to chill or not to chill that is the question....?
hi everyone.. newbie to site here! been dabbling a bit with saltwater tank...trial and errors too many to bother with explaining now but experiences learned. trying to read a lot and grateful for this forum. my newest issue... got halide lightening and have more issues with maintaining temperatures. what are the best baseline temps to aim for. i presently have a handful of fish and live rock ..wanting to get corals but have not had great success even with the easier to tend to corals....hence the halide lights (switched from compacts). i presently have the room with my tank air conditioned. i am in NY and its summer..going into fall here. guess i will start with this question and see how it goes. thanks!
Temps in a reef tank should run 76 to about 82 max. In between is ideal. Metal halide lighting can drive the temps over the limit and thus make the investment in a chiller necessary. The problem is in selecting the size of chiller. Manufacturers will make a statement like -
"This model chiller is capable of a temperature drop of 20 degrees F in a 125 gallon aquarium at ambient temperatures."
That chiller might be $500. You think, wow, I only need to drop 5 degrees and I'm safe, 10 degrees on a real hot day. That's the one for me. That thinking has gotten many a reefer a chiller that runs 24/7 trying to keep up, which it barely does. Your electric bill goes through the roof. Your not happy.
What most people forget to take into account is the "at ambient temperature". What does that mean? The dictionary gives us a clue - "the surrounding air" in this case. But, what temperature does the manufacturer use? They don't tell you or you don't see it in their literature. So you figure the $500 model with 20 degree drop is the one. More than likely a wrong choice. You've got several things working against you. They are, one, the heat from MH lighting adds to "ambient temp" lowering the effectiveness of your chiller. Two, the heat taken from the water by the chiller is expelled back into the room, unless you are ducting it out or have the chiller in a different room. This further degrades the effectiveness of the chiller, making the $500 chiller a wrong choice. Usually, for another $80 to $100, you can get the next larger chiller. It would be a wise choice, in my experience. YES, I made this mistake.
Taking the manufacturer's specs, I chose a 1/4hp chiller, for my 135 reef, which fit the scenario I painted above. Wrong sized chiller!!! Now, since that decision a year and a half ago, I bought the PFO Solaris LE lights and got rid of my MHs. Problem solved. The chiller runs a few times a day and maintains the temp between 79 and 80 degrees.
I hope this has helped you.
Dick
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
question: what are PFO Solaris LE lights? What do they run in cost? I am not anxious to make another trip around the lightening cost block but just in case. I am currently considering relocating my ecosystem to my basement ..thinking maybe this might avoid the cost of a chiller as the basement is unfinished and quite cool year round. The tank would be directly above it one floor up. This would also free some space up in the cabinet the tank is housed on.
Oooops, meant PFO LED lights. Are you familiar with them now that I identified them correctly?
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
ty so much! a lot to absorb but a wonderful venue.. no i am not familiar with the lights mentioned even with the correction...could you tell me briefly the advantage to halide lights and the cost factor? ty so much!
PFO Lighting Company makes many types of lighting fixtures for industry, home, horticulture and more recently aquariums, focusing on reef lighting. They make fixtures for traditional fluorescent, MH and about one year ago introduced the first LED fixture, the Solaris.
The benefits are 40% less energy burned than equivalent MH, no heat transfer to the aquarium, total programmability, solar and lunar cycle, timer for on/off and more. Rather than go into detail here, I'd like to give you a couple of links to the original discussion threads on the Solaris. Also, a link to my 135 gal reef thread that you might find informative. These threads are rather lengthy, so skim through and pick out info you can use.
As you go through the threads, if you have questions you can PM me, I'll respond. We're all here to help.
Dick
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I to have a Solaris fixture on my 54 corner tank. I have to say that I love it. Here is my thread Look What UPS Brought! plus you can read more in my tank journal by clicking on it below my signature. We keep our house at 76 and my chiller comes on at 82, dropping the temp back to 80. The chiller has not run since I got my Solaris! It may as we get into fall. Here in NC the temp will drop into the 60's at night but climb into the 90's during the day. As it starts getting cooler at night we will turn the AC off and the house may get warmer during the day. My corals have never looked better!
many thanks for the feedback! lots to learn. your tank looks great! i will keep plugging along and let everyone know what happens when i move the ecosystem down to the basement. hopefully this will work and i can concentrate more on other areas of learning. if this is not successful i may consider another lighting switch and /or a chiller as well as possibly a fish and live rock only tank. the corals are really what i want to learn more about ..including sustaining them. thanks again! love the site. pam
Pam, what is the volume of your ecosystem compared to your tank? Is it a sump, fuge, RDSB, or a combination? What is the height from upstairs to basement? How cool is the basement? I think that all of these things will contribute to the cooling of your tank if you put the ecosystem in the basement. When deciding what to do you will have to consider the cost of a high head pump to get the water back up to the DT.
In the winter months when you may keep your home cooler you might find that you want to insulate the pipes between the DT and the basement to avoid loosing too much heat.
You may also be able to save some heat by changing out pumps for ones that use fewer watts. For instance the stream pumps like Korolia or Tunze move lots of water with very little energy. And various return pumps use different amounts of power to do the same job.
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