# Aquarium Chiller



## greenjoe (Jan 14, 2006)

Do you guys need a chiller for your aquarium with your lights? I had a metal halide with my compact fluorescents on my aquarium for awhile but I switched over to just cf lights (currently 4X 96 W). Although my tank still gets into the low 80s. With my loaches, I decided to invest in an aquarium chiller (that set me back some!). I got a 1/3 Hp Prime chiller by current usa. Unfortunately, it needed a 1" tubing connect and about 900 gph! As you can imagine that would throw the plants everywhere with that current. As a result I decided to make a large output to significantly reduce the flow. The diameter change was 1" tubing to 2 or 3" pipe outlet (I can't remember).


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## greenjoe (Jan 14, 2006)

Well here's some pics of the setup:


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## greenjoe (Jan 14, 2006)

Any ideas how to hide the outlet? I don't have enough tubing to put it around the back. Plus the chiller needs good amount of air circulation to keep from overheating.
P.S. If you notice I have a stainless steel clip on the pump. Long story short, one day the pump pressure forced off the tubing (due to lack of a clip to hold the pipe on to the pump) and I had neglected to put a hole in the outlet. Unfortunately my aquarium obeys the laws of gravity and the outlet siphoned out approx. 20 - 30gal on the floor  .


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## Engold (Nov 4, 2006)

Wow

Chiller...... could you hooked it up to a canister filter. your set up looks a little tooo busy.

Later!


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## pb300 (Jun 5, 2008)

You could try setting up a kind of heat exchanger using a sump. Run the chiller on a closed loop in the sump so the 900gph swirls around the sump and not your tank. The chiller will cool the water in the sump and then the return pump will carry that to the tank.

Or....
You could paint the pipe black and put a black background on your tank.


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## greenjoe (Jan 14, 2006)

I used to have a wet/dry filter/ sump area. But had bad experiences with them. On vacation they always tend to mess up with either a clogged intake from the plants or a broken siphon which leads to an overheated pump. In addition, I felt that the trickle action dissipated alot of dissolved CO2; although I could be wrong.
The reason for having a chiller is that this summer was unusually hot. Before the chiller, one day I was just curious about the water temp and checked it at night and it was 90+ degrees  . Thus I didn't want to kill my fish and decided to invest. Fortunately, fall is rolling around and since the aquariums in the basement, the temp should start to fall and I probably won't need to use the chiller. Hopefully, it was the temp of the environment rather than the lights; although, now that I am not using the metal halide the chiller only comes on about once daily.
I'll look into the color suggestion though cause the flow is actually very minimal coming out, it just looks ugly  (although the diy cheapo pvc lamp holder is pretty ugly too, but hey I try to save money when I can!).


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## pb300 (Jun 5, 2008)

Krylon Fusion paint is aquarium safe form what I've read. It would be easy enough to paint that tube up.

As for the sump, if that pump you're using for the chiller has a venturi port then you could stop the problems of the overflow losing siphon. A hole drilled in the top of the overflow pipe with a check valve would fix it. Run a piece of air hose from the check valve down the the venturi so when the power comes back on it will suck the air and start flow again. CO2 loss could be lessened by putting the outflow from your siphon tube under the water level in the sump so there's less splashing.

I've never had a sump (would like to mess with it) so I'm just going by things I've read.


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## greenjoe (Jan 14, 2006)

I'll look into the krylon paint. Is that the stuff used for painting acrylics and plastics and found in a spray can kinda like spray paint?
Unfortunately, my pump does not have a ventri port. Although I fixed the overflow problem kinda similarly to how you described. I just drilled out a small hole near or slightly under water level. The bubbles still come out but a little more gradually from the water pressure from the pump instead of siphon action. Sometimes when the water level drops from evap, the drilled hole starts to act like a ventri port. However, that check valve idea is pretty clever, I didn't think about that. The addition of a check valve would probably stop the bubbles from getting sucked in.


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## pb300 (Jun 5, 2008)

Yes it is a spray paint and its made specifically to bond to plastic. Just bought a can today at Home Depot for $3.98. Lowe's doesn't carry Krylon paints.


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## greenjoe (Jan 14, 2006)

Thanks for the tips. Will look into it when I stop by the hardware store!


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