Imo chillers put out a lot of heat and are very noisy, and expensive to operate. I live in Vegas and even here people have pretty much ditched their chillers. Unless you have money to burn, people are opting to run their rooms cooler and use fans. This is now mostly possible because metal halides are now gone the way of the dinosaurs and more and more people are keeping their tanks uncovered. Venting the stands with cross flow built in fans and cooler equipment altogether including pumps and power heads. The need for chillers is definitely not as necessary as they used to be. The only people I know that still use chillers are those with separate fish rooms with the total filtration package in, and even then with the advent of new technology in lighting and equipment find the chillers really arent working that hard anymore.
Lets talk tank cooling...
- Thread starter Devaji
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Devaji
7500 Club Member
I totally agree that in most cases chiller are prob. not needed. its great to see better & more efficient tech in the hobby its must needed as the price for fossil fuels and power going up keep us in the hobby.
the challenge here is the I do not own the home, so little to no mods are an option. there is no central air so I cant just turn up the AC.
the place is very poorly insulated. heck on one side it just OSB board and dry wall. over the barn. I get by as its hard to find places to live in a tourist town. all the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires as the saying goes so what about us "normal" folks. so I am happy with it just makes for a challenge that I have to over come.
I do wonder what a few fan across the sump would do keep in mind I want stable temp at or around 72. as over 74 then can go down hill fast from there. so looking to cool about 10 degrees. from 3 to 8 are the hot time.
the window AC is an option but I wonder how efficient and cost effective it would be? could work but I would have to have a pretty big unit and that coast almost as much as a chiller.
SO at this point my options are:
1. ditch the hole sea horse tank idea
2. move tank down stairs to a cool place basically trading places with bedroom and living room.
3. pony up buy a chiller and hope in keeping the fish cool for a few months I dont fry
4. try a gallon of ice and fans and see how it goes as I build and cycle the tank then do #3 or 2
to be honest I would rather (like us all) put that money inside the tank. that said I would feel like a royal butt if I killed my sea horse do to bacteria infection from high tank temps.
at this point I am going back and forth between 4 and 3 maybe even #2 just that the living room as better views and more natural light =better space to hang out in.
no I would have to move the tank down to the main level.
Adding the pc fans to the side of my t5, has dropped my temp from 82-83 mid day, to a peak of 78 and a low of 77 (my heaters kick in to maintain at min 77) so a 1degree F’ swing is all I take at most.
I just snagged 2 fans out of a pc. Cut a 12v power supply with proper amp load, and wired them up. They’re plugged into the extra 120v output of my t5 fixture and cut on when the lights do. Muuuuuch better.
I just snagged 2 fans out of a pc. Cut a 12v power supply with proper amp load, and wired them up. They’re plugged into the extra 120v output of my t5 fixture and cut on when the lights do. Muuuuuch better.
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Devaji
7500 Club Member
nice tank @ReeferMaddness843 yeah I decided to get the tank set up and cycled 1st before I go spending money. chances are I will need one, if for nothing else peace of mind. goona tray a fan across the sump 1st then go from there.
thanks everyone for your feedback!
cheers,
Deva
thanks everyone for your feedback!
cheers,
Deva
Thanks! I was doing an old table hockey fan directly down on the sump and that worked. Loud as all get out, only reason I switched to the pc fans. Lol
