Chiller placement

[Lylelovett]

Hi everyone,

Context: I live in Phoenix... so it's hot.

I'm building my first reef tank and since we usually have our home temperature/AC set to the mid 80's, I'm going to need a chiller.

AND, since the tank will be in the main room of the house I'm trying to keep the look as clean as possible.

So my questions:
Where do you keep your chiller?
If it is outside the tank, how intrusive (if at all) is it in the room?
Can I keep it under the tank?
Can I keep it under the tank if I have ventilation fans?

And any other chiller advice you might have is always appreciated.

Thanks,
J

 

[Javamahn]

You can keep it under the tank but like the Red Sea reefer stands I would separate it so that the hot air it expels is not in with the sump. Most people use fans over the sump and tank to cool before they use a chiller which can lower temps by a few degrees and won't be as noisy or expensive to run.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

agree, i would try a fan or 2 over the sump before going into chiller. if that works you wont have to worry about it. if not then you can place the chiller inside and install a few computer chassis fans to vent out the hot air.

 

[Lylelovett]

agree, i would try a fan or 2 over the sump before going into chiller. if that works you wont have to worry about it. if not then you can place the chiller inside and install a few computer chassis fans to vent out the hot air.

I will look into that. From my years of PC building I know there are some great large diameter silent/near-silent case/cpu fans that could be interesting to try.

 

[Javamahn]

If you have access to a 3D printer there are already flexible mounts for the fans that will fit on a sump

 

[mfinn]

Is there anyway you could route the chiller lines to go outside?
When I needed a chiller I didn't want a heat producing appliance in my house, so I put it outside on my patio.
I built a small structure to hide it from view.
No noise and no heat from it.

 

[Crimson]

You keep your ac at mid 80's...jeez. How do you sleep? I complain at mid-upper 70's. Then again its much more humid here during the summer.

It's a catch 22, because the chiller will heat the room and in turn heat the tank. I have a chiller as well and keep it at 76 because my euro chiller has a 2 degree threshold, meaning when it hits 78 it kicks on. Living in the communist state of New Jersey it does kick on when windows are open and the outside temp is lower than 80 and the humidity is low. Otherwise, I keep ac around 76.

Like others said moving the chiller outside of the fish room will be your best bet. You don't want your tank past 81-82 at the most, below 80 is OK and 76-78 imo is ideal.

Edit, I keep my chiller next to tank in a corner and it does put out some nice heat, but like I said it only kicks on when I use the windows so in my case not a big deal.

 

[Lylelovett]

Is there anyway you could route the chiller lines to go outside?
When I needed a chiller I didn't want a heat producing appliance in my house, so I put it outside on my patio.
I built a small structure to hide it from view.
No noise and no heat from it.

Not really. And I live just outside Phoenix, AZ so it's 105-115 for nearly 3 solid months. I'm not sure one of those chillers would survive a summer outside.

 

[Lylelovett]

You keep your ac at mid 80's...jeez. How do you sleep? I complain at mid-upper 70's. Then again its much more humid here during the summer.

It's a catch 22, because the chiller will heat the room and in turn heat the tank. I have a chiller as well and keep it at 76 because my euro chiller has a 2 degree threshold, meaning when it hits 78 it kicks on. Living in the communist state of New Jersey it does kick on when windows are open and the outside temp is lower than 80 and the humidity is low. Otherwise, I keep ac around 76.

Like others said moving the chiller outside of the fish room will be your best bet. You don't want your tank past 81-82 at the most, below 80 is OK and 76-78 imo is ideal.

Edit, I keep my chiller next to tank in a corner and it does put out some nice heat, but like I said it only kicks on when I use the windows so in my case not a big deal.

Sleep: Mid-80's and fans - no big deal. And yes, not humid here at all right now really.

The tank will be in a great room, roughly 15 x 40ft with 15ft ceilings, so the chiller is not going to heat up the room really; drop in a bucket. I'm going to investigate putting it in it's own space under the tank with ventilation fans, as well as just outside the tank in the room. If it has to be the latter it won't be the end of the world.

And it's just these few super-hot summer months that I'm most concerned about.

 

[DUMBO]

I live in NYC and just installed a cooler because I couldn’t rely on my in window AC unit (old building) to keep the temperature steady.

I didn’t want to add a fan because like you I want the tank to look as clean and simple as possible outwardly.

What I did was route the chiller tubing up to my loft upstairs so that it both removes the eye sore, and it puts out hot air in an area where my tank isn’t.

I’m really happy with it, and recommend it as long as you aren’t afraid of some DIY.

 

[Lylelovett]

I live in NYC and just installed a cooler because I couldn’t rely on my in window AC unit (old building) to keep the temperature steady.

I didn’t want to add a fan because like you I want the tank to look as clean and simple as possible outwardly.

What I did was route the chiller tubing up to my loft upstairs so that it both removes the eye sore, and it puts out hot air in an area where my tank isn’t.

I’m really happy with it, and recommend it as long as you aren’t afraid of some DIY.

This whole hobby is DIY isn't it?

I'm assuming you've got a pretty good sized pump to get all the water up to the chiller?

 

[DUMBO]

I used a 1/2” outer diameter tube with a 1050 GPH pump I got off Amazon. It doesn’t take up that much space in my opinion.

 

[Oberst Oswald]

It's a catch 22, because the chiller will heat the room and in turn heat the tank. I have a chiller as well and keep it at 76 because my euro chiller has a 2 degree threshold, meaning when it hits 78 it kicks on. Living in the communist state of New Jersey it does kick on when windows are open and the outside temp is lower than 80 and the humidity is low. Otherwise, I keep ac around 76.

Like others said moving the chiller outside of the fish room will be your best bet. You don't want your tank past 81-82 at the most, below 80 is OK and 76-78 imo is ideal.

Edit, I keep my chiller next to tank in a corner and it does put out some nice heat, but like I said it only kicks on when I use the windows so in my case not a big deal

I put my chiller a little away from the tank with tubing. Have the intake pump in one end of sump and the return line going into the sock on the other side. Set to 79.5 degrees. It cools the sump water which the main return pump feeds the display. Cycle repeated.

Also agree with the above quote on NJ.

 

[Crimson]

This whole hobby is DIY isn't it?

I'm assuming you've got a pretty good sized pump to get all the water up to the chiller?

You just need a pump that gives good head. Make sure you match the correct pump with chiller. Check the manual for min max GPH, if the GPH is too high the chiller will not be able to cool the water fast enough.

I should of said I only open the windows when the temp outside is below 80 and the humidity is low.

<SNIP>
Also agree with the above quote on NJ.

Way off topic but:

Hello comrade!

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I have 500w of MH over my tank and do not need a chiller. I run open top and keep my house cool, 75-77°f and my tank runs 77.5-79°f. The cost of the chiller, power to run it and a pump to feed water to it will cost as much as lowering your home AC temp to the mid to upper 70s. If you have the chiller inside the same room as the tank or even inside the home or worse yet in the stand, both the chiller and home AC will be over worked by fighting the heat put off by the chiller. This will further increase engery costs.