a nother chiller???

The "bottle water cooler" works, just adjust the number of bottles you add to the tank to control the rate of cool down.

We got our chiller from the used equipment section of a LFS. But I've seen them on Crag's List, Ebay, and occasionally even here...

As for what size, check the label on what ever you find to see what the recommendations are...but, I'd expect that a chiller around 1/10 to 1/4 hp would be all that you need.

 

according to your heat, a bottle of ice, 8oz coke bottle will melt in a couple minutes and won't have an effect on your temp.


In my system, 55 Gallon, 10 gallon sump, I was running at 86 according to my corallife little thermometer, which is confirmed to be accurate with my infrared thermometer, and the bottles didn't drop it a degree of a degree. It did nothing at all. I won't suggest it cause it seems to be nothing but a waste of time an effort.


Fans are cheap, fans work, i dropped 3 whole degrees in about 30 mins, but evaporation became a HUGE problem. I was topping off every other day. I was adjusting the lights and knocked in the Azoo quad fan setup and killed it. So now I'm without any cooling and I have to top off once a week, just like before the fans. The fans also cause the room to be humid as hell.


A chiller seems to be the only solution to the problem with the least amount of a side effect of any kind from what i've read. I don't have chiller money, so my guys are gonna have to suffer the heat, but it's cool, cause they are caribbean fish and coral. They all seem fine thus far. I'm not sweating it anymore.

 

I would get a 1/10HP or 1/5 to give you room for growth if you ever increase your fuge size.
They do go on sale on occassion though, I picked up the 1/4 real cheap. Don't get tempted by a low cost chiller, go for a quality chiller on sale instead. Here is a calculator to determine the correct size:
How to Size a Chiller
Marine Depot has the 1/10hp on sale right now, 10% off:
JBJ Arctica Titanium Chiller DBA-075 1/10HP

 

Be sure to look around, DR Foster & Smith has the same chiller for a bit less. The 1/10 hp is rated for up to 130 gallon systems.

 

Ivy is a few hours south of me... hotter and drier. I have to add about 2g a day to my system, if I go 24 hours my sump is almost dry. I can only image ivy has it worse.

I welcome the humidity the tank brings, it's not any worse than a swamp cooler.

you guys in humid climates have it good

 

Ya I well second that greysoul
but I have one more question would an old dorm room frig with 3g bucket with water in side the bucket inside the fridge with a tube running throw the bucket to and from the tank work like a chiller

 

In short, no, a fridge is not built to cool a continuous heat load. What you will find is that the compressor will soon over heat and burn out. There are many threads on this topic....

 

u can make a diy chiller out of a mini fridge it may cost up to 300$ depending

 

Actually short answer: Kinda.

It depends on a lot of factors. Mostly the rated duty of the compressor and the BTU rating. Many cheap fridges have very small compressors with a 10% or worse duty cycle. You can raise the duty cycle of almost any component with more active cooling. Most "silent" mini fridges don't have a cooling fan, add one and you will make it more efficient w/ a longer duty cycle...the better fridge and components the better off you are...

but good components aren't cheap, so you're back in the same price range... $400 or so.

You can get away with it for a while, I would imagine a full summer wouldn't be out of the question, but the mini-fridge will fail MUCH sooner than a chiller, and your efficiency will suffer compared to a chiller. i.e for every dollar you spend chilling water with a pourpose built aquarium chiller you'll spend $2 with the DIY mini fridge cooler.

I think you're better off filling a large cooler with ice and some water and running some PEX tubing around inside of it. Pump water through the hose... replace ice as needed. 2-3 # of ice several times throughout the day in little bottles you have to refreeze vs 40-50# of ice once every 24 hours.

-Doug