Chiller?

[Riverspirit]

I need some help with deciding whether I need an chiller or not. I have an 24 gallon NC with a purple firefish, an young true onyx perc., an red banded shrimp goby and pistol shrimp pair, a fire shrimp, and the CUC. My corals mainly consist of very hardy corals, such as GSP, a toadstool leather, assorted zoa's, and some rics. I am planning on getting some trumpet coral and maybe some monti's. Anyways, I just got an 150 watt HQI MH hood for my tank. And my biggest concern is that the water will overheat, so this is where the chiller comes in. Do I need one? My water goes up to 82, maybe even more, during the day. If I get one, what model should I get? And how do you operate one? I want to make sure I know what I'm doing.

 

Thanks in advance for all help.

[FateX9]

well, operating one is easy

a chiller usually consists of the chiller and a controller, most chillers come with a controller

you need a pump to push water into the chiller and then back into the tank

atleast thats how an inline chiller works, theres also drop in chillers but those require sumps and are usually only for large tanks

hmmm i wonder why they dont make a nano drop in chiller

 

oh in terms of needing one, it really depends on the tank temps

and since it is getting to winter, it probably isnt needed right now but probably during the summer months

[Riverspirit]

well, operating one is easy

a chiller usually consists of the chiller and a controller, most chillers come with a controller

you need a pump to push water into the chiller and then back into the tank

atleast thats how an inline chiller works, theres also drop in chillers but those require sumps and are usually only for large tanks

hmmm i wonder why they dont make a nano drop in chiller

 

oh in terms of needing one, it really depends on the tank temps

and since it is getting to winter, it probably isnt needed right now but probably during the summer months

Thank you Fate! If this is the temp the tank id at during the winter, than an chiller is an MUST for the summer. I may get one this week, and then test it out, and if it works, save it for the summer.

[Paulc]

Thank you Fate! If this is the temp the tank id at during the winter, than an chiller is an MUST for the summer. I may get one this week, and then test it out, and if it works, save it for the summer.

 

 

If you can deal with high evaporation then a cheaper solution would be a fan to blow across the surface of your nano ... assuming you don't have a cover

[Brian Crook]

I picked up the Current USA 1/15th HP chiller for my BC29 just about a week ago. I LOVE it! I am also running 150 watt halide in my tank, and the chiller is more than capable of bringing the temps way down. I now can keep my tank at 78 degrees all the time. You can see my thread in the all-in-one forum if you want to see some pics and read some more info on it.

[Riverspirit]

Ah, very nice, Brian! I realized how much I need an chiller, so I will try to get one ASAP. I want to get an Inline one, and will look around my LFS for a good one.

[Riverspirit]

So, I got the Nano Artica Chiller, it seems to work well. I have some questions though, do I ever need to change the filtering stuff? And how often if I do? The temps drop too much at night, I am using an heater on it, but will having both an heater and the chiller cancel each other out? I want the heater to stabilize the temps at night, while the chiller stabilizes during the day, what does everyone think? That's all for now, thank you for any assistance.

[bad ed]

you can buy a ranco 2 stage temp controller for about $100 or so. It will turn you heater and chiller on/off independantly of each other. Or you can buy an ACjr. for about $200 and have it controll more items,(chiller,heater,lights)