GrandpaFeathers Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 oh yeah, i forgot their hella expensive for a sec. haha Link to comment
hazmat Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Thanks Hank, that makes since. Yeah I know about controllers, but after a chiller purchase, I cant afford one right now. Which chiller did you decide on? I saw Foster and Smith had the Current Prime 1/15 on sale for $271. I'm thinking about jumping on that one. I can't decide between that or the JBJ. Link to comment
Aliasnumber1 Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 SDT, I have been thinking about buying an additional controller to make my chiller hold the temps tighter around 78 when i realized the +/- 2 degrees temp probe in the prime and having the prime control the heater wasn't going to work. So i just waste the money and let them fight the heater won't let it go below 78 and the chiller comes on at 79. It's a cash flow thing. Link to comment
glennr1978 Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Go to Wal Mart, buy a couple $5 fans, retro 'em in, crank 'em up, problem solved. You don't neeed no steenkin cheeller!!! Wal Mart fans rule. Link to comment
Phixion Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Christel, the chiller should have a temperature control on it of some sort whether an analog knob or a digital readout. Just plug it into a standard UNtimered outlet and set the the dial. Monitor the tank/chiller for a couple days to set the sweet spot for when you want it to come on and what temp for it to maintain. Before my ACjr. days, I had my chiller down pat with my Tom's Aquatic digital thermometor that the chiller would kick on when the tank hit 81.5F and shut off at 80.5F Link to comment
new2reef Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Thought I throw in my two cents on a chiller, since I recently installed one. I ended up with a JBJ Mini Arctica. Hated to pay for it, but it's been a lifesaver. Chiller is pretty quiet. Had a limited spot beside tank, and JBJ was the only one that just needed front/back air space - most need a couple feet on each side too. I use a Rio 600 pump (only one I could find to easily fit in back). Chiller runs 24/7. It has an internal thermostat, which tells it when to cool. Rio is in center chamber and return into 3rd chamber with tank pump. It's surprising on how little info is available about chiller installations. Some chillers can also control your heater, JBJ Arctica does not. So I'm trying to find a balance. I have heater set around 77 and chiller set around 80 (JBJ has a dial on front), which seems to keep tank between 78 and 79.5 without chiller running all the time. Link to comment
hazmat Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Thought I throw in my two cents on a chiller, since I recently installed one. I ended up with a JBJ Mini Arctica. Hated to pay for it, but it's been a lifesaver. Chiller is pretty quiet. Had a limited spot beside tank, and JBJ was the only one that just needed front/back air space - most need a couple feet on each side too. I use a Rio 600 pump (only one I could find to easily fit in back). Chiller runs 24/7. It has an internal thermostat, which tells it when to cool. Rio is in center chamber and return into 3rd chamber with tank pump. It's surprising on how little info is available about chiller installations. Some chillers can also control your heater, JBJ Arctica does not. So I'm trying to find a balance. I have heater set around 77 and chiller set around 80 (JBJ has a dial on front), which seems to keep tank between 78 and 79.5 without chiller running all the time. Does the pump determine how high/low the chiller needs to be located? In other words, I need to keep the chiller on the floor and my Red Sea is 4 1/2 feet off the ground. I am going to need a pump strong enough to pump the water up to the tank....is that correct? My issue is I have VERY limited space in my back chambers for a pump. So not only do I need to find one that is strong enough but is also small enough to get in my tank. Or figure out how to run it with the pump outside the tank. And you are correct in that there is not much information out there on how to install these things!! Link to comment
Phixion Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Depending on the chiller being used, even an MJ1200 should be enough even for that much of a height differance. Link to comment
S197 Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 mag 3.5 will work for ya, or u could use a mag 5 if u wanted a pump with extra power incase you ever upgrade. If your limited on space the jbj mini artica is one of the smaller ones ive seen. Link to comment
hollow Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Does the pump determine how high/low the chiller needs to be located? In other words, I need to keep the chiller on the floor and my Red Sea is 4 1/2 feet off the ground. I am going to need a pump strong enough to pump the water up to the tank....is that correct? My issue is I have VERY limited space in my back chambers for a pump. So not only do I need to find one that is strong enough but is also small enough to get in my tank. Or figure out how to run it with the pump outside the tank. And you are correct in that there is not much information out there on how to install these things!! I used an MJ1200 with my JBJ for my RSM which is around 5 feet and it worked great. The MJ1200 doesn't seem to big and fit well into my skimmer chamber. This is of course with the gigantic stock RSM skimmer removed replaced with a tunez. External pumps would work for you but I found it kind of a pain because the one i had wasn't self priming and seemed to make more noise than the chiller itself. I ended up just boxing it back up and using an internal pump. As as side note I had to send my JBJ arctica in for an RMA because it turned out to be defective and now I'm waiting on my current USA to show up. Marinedepot informed me that the JBJ arctica 1/10 and 1/15 are being discontinued. Link to comment
FateX9 Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 why dont you guys just run it like a closed loop? i mean essentially thats all this is, just drill the tank below the water line enough so that water is constantly draining down and have the pump on the floor too so the water is just "draining" into the pump and then have it go through the chiller, that is if the tank isnt set up yet since your tank is already set up id say use a durso type thing except hang it on the tank and the "silencer" is used as a primer for the pump so all youd have to do is suck the water into the pump, just remember to cap it off also the strainer should be well below the water line Link to comment
new2reef Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Does the pump determine how high/low the chiller needs to be located? In other words, I need to keep the chiller on the floor and my Red Sea is 4 1/2 feet off the ground. I am going to need a pump strong enough to pump the water up to the tank....is that correct? My issue is I have VERY limited space in my back chambers for a pump. So not only do I need to find one that is strong enough but is also small enough to get in my tank. Or figure out how to run it with the pump outside the tank. And you are correct in that there is not much information out there on how to install these things!! You'll need to decide which is fixed and which is flexible; chiller height or pump gph. Have JBJ two feet off the ground, so top of chiller is one foot from top of DT, which allowed a smaller pump (size and gph). According to my calculations, pump must move water two to three feet; out of chamber, up thru chiller and back into DT. The BC14s have very small chambers and the Rio 600 was the only pump I found that would cleanly fit. I think a MaxxJet could be wedged in there too. Rio 800 has more gph at about same size. You need to try to match the chiller's gph with pump and head loss. Not easy. Too fast, and the water does not cool off enough and chiller runs longer. Too slow and water will get too cold. Most pumps do not publish head loss. It all sounded to complex to me, so I made an educated guess for chiller gph, pump and right head loss height. Too bad about JBJ discontinuing chiller - it was only one I found that didn't require a five foot clear space around sides. It's worked well for me and was easy to hook up. Link to comment
S197 Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Too bad about JBJ discontinuing chiller - it was only one I found that didn't require a five foot clear space around sides. It's worked well for me and was easy to hook up. That info came from someone saying they heard it from marinedepot.com Im not saying its not true, but untill I hear it from JBJ I cant believe it. The unit works excellent,its an awsome design, very compact, and requires little room to work around. Unless its going to blow up on me in the next few months I dont see why they would do it. Link to comment
hollow Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 That info came from someone saying they heard it from marinedepot.com Im not saying its not true, but untill I hear it from JBJ I cant believe it. The unit works excellent,its an awsome design, very compact, and requires little room to work around. Unless its going to blow up on me in the next few months I dont see why they would do it. Marinedepot told me that JBJ informed them that the 1/15 model was discontinued and that they couldn't replace my RMA. Marinedepot also took it off their webpage. That being said you can still buy them from most places. I really liked that chiller too. Hopefully its just being discontinued because they are releasing a newer/better model. Thank you for shopping with us. We are contacting you in regards to the replacement chiller (MINI-ARCTICA CHILLER DBI-050 1/15HP) that was going to be sent in replacement of the defective one you received. JBJ has just informed us that the 1/15 hp chiller is now discontinued and we are unable to send you a replacement. Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted July 1, 2008 Author Share Posted July 1, 2008 WOW foster smith has the 1/15th for $255 and the 1/10th for $335! I think I am gonna go with the 1/10th! Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted July 1, 2008 Author Share Posted July 1, 2008 I pulled the trigger on the 1/15th HP. The 1/10th was cheap too, but I just dont need that much chiller. $255 for the 1/15th, not too bad....I had to pay for shipping though WTF! Link to comment
HankB Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Does the pump determine how high/low the chiller needs to be located? In other words, I need to keep the chiller on the floor and my Red Sea is 4 1/2 feet off the ground. I am going to need a pump strong enough to pump the water up to the tank....is that correct? If I understand you, that is not correct. If you have a closed system that draws from your tank, goes through the chiller and back up to the tank, you will not need to be concerned about the difference in height between the tank and chiller. You only need to be concerned about the resistance losses of the tubing. If you have water draining down into an open sump and you are pumping it back to the tank, then the height difference does make a difference. But I do not recall any discussion of a sump under your tank, so I do not think this is your situation. For more information on sizing pumps, I found the following pages: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rn/feature/index.php http://www.valler.com/fish/tips.html And if you really want the tech stuff: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/featurejp.htm HTH, hank Link to comment
Phixion Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Shipping always ruins good deals. The chiller will definitely make life easier though! Link to comment
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