# Chillers & sumps for Freshwater



## lochness (Jan 10, 2006)

I need a chiller for a 90g - the only problem is I know nothing about them and the information I have read is a bit daunting and confusing. 

There's some with probes and some without, there's some that require plumbing (but they don't really specify what kind) and others that work with sumps (again, they don't really explain how the setup should be) 

If I got a 30g sump, what would be the most affordable and practical chiller?

Is there a chiller I can use that can work on a HoB filter instead? 

Thank you in advance for any useful info you can provide.

and omg why do chillers need to be so darn expensive??!!


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

ln:

Very, very nice tank and fishies! (Your PhotoBucket slide show is very good also.)

I am just curious as to why you need to lower the water temperature in a FW tank?

TR


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## lochness (Jan 10, 2006)

ty for the compliments 

in answer to your question: because the ambient temp in my apt can go as high as 90 and my fish stress out at 86 - i need it lowered. even if i can lower it to 80 would be better tho ideally i like to have it at 78/79


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

ln:

Been there and done that as I lived in an upstairs apartment for 22 years sans fish though.
Even with the A/C unit set on 65F the ambient temperature would rise into the high 80's in the summer.
You must live in West Texas.

If you do not want to go the liter bottle with frozen water route for very hot periods I am useless here.

TR


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## lochness (Jan 10, 2006)

sadly a liter bottle with frozen water would melt very quickly and do very little for my 90g


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## VincentM (Aug 8, 2008)

I saw some cheaper chillers on Amazon.com


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

Hmm, interesting dilemma.. I'm thinking that there probably is a way to build a closed-loop fluid coolant system that would run through a mini electrostatic fridge (think 3 bottle wine chiller - $39 on sale at Kohl's).


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## Sea-Agg2009 (Aug 2, 2008)

Hey TR, I'm having the same problems with water temp, with my tank going into the mid 80's pretty much constantly. Explain this bottle system to the slow person over here. 

Thanks


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Sea-Agg2009 said:


> Hey TR, I'm having the same problems with water temp, with my tank going into the mid 80's pretty much constantly. Explain this bottle system ...


SA:

Please excuse the delayed response but we had an emergency project at the office.

A detailed post which I previously prepared was apparently lost in a recent Forum disaster but I found my backup calculations and believe that the following is representative of my previous detailed post.

Obviously you do not want to lower the temperature of the tank water rapidly therefore some judgment must be employed when using the bottle method and the calculation presented is for a 1 liter bottle and a 100G tank (I do not know the size of your tank).

Place a one liter (or two liter or whatever size) plastic soda pop bottle which is approximately 95% full of water into the freezer.

When the water becomes ice remove the bottle and place in your tank.

The temperature of 100 gallons of water will be lowered approximately 1.4F by a one liter bottle.




lochness said:


> sadly a liter bottle with frozen water would melt very quickly and do very little for my 90g


The "part of the equation" which ln is missing is the concept of Latent Heat of Fusion.

An abbreviated explanation of this concept is that water will exist at 32F until sufficient heat (energy) is removed from the water until the water "fuses" into ice.

When the bottle is placed into the tank water the process is reversed and ice will exist in the bottle until sufficient heat (energy) is added to the ice in order for it to melt. The heat is obviously introduced from the tank water and as such the temperature of the tank water is lowered.

TR (Thanks Ron)


BTW for futher exemplification:

Let's say that the ambient room temperature varies from 82F to 90F and the various surface areas of water in a 100G tank are such that the tank water temperature has increased from 78F to 86F during a 10 day period when the first annual "hot spell" occurs.

Placing a two liter bottle of ice in the tank daily for 4 days will lower the temperature of the tank water from 86F to 78F.

Subsequently placing a one liter bottle of ice in the tank every other day will maintain the temperature near 78F.


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