Flexible Emergency Use for Chiller?

ClutchCityReefer · Sep 12, 2021

Hello everyone, I have a question re: the use of a chiller. To lay the background, I live in Houston, TX and am in the midst of some sort of design for a mixing station in my garage. Since it is so hot here most of the year, I figured I would need to incorporate a chiller so that I can cool the water a few hours prior to water changes. Since I would rarely need to run the chiller, I was curious if there is a way to plumb my system so that in case of emergencies I can move the chiller from the garage to my display system and cool my tank.

Here me out - I have not had temperate issues thus far so I don't have a chiller for my system nor am I certain I need one, but I recently got my tank set up so it wasn't running during the worst of the Texas summer. I figure if there was a way that I could situate my display/sump so that, in case of emergencies, I can use the chiller from the mixing station to keep the tank alive, it could help justify the expense to The Boss.

Let me know if anyone else has experience with such a question. Thanks!

Onewolf · Sep 12, 2021

I live in Central Florida and my mixing station is in the garage. The normal temperature for my water storage (RODI, salt) during the summer is 85 degrees. If I am going to do a water change I buy a 10-15 lb bag of ice and put the unopened bag of ice in the salt water Brute container to cool it down to around 79. Much cheaper than a chiller.