Chiller flowrate question please?

hi i have a JBJ arctica 250 ( 1/3 hp ) and my main tank is 708 litres, plus sump should be 800 plus litres..

the chiller is rated for 1280 litres of water, and the min/ max flow rate is 1800 / 9000 litre per hour. i currently have a 2000 litre per hour pump.

i set the temp to 26.8 c, and it kicks in at 27.3.

what i notice is, it chills from 27.3 to 26.8 in less than 1 min, and then stays at 26.8 for like 8 minutes. and after dropping to 26.7, it'll only take around 1 min to rise up to 27.2 , and it stays there for like 20 minutes till it reaches 27.3 and starts chilling again. is this normal? or is my:-/ flowrate too slow?

i'm planning to upgrade to 3000 litres perhour, as 5000 litre per hour would require a change in piping! would that be sufficient?

 

Hi there. For my own help, I hope you don't mind that I've substituted non metric numbers into your article. This helps me, and others in the USA who are not as smart as the rest of the world and simply can not convert on the fly, as it were. Here goes:

hi i have a JBJ arctica 250 ( 1/3 hp ) and my main tank is 190G, plus sump should be 211G..

the chiller is rated for 340G of water, and the min/ max flow rate is 475 / 2400GPH. i currently have a 528 GPH pump.

i set the temp to 80.25F, and it kicks in at 81.14F.

what i notice is, it chills from 81.14F to 80.24F in less than 1 min, and then stays at 80.24 for like 8 minutes. and after dropping to 80.06, it'll only take around 1 min to rise up to 80.96, and it stays there for like 20 minutes till it reaches 81.14 and starts chilling again. is this normal? or is my flowrate too slow?

i'm planning to upgrade to 792 GPH, as 1320 GPH would require a change in piping! would that be sufficient?



OK. I have the same chiller, except I run it on a 90G tank, (340 litres). You claim the chiller is running for about 11 minutes on, followed by a down time of about 20 min's? That sounds right on target.

On my tank, my chiller runs about 35% of the time. After exhaustive reading and asking around (I posted a thread almost identical to yours) on this site (see this article for relevant info), I've confirmed that a properly rated chiller will run for about 35% of the time--just like mine does. Here's another related thread.
Some very helpful posters on 3reef drilled into my head that irrespective of the flow rate, as long as it falls within the suggested rates by the manufacturer (in our case 1800-9000 LPH, or 480-2400 GPH), the system will still run about 35% of the time. It will reach equillibrium no matter what. In one scenario, it might run for 20 min's and remain off for 30 minutes, or on for 30 and off for 90, but it's still maintaining the temp, and running about a third of the time.

So if your chiller is running for about 11 minutes, followed by an off time of 20 min's, you're right on track. You don't "need" to up your flow rate unless it makes you happy to do so.

 

going from 27.3 to 26.8 in less than a minute is good. not having enough flow will freeze the chiller, to much flow wont allow the chiller to work. try the 3k lph pump if you notice the tanks temps are more stable then stick with it. every system is different.