Joe's Wet Dream, A 550 Gallon Work In Progress

[Jobiwan]

No water pressure issues from the source water scootie, we have 58 to 60 pounds, good as gold. The issue is a 75 foot run on the tubing, cheaper and more efficient ( and definitely less complex) to have two units in separate locations than to get involved with a pressure pump I figures....

 

[Jobiwan]

I Thought Reefkeepers Were Smart.....

I have recently discovered that being a successful reefkeeper is, conventional wisdom to the contrary, no indication of any level of intelligence. It has come to my attention that an individual who has spent 9 months examining every detail and aspect that he could think of involving the construction of his dream reef system neglected one minor detail.....that would be making sure that it would actually fit through the door to his home.. Anyway, fortunatly for me my wife's legs have limited stamina, and after an hour or so she finally tired of kicking my butt. Luckily, my contractor who built my home has taken sympathy on my plight (once he quit laughing) and will come over and rip out the necessary windows and door jambs.....

 

[Scooterman]

60 PSI is slim, I push over 83PSI source It will work though, just not as efficient.

Man, thought they made all doors 6ft wide, sorry to here that man, On the bright side, I'm sure you will have a list of things you wish you would of done, mine keeps getting bigger:doubt:

 

[Jobiwan]

Pressure does make a big difference, Spectrapure is introducing a system a 1 to 1 production/reject ratio involving a pump system, I think it sells for around $500.00, I imagine one can save quite a bit going DIY...

 

[Jobiwan]

Chiller on the Way

I ordered a Tradewind 1 HP chiller today, It will ship tomorrow from the factory in CA somewhere, should be here by midweek, I'm calling the factory tomorrow, hoping I can run a pump at less than 25 GPM, we shall see...

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

I have all SpectraPure parts for my RO unit. My membrane is a 90gpd and my psi is around 58-60. I need to call Jason and get filter replacements.

 

[Jobiwan]

I went spectrapure too, good stuff, looking forward to seeing how the top off setup works, I got the redundant setup with float switch and solenoid...

 

[Scooterman]

Joe If you end up having Chiller issues let me know
I just happen to go through three in a matter of weeks Hope a 1H.P. is big enough.
The 75GPD membranes from what I understand are more efficient than a 100gpd membrane & I bet I can get almost as much out of two 75's over two 100's but lets save that for the pros. Also doing it automatically, are you doing anything about the creep, from what I understand, topping off like that you get lot of TDS's from creep because if the many times the unit goes on & off thought the day.

 

[Jobiwan]

What is creep Scootie? I'm thinking it wouldn't be salt creep you are rererring to, and I assume TDS is total dissolved solids, I don't understand where that comes in unless it's in reference to the micron sediment filters, but that seems more af a particulate vs. dissolved issue, I'm a bit slow, please explain...

For our climate 1 HP should be more than enough for my chiller, 3/4 would probably be fine, but we shall see, don't know much about chillers never having had one, but I have heard that there is a lot of variation amongst the different brands when it comes to actual performance for any given HP or BTU rating. I'm trying to remember your chiller issues without digging through your thread again, were they related to draw down capacity for a given rating of certains brands?

I couldn't find any real info about Tradewinds, good or bad, on RF, RC, or Zeovit, perhaps no news is good news, people tend to scream about problems don't they. I'm gonna call the factory today to ask a couple of questions, always good to do that after you buy something, right? Curious about what type of stainless they use rather than titanium for the exchanger, not too freaked about that, there are stainless alloys that would be impervious to salt water through the life of a chiller. Didn't bother posting for info on RF & RC, other people have done that and gotten no relevant responses...

 

[Scooterman]

Creep it a high concentrated TDS's when you first open the water supply to the ro/di unit, when you make a large volume it is usually dissolved down to very little but If you dosing your tank & shutting on & off the ro/di unit this creep continuously gets dumped in also, so It adds to the system a good bit more.
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19249&highlight=creep A good read about it here.

As far as the chiller goes, I just had defective units, down south we have high humidity, high heat & it can be a problem. Stainless can be a low carbon type that won't rust soon but even the high grade 316L we use offshore on oil platforms will eventually rust. Titanium is the way to go, If you can but you will pay a higher cost for that. Not meaning to give you a hard time but just maybe point out a few things in case your not aware. When i got my chiller, I based it in research, personal research & If I could find forum info i also read through that but I compared power consumed to BTU Ratio to use as an efficiency basis on any one particular unit. Like you, I had no more experience with them other than what I read In forums & looking up manufacturers web sites & calls. I purchased mine based on that, customer support & anything else I could dig up but at the end it still was a crap shoot without actual experience, as most everything in this sport. I wish I could of gotten a DB rating to compare sound as that was an issue with me & getting a thousand opinions would never tell me how loud I actually think it is LOL!
Oh the actual chiller, few things to learn, one when they say you need free air flow front & back, they mean it, allow plenty of free air space for the unit. Humidity has a big factor also, more humid, more time it will run, again down here we have way more to deal with, even though it may rain there daily it isn't the same as down here. Also a pump that you can vary the flow on will be very helpful, you have to tweak the flow through the chiller because of several factors. Example, distance from chiller to where the outlet is getting dumped, you want it to have time to cool the water but also you must get it there before it warms back up, so you tweak the flow to optimal cooling, no two units are exactly the same. Restrictions in plumbing may also become a factor to think about.

 

[Jobiwan]

Thanks for the thread Scootie, I'll read it thoroughly.

Just got off the phone with Hal of Tradewinds, I am confident I made the right choice, I'll do a thread on this chiller once I have had it in place a bit. The stainless exchanger will exceed the life of the other commercial components of the system (Hal has never had a failure related to exchanger corrosion issues), hence the 5 year warrantee unique to aquarium chillers (a few deep discounters sell it with a 2 year guarantee with an additional 3 years extended for a nominal fee, I bought mine through custom aquatics, 5 is standard with them, as is the case with most retailors). All joints are braised (basically welded) in the Tradewinds, titanium exchangers must use flare nut connectors (As Hal pointed out, Delta aqualogic is the one exception, they use some type of aviation industry connection, you pay for that of course...), this leads to a relatively high rate of refridgerant leakage problems, especially when you factor in the nonexistant quality control from certain asian countries who will go unmentioned, all Tradewinds are factory tested prior to shipment, leaks are basically nonexistant.... Many imports use inadequate fans to hold down noise, leading to poor performance in areas with higher ambient temps and humidity (lots of threads out there related to this), Tradewinds are engineered to operate up to ambient temps of 100 degrees. More to follow once I have used this unit.... I don't take anything as a hard time btw, IMHO people with thin skins shouldn't be posting on forums, I have the skin of a rhino which explains my verbosity....

 

[Scooterman]

I have an Aqualogic, that may explain what happened because he said it probably leaked at the joint. I'm guessing traveling across country it could happen, the second chiller had a control problem, three times a charm
I hope LOL, I know it will cool down even when the house is over 80 so I can testify to the larger fan, also the power consumption is comparable to the tradewind, which I almost got.

 

[Jobiwan]

I'll let you know how it works out, I got the impression that there is some noise involved with it, as it will be remoted that won't be a factor for me, but I know that can be an important issue in many installations, I'll give you my impression, but as you pointed out that is a matter of individual perception. I was on the verge of getting an Aqua Logic, they have a great rep, I'm sure your leak was an uncommon occurence..

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

What is web site to Tradewinds???

 

[Jobiwan]

www.tradewindchillers.com, got mine from custom aquatics, www.customaquatics.com, let me know what you think...

 

[NC2WA]

Did you get an inline or drop-in chiller??

<Knock on wood> I currently don't need a chiller, but looks like a 1/5 hp is rated up to a 375 gallon. Under $900, not bad price.

 

[Scooterman]

Did you get an inline or drop-in chiller??

<KNOCK wood on>I currently don't need a chiller, but looks like a 1/5 hp is rated up to a 375 gallon. Under $900, not bad price.

I have a 1/4hp in a 125 plus sump, that 1/5 is even smaller, I'd think that won't work on a tank bigger than a 75g with mh lighting etc.

 

[NC2WA]

hmmm..maybe I didnt have enough coffee this morning.

I will go back and read the tech specs again.

 

[Jobiwan]

You were probably looking at the super 1/3 horse, rated to 400 gal, $889.00 http://www.customaquatic.com/customaquatic/subsubcategorypage.asp?subcatindexid=ch-ch-il&offset=15 . I'm going inline, I doubt there is a 1 HP drop in out there, I've read that they are not as efficient as inlines and that they are not suited for remote operation, in fact are mostly used in settings where they are under the tank(leading to heat and ventilation issues), or next to the tank (noise issues and heating your house/apt when they work the hardest, i.e. summer...)

 

[NC2WA]

thanks, hopefully I will not have a need for a chiller for a some time