Beating the Heat! Hot Subject!

[Scooterman]

just got off the phone with Aqua-Logic, they are sending me another Chiller. After going over every detail they think the compressor is shutting down & not cooling properly, it should easily cool the tank under these conditions. Boy I really hope he is right & it works better, I don't even have the MH I want, just running one little MH light now.

 

[Damsel13]

yea, It better work perfectly for the price you have to pay for one.
Stay cool.

 

[DonW]

My house A/C is timed to go fro 79 during the day to 77 at 4:30 Pm so when I get home the house is cooler. Yesterday from a 77 degree room it took three hours to get from 81 in the tank to 78! Today went home for lunch the house is at 79 & the chiller ran for the hour I was there & didn't drop a tenth even. Without the chiller I can open the hood with fans the tank won't go over 81 but with the hood down it will get close to 83. I'm running one MH & feeding the tank return with a sequence Uno Marlin, also it is Tee'd with a ball valve to feed the chiller. I found the optimal flow to get the most out of the chiller but with a higher ambient temp. it isn't cooling, also it isn't blowing out warm air even, last night it did when it was working. It might me some sort of switch the guy said.
BTW the first chiller had a leak, one of the welds was cracked!

You definatly have more patients than me. I would be asking for my money back by now. I'm not sure I could trust it once I got a good one.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

Well they are paying all the shipping etc, I'm at the point where I think I could run two 250 MH lights & not use a chiller at all, I know one thing, the room temp. makes a big difference. One other thing Is it is loud enough when running, not the quietest but I haven't any other 1/4HP chillers to compare to it, only smaller & they were loud for the size also. With just the CL pump I can't really hear anything, the sump return then it isn't so bad but then add the skimmer & chiller & your getting to be on the noisy side. Still not sure If I will continue without using my skimmer or not, that there will help reduce a small amount of heat I'm sure. I know controlling room Temp. & Fans can go a long way in cooling a tank, sorta like having a water tower chiller like used in Power generation. Heck That may work way better IMO more efficient!

 

[DonW]

Well they are paying all the shipping etc, I'm at the point where I think I could run two 250 MH lights & not use a chiller at all, I know one thing, the room temp. makes a big difference. One other thing Is it is loud enough when running, not the quietest but I haven't any other 1/4HP chillers to compare to it, only smaller & they were loud for the size also. With just the CL pump I can't really hear anything, the sump return then it isn't so bad but then add the skimmer & chiller & your getting to be on the noisy side. Still not sure If I will continue without using my skimmer or not, that there will help reduce a small amount of heat I'm sure. I know controlling room Temp. & Fans can go a long way in cooling a tank, sorta like having a water tower chiller like used in Power generation. Heck That may work way better IMO more efficient!

It definatly goes along way. It can do alot more if you can get evap high and top off with much cooler water. I'm going without a chiller at the moment since the little one I trade my bigger one for is to small for the tank. With enough fans Ive got evap up to 10g per day and the tank is staying at 80. Without the fans I'd guess it would go up close to 90. My automation system did reverse their photo period after I took the chiller off line and I think this helps alot. They should go back to normal in a month or so after it cools down. Just in time for the tank to be tore down.

Don

 

[chadmace]

I use the 1/3 hp Prime Tower chiller on my 125. Works like a charm...no matter what temperature it is outside, inside, wherever my tank stays at about 77.4 day and night.

 

[Scooterman]

Don you bring up a good point! I have the House A/C programmed to lower the inside temp to 76 at 4:30PM & then at 10pm 73. My last tank My lights came on around 5PM & off around 4AM when the house was cooler the lights were on, during the warmer day the lights were off, my temps. stayed very level & not too hot, didn't need the chiller. Only one down fall, during the day the lights were out, so during the weekends I couldn't enjoy the tank until late in the day! I may go back to this also.

 

[DonW]

Don you bring up a good point! I have the House A/C programmed to lower the inside temp to 76 at 4:30PM & then at 10pm 73. My last tank My lights came on around 5PM & off around 4AM when the house was cooler the lights were on, during the warmer day the lights were off, my temps. stayed very level & not too hot, didn't need the chiller. Only one down fall, during the day the lights were out, so during the weekends I couldn't enjoy the tank until late in the day! I may go back to this also.

It is sort of a drag on week-ends but our summer is only about a month long anyways. Are you controlling the lights via you plc. I have mine set up so that if we have to have a hot spell it changes on its own. For example yesterday was cooler and today will be cooler and the week-end forcast is cooler. So based on yesterdays temps it will split the difference and give a little more time during the early day and a little more the next day. If it starts getting hot again it will go the other way. It judges what way to go based on chiller cycles and keeps the lights on at the right time to have the least amount of chiller cycles. Works out pretty good.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

I fired my programmer, so I need to get another Naw, I'm so far behind on work, & projects at home I need to get to work & get things done. I have a new 12"x16" control panel but I need a back plate & parts to enlarge the controls, the little panel the PLC is in is already full. I think I may start a slow change in lighting times manually for now, one cool thing I do get to use is the Moon LED's which are blue & the pre-dawn LED's which are white. I can use them during the day & still let the fish sleep, don't think these would bother them too much.