Advice on chillers needed

[Myola]

We live in Far North Queensland and it's starting to heat up. I'm currently keeping neocaradinas but this is my first summer with shrimp and I'm very worried about the temperature. The room that my tanks are in can get to the high 30s during the day. Past experience tells me that there's not too much aquatic life that can handle those temps, so I know that I have to do something about this before there's a shrimpagedon. I currently have air con running 24/7 and have the temp stable in the tank at 23C. But air con is expensive and will not be sustainable throughout the entire 6 months of the Far Northern summer. Is there anyone else up here in FNQ, or maybe Darwin? How do you cool your tanks? I've looked at the JBJ line of compressor chillers but can't seem to find a supplier in Australia. I've also looked into some much cheaper peltier type coolers but I don't think that they will be adequate given the punishing temps up here. If there is anyone out there who deals with extreme summer temps, can you please let me know how you cool your tanks?  

[jayc]

If you have only one tank then a chiller is more economical than AC.

If you have a sump, a chiller is also a great way of cooling several tanks.

But if you have two or more tanks in the same room, then AC will be come the cheaper option.

Checkout Techden.com.au who have Teco and Hailea chillers. Teco build quality is better and the price reflects it. Peltier chillers won't handle the heat unless it is a very small tank.

But if you have a Local fish store, then check their range as shipping costs are a killer for chillers.

Decide on the size of the chiller, based on your tank size. Then think of plumbing and how you will pump water into the chiller. Most people plumb it into their external canister filters. But you have to make sure the canister pump is strong enough to drive the minimum flow of the chiller you decided on above.

Let us know what your tank/s setup is like. Sizes, numbers, location, etc.

[Myola]

Hi again Jay C, 

I currently have just the one 45L tank and it's in a smallish, south-facing spare bedroom. I'm planning on setting up 4 more 50L tanks in this room over the summer, but I'm going to wait until the weather cools though before adding any stock as it's too hot now to expect the poor little things to survive being posted here. So I needed to know what to do for this summer, and also for future summers with more tanks.

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to keep the air con going for now as there seems little point in purchasing a chiller if I'm going to need to cool 5 tanks in a year's time. What do you think?

  

[jayc]

That's a wise choice.
However if you build a rack setup with a common sump. Then one cooler/chiller can Service 4 or 5 tanks.

 

Oh one thing I remembered just then ... can your A/C auto manage temp?

ie. can it maintain a 22 deg C temp throughout the day? Turning off when it gets too cold, and back on when it warms higher than 23 C?

It is also a good idea to insulate the room, if possible.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2018 by jayc