller but I do have a fan to keep it below 80 in the summer.

 

[Scott Ulrich]

It can get hot in Ohio summer, but all my tanks are in the basement, so it stays cool down there.

 

[trmiv]

No. I have an air conditioner.

 

[Fastball16]

Tank is in an air conditioned home. Home is 75 at night, 78 during the day. Havent seen the need to run a chiller as I prefer the temp at approx 78.

 

[nsuderman]

I answered other because I need to cool my water, but could not work out a good way to fit an adequately sized chiller for my 300G tank in my very small fish room. I explored a split system with titanium heat exchanger, but that would require special soldering So instead I installed a split system room AC for the fish room itself that way the heat from the lights gets removed before it ever heats up the water. Its has worked very well. When my house does get warm which happens very infrequently it will also remove the excess heat slowly and stablely by first raising the tank temp then the fish room. Never raises more than 1/2 a degree

 

[Fishlover56]

A lot of factors come into play when determining if you'll need a chiller or not for your reef tank. Where you live, the location of your tank, your lighting and more. With it starting to warm up outside I thought it would be a good time to discuss chillers!

What is a chiller?
Here is a simple definition from First Tank Guide: An aquarium chiller is really a small refrigerator which is installed in-line with an external filtration system to cool - or chill - the water as it passes through the system. When coupled with a thermostat, the chiller can prevent the aquarium from rising above a per-determined temperature.

1. Do you run a chiller on your saltwater aquarium?

2. If you answered yes, what brand of chiller are you running?


Image via MarineDepot.com

I dont run a chiller
A) im in the uk and its rarely we every see really hot days lol
B) monitoring my tank temps over the year i dont see it ever get to high on the summer is pretty much self sustaining but if it did get to hot i would add a fan thats on hand in case

 

[Boomer52]

I live in Southern California and do not have AC. In the summer time, especially when we get a heat wave, the tank would be pushing 90F or more without the chiller. in the winter time it hardly ever runs.

 

[sfin52]

My tank sits in the basement. It never gets above 70.