Using a Heat Exchanger for BOTH Heating and Cooling a Large Aquarium

ca1ore · Dec 11, 2019

I have actually not yet hooked it up. Lots of business travel (umwise to setup ANY new equipment and then go on a trip) and then I had some unrelated issues with the water system on my house. This has been a frustrating, and ultimately unsatisfactory, project. Live and learn Isuppose.

samparker · May 25, 2020

Any updates in 2020?

ca1ore · May 25, 2020

I had so many issues with the stuff that I got that, frankly, I just lost the faith. Broken fittings, bad solenoid, solenoid in backwards, undersized heat exchanger (for cooling at least) .... and a consistent string of missed promises and excuses. I occasionally look at the the actual exchanger and think I ought to just rebuild the control board and run it as is ..... maybe that’ll be the summer project for the tank. People seem to have ok experience with AE off the shelf stuff, but custom .....

samparker · May 25, 2020

dang what a bummer, sorry to hear of your experience

ca1ore · May 25, 2020

Oh that’s alright .... live and learn. If youre going to buy stuff from them don’t pay up front lol.

samparker · May 31, 2020

these are the decision points I am at right now:

ca1ore · May 31, 2020

Think it depends a lot on how large your system is. As I noted back in the early posts in this thread, I had arranged for Wann to build a heat/cool exchanger for my nominally 1,000 gallon system. Although my heating cost aren’t terrible (since my main display is 1” acrylic) I was quite keen to dispense with the 3/4 HP chiller. Unfortunately what I got from AE never worked properly. After months of waiting, and lots of ‘promises’, I got the heat exchanger but not the control board. A couple more months and the control board finally showed up. Had all sorts of quality control issue with the latter, but the bigger problem is that the exchanger appears to be undersized. Unlike the one you showed from Facebook, mine has just two long loops of titanium, not the packed coils. Simply not enough to be able to get adequate heat exchange with the cold water. Wann said he’d build me a larger replacement, even going as far as it would ship next week .... that was October.

Heating works, but only saves you money if it’s a lower cost fuel. Buddy of mine did a HW loop, but his house heater is electric, so hard to see how that makes sense . If you are on a well, cooling can work if you have a properly sized heat exchanger and aren’t bothered by wasting water .... though I suppose it ends up back in the aquifer eventually. Means cycling the well pump more often, which means more wear and tear.

I think for most moderately sized systems 300 gallons or less, standard stick heaters and a reasonable chiller probably is the best approach.

ca1ore · Jun 28, 2023

So, it turns out that the heat exchanger that was too small for a 700 gallons system, works just fine for a 200 one - which is where I am now. I’m not going to bother to use the control board, it’s been sitting collecting dust for a long time and I’ve scavenged parts. But the actual heat exchanger is fine and I’ve been using it for cooling. Getting some use from AE kit I long though a complete write off. Go figure …..