Skimmer & Chiller In The Garage?

[roberthu526]

Hi everyone, I am planning for a 300G build and I have a couple of questions hoping to get some help from here.

Below is a sketch I drew to visualize the situation. Basically the tank is going to sit in my hobby room/home office. The room is on the west side of the house and it gets very hot in the summer especially in the afternoon. I plan to run a chiller to keep the temperature down and I want to keep the chiller out of this room to keep all heat out. My first thought was since this room is next to the garage, I can keep the chiller in the garage and run probably 8-10 feet of PVC through the wall. Then I realized that since I am already pumping the water into the garage, why not also keep the skimmer outside and draw fresh air all year round?

I plan to have the water run into the chiller first, then into the skimmer, then back into the tank. The chill (JBJ 1/3 HP) I bought requires similar flow rate to the skimmer (SRO 6000 EXT) so flow shouldn't be an issue. The total length of the plumbing is probably going to be 15-20 feet. The garage gets as high as 95F in the summer.

Does anyone see any potential issue with this design? Or has anyone tried this? Any comments and suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

My tank and all equipment sits in garage and tank opens up in hallway inside the house.
I live in Oklahoma and it get 130f in summer and freezing in winter's.
I have a 1.5 hp chiller and 900w titanium rod heaters. Skimmer is also in garage. I never had any issues keeping temps stable.
In your case you will have to account for more longer PVC and head loss when calculating flow through both equipments.
I don't see a problem in the setup.
Good luck

 

[roberthu526]

My tank and all equipment sits in garage and tank opens up in hallway inside the house.
I live in Oklahoma and it get 130f in summer and freezing in winter's.
I have a 1.5 hp chiller and 900w titanium rod heaters. Skinner is also in garage. I never had any issues keeping temps stable.
In your case you will have to account for more longer PVC and head loss when calculating flow through both equipments.
I don't see a problem in the setup.
Good luck

Awesome! Thank you for sharing your success! Any advice on which should be hook first? Chiller or skimmer? Now after some thinking I worry that if the water goes through the chiller first, the chiller may get clogged easily?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

i would do skimmer first because you will need to adjust the perfect flow through it. chiller will work at pretty much any rate of flow. Running chiller after the skimmer will also somewhat safeguard clogging. as water coming out of skimmer will be more cleaner than tank water (in theory). I would put a strainer on the feed line to both so you can insure no debris get into the chiller.

 

[roberthu526]

i would do skimmer first because you will need to adjust the perfect flow through it. chiller will work at pretty much any rate of flow. Running chiller after the skimmer will also somewhat safeguard clogging. as water coming out of skimmer will be more cleaner than tank water (in theory). I would put a strainer on the feed line to both so you can insure no debris get into the chiller.

Got it. Thanks a lot! It’s always reassuring when you hear someone has already succeed with the method.

 

[ReeferBud]

I also have a chiller in the garage and run about 20 ft of pipe from the sump. It has worked well for me. I have a pump connected to my Apex and it only turns on when the chiller turns on. This way I avoid running another pump continuously.

If the main purpose of putting the skimmer in the garage is to draw fresh air, another option to think about is to just run a tube from where your other equipment is to the outside.

In my case, the garage will get extremely hot with the chiller exhaust and depending on your garage setup, you may have things that you don’t want getting in your tank (VOCs from paints, car exhaust, etc)

 

[roberthu526]

I also have a chiller in the garage and run about 20 ft of pipe from the sump. It has worked well for me. I have a pump connected to my Apex and it only turns on when the chiller turns on. This way I avoid running another pump continuously.

If the main purpose of putting the skimmer in the garage is to draw fresh air, another option to think about is to just run a tube from where your other equipment is to the outside.

In my case, the garage will get extremely hot with the chiller exhaust and depending on your garage setup, you may have things that you don’t want getting in your tank (VOCs from paints, car exhaust, etc)

Thank you for sharing. Our garage is relative clean and is closed most of the time. I am not too worried about the exhaust since it it gets out from the rear. Keeping the skimmer outside also helps quiet the room as well as keeping the odor out which is a major plus for the wife...

 

[mfinn]

When I used metal halide and vho lights on my 240, I had to have a chiller, but putting it anywhere inside was out of the question.
So I put outside on my patio. It was protected under the planter bench, but I made a little dog house type cover for it anyway, with the vent end open.
There was 28' 1" pvc pipe and about a dozen fittings, between the chiller and the tank.
Worked perfect.
I had this setup this way for about 15 years, until I went all led about 6 years ago.

 

[roberthu526]

When I used metal halide and vho lights on my 240, I had to have a chiller, but putting it anywhere inside was out of the question.
So I put outside on my patio. It was protected under the planter bench, but I made a little dog house type cover for it anyway, with the vent end open.
There was 28' 1" pvc pipe and about a dozen fittings, between the chiller and the tank.
Worked perfect.
I had this setup this way for about 15 years, until I went all led about 6 years ago.

WOW glad my issue wasn’t that serious. But I am glad to hear that it worked out well for you. From halos to LED is a big leap. Did the corals adjust fine?

 

[mfinn]

WOW glad my issue wasn’t that serious. But I am glad to hear that it worked out well for you. From halos to LED is a big leap. Did the corals adjust fine?

I went with Radions.
Used the acclimation mode, started low and stayed conservative.
Corals adjusted fine.

It was my wife who had trouble. She nearly had a stroke when she found out I spent our tax return that year on lights.

 

[roberthu526]

I went with Radions.
Used the acclimation mode, started low and stayed conservative.
Corals adjusted fine.

It was my wife who had trouble. She nearly had a stroke when she found out I spent our tax return that year on lights.

Amateur mistake. I usually plan a year ahead for that kind of purchase. I didnt even tell my wife how much return we got since I am the one who does tax every year. Also low ball on bonus helps too.

 

[mfinn]

Amateur mistake. I usually plan a year ahead for that kind of purchase. I didnt even tell my wife how much return we got since I am the one who does tax every year. Also low ball on bonus helps too.

LOL.
Unfortunately she does the taxes.
She found out when she went to balance the checkbook.

 

[roberthu526]

LOL.
Unfortunately she does the taxes.
She found out when she went to balance the checkbook.

dang that got hurt...
My bonus got doubled last year but I didn’t tell her. Bought ton of stuff last Black Friday but had a hard time finding place to hide them. So they sat in my office for like two months...

 

[theMeat]

Sorry if i’m Reposting. Didn’t read the whole thread.

Why not put the entire sump in the garage, and run an air line outside for skimmer

 

[roberthu526]

Sorry if i’m Reposting. Didn’t read the whole thread.

Why not put the entire sump in the garage, and run an air line for skimmer outside

I have thought about that. But that means I would have to make a lot of holes on the wall to let the plumbing through. Also keeping the sump in the garage means 1/3 of the water volume is exposed to close to outside temperature which doesn’t seem to be a good idea.

 

[mfinn]

WOW glad my issue wasn’t that serious. But I am glad to hear that it worked out well for you. From halos to LED is a big leap. Did the corals adjust fine?

And for what it's worth, I used a dedicated chiller pump, which was on the return end of the sump.
Probably the cleanest water going through the chiller.

 

[theMeat]

You’re running a chiller so...

Use Pex tubing

Having a nice roomy, dry, stand with no sump is nice. And easy acces to sump in garage with no tank above it is awesome

 

[roberthu526]

And for what it's worth, I used a dedicated chiller pump, which was on the return end of the sump.
Probably the cleanest water going through the chiller.

I plan to set the pump in the return section too.

 

[Breadman03]

I second the sump in the garage thought. Some insulation around the sump would combat cold temps and, well, chiller...

But you don't want to do that. You might consider a recirculating skimmer so that your feed speed can vary, but the recirculation will keep the skimmer stable. Remember to plumb in bypasses so that you can take something offline with the turn of a few valves and keep the rest running.

 

[roberthu526]

I second the sump in the garage thought. Some insulation around the sump would combat cold temps and, well, chiller...

But you don't want to do that. You might consider a recirculating skimmer so that your feed speed can vary, but the recirculation will keep the skimmer stable. Remember to plumb in bypasses so that you can take something offline with the turn of a few valves and keep the rest running.

Thank you!

When you say bypass did you mean running the chiller/skimmer loop using a dedicated pump? I am going to use a varios 6 Pump for that and keep the flow at around 1000GPH.