Chiller versus jug-o-ice??

In a book that I have been reading recently, it suggested to experiment with using a jug of ice to control temperature vice a chiller to reduce costs. Has anyone tried this? I am contemplating this using a sump (a gorgeous rubbermaid tub) under my new 90 (when I get it) then running that to a fuge.

A great time might be when cycling the tank before adding anything.

 

works great as long as you have a steady supply of frozen jugs, a small fan blowing across the water surface is just as effective and potentially more cost effective when you concider the electricity used to freeze all those jugs.

 

It is also a known fact that if the freezer is fully stocked you use less electricity and an empty one.

 

The heat here in texas yesterday got my tank up to 83 so i started floating gallon ziplock bags in my tank to get The temp down.

 

Great info all. I have a huge freezer in the garage. Think I will start filling jugs: )


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The concern that i would have is that you have to be there to notive the tank temp rising and place the frozen jugs in the tank. If temperature is a know issue then i would say there is no reason to not invest in a chiller. Considering all the money invested in an average tank.

I personally have a chiller connected to my 150g and i believe it has turned on all of twice and i am running 2x 250w halides and 2x 110w vho's and my temp is a steady 76-78 degrees. the chiller will kick on at 80. I will say that i keep the house at about 70-74 degrees in the summer.

 

Here on the central coast of california it doesnt get hot that often so I really dont need a chiller, but on the very rare day that it does get warm I will use those reusable ice packs. I have a bunch of them in the freezer in ziploc bags and when needed can drop them into the sump. I was at the lfs one day and watched him dump 5 pound bags of ice in the sump to try to help cool it down. I dont recommend that one as it seems like it would be hard to kept your salinity and sg stable doing that.

 

ReefBruh is correct. As Sean p f stated, the problem with the ice jug/zip-lock bags is that the temp will usually go up in the mid day or afternoon time-frame. If you work a day routine you will not be there to add the ice when it is needed. Adding it in the morning will drop the temp when it is not needed and does very little when it is needed.
I live it the desert and a chiller is a requirement here. I see you are from a high temp location as well. I had to buy a new chiller last month ($580) as my old one quit working. The new one, the same 1/4 HP as the old one uses only 60 percent of the electricity as the old one. I put a "Kill A Watt" meter on mine and measured the KWHs used in a 24 hour period. Calculating the cost of a KWH here last month (a hot one), the chiller cost me between $8.00 and $15.00 per month depending on what tier I am in when they read the meter. I had the A/C controller allow the temp in the house to go to 85* when I left for the day and had it come one an hour before I returned to 78*. Now that I retired, I keep the temp much cooler all day so the chiller will run less. I will pay $15 a month or $0.50 a day not to lug those jugs back and forth. Just food for thought. Chillers are not cheap but you can maybe get a smaller than suggested one if your temps only climb a small amount each day. The only drawback to the fan idea suggested (which woks well) is more evaporation occurs.

The problem with ice idea that ibefishy saw used is that you don't know the quality of the water used to make the ice either.

 

The cooling BTU's available from melting ice are miniscule in comparison to the volume needed to cool a 90 gallon tank. For a temporary methed it works in a pinch but the cost to freeze the water is much more than the cost to run a small fan blowing across the surface which will do a much better job.
I'ts kind of like all the people who try to convert a small dorm fridge to a chiller, it doesn't work very well and they burn up quickly since they are not designed for continous duty.

 

Excellent points all. It seems logical that a chiller as a back up may be the best policy. I plan on using an AquaticLife 8 bulb 48" t5HO config with LEDs. I have noticed no increase in temperature > 1 degree in my 55 hex using the 4 bulb 24" config. I will scour Craigslist to see if I can find one. Any thoughts on determining if a used chiller is still operable?