Chiller Sizing

[cshoneyman]

I upgraded my lights this year and it appears that I will have to add a chiller to my system to maintain an acceptable temperature this year. I have hit 84.5 degrees several times this year and it is making me very nervous. I am adjusting the photo period to shorten the time that all of the halides are on and staggering the run times to limit heating of the water.

My questions are:

1. What size chiller do I need?
2. How have others installed them to keep the rejected heat out of the house?
3. Should I connect my heaters to a unit that can control both?

My current systems comprises of two tanks with a common 50 gallon sump:

135 Gallon Tank
· 3 - 250 watt metal halide lights (suspended canopy ~15" from water surface)
· Mag 18 return pump
· 2 Koralia 4
· 2 Koralia 3

75 Gallon Tank
· 2 - 250 watt metal halide lights (suspended canopy ~15" from water surface)
·
· Little Giant External Mag Drive Pump (5-MD-SC)
· 3 Koralia 2
· 2 Maxi-Jet 1200

Sump
· 1-150 Watt Flood Light
· 2 Maxi-Jet 1200 (driving 2 media reactors)
· 1 Blue-line 70 (driving MR-3 Skimmer)
· 12" cooling fan blowing across the sump



My thoughts are

Remove the Mag 18, Little Giant, and the 2 Maxi Jet 1200s and replace with a single Blue-line 70 or 100 to drive the returns to both tanks, two media reactors, and the chiller. This will remove 4 pumps from the system. I have considered installing the chiller under the house in the crawl space to keep the rejected heat out of the house and save the load on the house's air conditioner.

I am completely lost on the concept of sizing a chiller for this system. Please provide some feedback regarding size and preferred brands.

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Chris

 

[cshoneyman]

Bump for those chiller experts.

 

[litenyaup]

well not an "expert" but i have a 1/15 current chiller on my 90 gallon and it works just fine. i have slow flow and it kicks on once ever 1/2 hour-hour for about a min or 2. i got such a good deal that i made the chiller work....lol!

also there was a locoal here in FL that had a 1/10 on a 220 gallon tank with no probs!

 

[TJ15]

For a 135 gallon tank, you should go with a 1/4 HP chiller. It is always best with chillers to go a bit over what you need, that way, the chiller is not on all the time.

Try a JBJ chiller. They work well IMO.