Teco TK-2000 Chiller Feedback

rsumner · Apr 10, 2023

I'm looking to buy a chiller for my new 450 gallon display and I've narrowed it down to the new Teco TK-2000 w/R290 refrigerant. A few things I like about it over competitive options in the market:

Small footprint (only 12x12x19")
Low power consumption (max of 440 W)
Low flow requirements (132 - 211GPH)
Parts to maintain it (even has a recharge port for the R290)
Exhaust air control
User comments seem to mention the unit is very quiet
Side-mounted water entry and exit vs top-mounted

I know the TK2000 is only rated "up to 500gal" system, but I keep ambient temps around 72 degrees in the summer and colder in the winter. I'll have the following devices adding heat to the system and hoping the TK2000 can offset the added heat to keep temps balanced at 77 degrees:

240W of UV running of my return pumps
2 x A200 Abyzz Return pumps running at 50-60% each
1 x A100 Abyzz Skimmer feed pump running at 50%
1 x Neptune COR-20 running at 25% for the Chiller
90W of Refugium Lighting
5 x Orphek iCon lights (rated for 230W each, but will probably only run them at 60% each)
2 x Ecotech MP60's (60W each)

I welcome other reefers experience and feedback on the sizing of the TK2000 for my application and their personal experiences with a TK2000 on a larger system. The Teco is substantially more expensive compared to other options on the market, but I don't mind paying for the features that I want and quality manufacturing.

blaxsun · Apr 12, 2023

Sounds like a nice setup you have.

Blue Spot Octopus · Apr 12, 2023

Will this chiller be in plain site? or in a shed behind the house?

rsumner · Apr 12, 2023

Blue Spot Octopus said:
Will this chiller be in plain site? or in a shed behind the house?

I plan on having the chiller in an enclosed cabinet. I'll have some low-noise fans that will pull fresh air into the bottom of the cabinet and then plan on routing the exhaust from the chiller out the top of the cabinet.

Blue Spot Octopus · Apr 12, 2023

Tradewinds if they are still making them, they are in San Diego.
EcoPlus Aquarium Chillers
Aqua Logic they are in San Diego as well.

rsumner · Apr 12, 2023

Blue Spot Octopus said:
Tradewinds if they are still making them, they are in San Diego.
EcoPlus Aquarium Chillers
Aqua Logic they are in San Diego as well.

I appreciate the recommendations on alternative brands, but was looking for feedback on the Teco.

Blue Spot Octopus · Apr 13, 2023

No worries, they are nice chillers. Good luck

mtraylor · Apr 13, 2023

I have a teco chiller. Much older model than You have, and I loved that thing. Super quite as far as chiller goes. Well built. No issues. That being said. It's currently in storage. I only used it back in the day when I had 400w MH's. I kept it for an emergency in case ac goes out in summer one day and can't get technician out quick enough.

In review of your setup and ambient house temp. You are spending money on equipment you dont necessarily need and using real estate on space you could use. You don't need it. I personally wouldn't bother.

I have 255gallon tank with 100gallon sump with following equipment. Ambient temp between 73-76. I haven't done the study on the tank to see how much heat is being dissipated in the water simply because I dont have too. Its very small amount. My heaters have to heat the water pretty much year around unless I take ambient temp to 78 to 80 or above for what ever reason.

3 Orphek icons.
4 Or3 150 bars.
Ecotech L2 vectra return pump
2 Ecotech MP40's
2 Redsea Reefwave 45's
Octopus Elite 220 int skimmer running around 30%
40w uv
~20watt light on refugium

I would concentrate on getting the proper heaters for your setup and call it a day. Anyway....Looks like you have an awesome build so good luck in the direction you decided to go.

rsumner · Apr 13, 2023

mtraylor said:
In review of your setup and ambient house temp. You are spending money on equipment you dont necessarily need and using real estate on space you could use. You don't need it. I personally wouldn't bother.

I would concentrate on getting the proper heaters for your setup and call it a day. Anyway....Looks like you have an awesome build so good luck in the direction you decided to go.

Thanks for the detailed response.

The main reason I'm anticipating the need for a chiller is by evaluating my current tank, which is a 100gal display with 50gal sump that is in the same room. That tank runs about 5-7 degrees above ambient at the height of the day with my Apex showing that I'm pulling about 500w of power. In full disclosure, I'm running a LED-T5 hybrid lighting system on that tank, so about 215W of that power draw is caused by the T5's which I know displace a lot of heat compared to an "all LED" system.

I'll head your advice and wait to purchase the chiller until after I've had the new system up with all the equipment on so I can get some real-world numbers of the water temp vs ambient temps. I'll plumb a bypass on the chiller return line so all I have to do is flip some ball valves and insert the chiller if I need to.

I'll edit this thread at a later time once I've done some temp measurements to provide feedback to the community.

mtraylor · Apr 13, 2023

Yeah that is what I have done for emergency setup. I have a manifold with ball valves that I can hook up what's needed.

The dc pumps used for return don't disapate much heat especially if you run them external. The heat is then disapated to air. I run mine external and I don't have canopy for the lights. So the heatbis disipated away from the tank on those items.

5 to 6 degrees is excessive. I didn't have that with mh's and old school mag 18 internal pumps running back in the day. Wow! I did a huge write up on heat from each device in my old local forum.
What is full list of what is on that aquarium?

Do you have an ac vent above or around facinity of aquarium?

In your new setup. The only thing i see that has potential for heating up is that monsterious 240w uv you are going to use.

rsumner · Apr 13, 2023

mtraylor said:
The dc pumps used for return don't disapate much heat especially if you run them external. The heat is then disapated to air. I run mine external and I don't have canopy for the lights. So the heatbis disipated away from the tank on those items.

My Abyzz pumps are submerged in the return section of my sump, so I'll definitely get some heat from them, but not sure how much yet.

mtraylor said:
5 to 6 degrees is excessive. I didn't have that with mh's and old school mag 18 internal pumps running back in the day. Wow! I did a huge write up on heat from each device in my old local forum.
What is full list of what is on that aquarium?

Hybrid LED-T5 Light Fixture (4 x 54w T5's and 3 AI 32's all running at 100% at the height of the day)
Reef Octopus VarioS-8 return pump running at 65%
Reef Octopus Regal 150SSS Skimmer in the sump
2 x Neptune WAV and 2 x IceCap 2K Gyres
15W UV
60W Fuge Light (doesn't impact heat during the day)
Sicce Syncra 1.0 calcium reactor feed pump

mtraylor said:
Do you have an ac vent above or around facinity of aquarium?

In your new setup. The only thing i see that has potential for heating up is that monsterious 240w uv you are going to use.

Yeah, I actually have an AC vent directly above the tank that does a pretty good job of increasing evaporation. It's blocked a little by the Hybrid light hood, but not too bad.

The huge UV's (2 x 120W) are one of the things that worry me too. Proof will definitely be in the pudding.

mtraylor · Apr 13, 2023

I would do a quick test on your current tank to see what is causing the most heat. From your list. I'm thinking its your lights as you stated. All the other stuff is minimal. The vent above aquarium is good thing for air circulation. ATO will handle the rest. I would run the Abyzz externally if you have the capability. They are DC pumps so the heat dissipated should be very low, but every little bit helps. Only internal pump I have on my setup is for the skimmer. Its DC as well. Obviously, the pumps for movement/circulation are submerged but its negligible heat.

Use manifold setup to run all reactors etc. That is what I do and its preferred after all the methods I have tried.

rsumner · Dec 24, 2023

I installed an Awair air quality monitor in my office about 3 months ago to provide me better data points between my ambient environment and the tank. I'm finding that the tank will run almost 8 degrees over ambient. The room can be 70 degrees and my tank will read 77.6 at night (so, the display overhead LED's are off) with the following equipment running:

2 x Ultraviolet Sterilizers running at 120W each = 240W
3 x Orphek OR3 Refugium Lights at 30W each = 90W
2 x Abyzz 200 submerged return pumps running at about 70w each = 140W.
1 x Abyzz 100 submerged skimmer feed pump running at 20W
1 x Abyzz 200 external skimmer recirculation pump at 100W
1 x COR20 submerged chiller feed pump running at 20W
1 x Sicce Micro recirculation pump for my Plank auto feeder at 7W
2 x Ecotech Marine MP60 powerheads at 12W each = 25W
2 x Neptune WAV powerhead at 20W each = 40W

I know the UV's are acting as heaters, so they are contributing the majority of the heat. The refugium lights are cool to the touch, so I don't see them contributing much. So, if I tally the majority of the submerged eqiupment and add a little heat for the external skimmer recirculation pump, I'm probably looking at around 550W of contributed power to the system.

Looking at the specs on the Teco TK-2000, I think it's going to be able to handle my load quite well considering I'm looking at about 1W of contributed load per gallon of system water. I like this particular model of chiller because of its 12x12 footprint, it's low flow-rate, and because I can easily redirect the exhaust of the chiller where I want it.

It's been raining here for the past week the outside temps have been fairly low, so my central AC hasn't been running. The result is the humidity levels in my room have spiked up to 70%. So, even if I chill the tank, I still need to control the humidity in the room. Lastly, in the summer, my room will heat-up to at least 5 degrees hotter than the rest of my house. So, I'm going to need to install a mini split AC **and** the chiller.

I'm going to purchase the chiller from Aquacave today. I'll see if I can find a good end-of-year deal online and purchase the mini split and find a local AC guy to install it.