Advice on chiller! Please

[blackcat]

Hi all,

Any help would be appreciated I currentlyhave4 tankshooked up on my rack....with summer fast approaching I am planning to invest in a chiller and I was wondering if its possible to hook 1 chiller up to 2 cannisters. The tanks ard non standard 2 ft =87L each... so I fiure if I can get a chiller that is rated for 400L I can run all 4 on one. Space is an issue... any help is a

Areciated. I can post pix up of the filtration setup if I have not made it clear enough.:thumbup:

[blindfisherman]

How do you have the tanks hooked up?

4 tanks together or 2 tanks hooked up to 1 cannister?

I have the teco tr10 ~350L and couldn't be happier.

They are a bit pricey though unless you can get one second hand.

[blackcat]

2 tanks plumbed to one lge cannister... then the other 2 the same. 4 tanks plumbed to 2 cannisters :o

[blindfisherman]

I think you are going to have some difficulty with trying to use one chiller on 2 systems.

I have done it but there is about 1m^2 of glass which transfers the heat between the two.

[blackcat]

Huh???

[blindfisherman]

I figured that would be the response I got :)

I have a 4' tank divided in 3. The outside 2 divisions are at ~7.5 and the middle at low 6's. I have the 2 systems chilled with one chiller, it is hooked up to the outside sections and this cools the middle one. - don't know if that clarifies it at all :P

The benefit of doing what I did is there is nearly 1 m squared of glass to transfer the heat between them without the water mixing.

[Wraithie]

How well does the heat transfer go in your 4ft?

[blindfisherman]

How well does the heat transfer go in your 4ft?

The chilled section is 2x the vol of the other and it seems to work very well.

The tank is in the shed so over night it is heating to over 10 degrees above ambient.

[blackcat]

Chillers are connected to the filter so the water goes into the filter then through the chiller and into the tanks.... so my question is if i have 2 separate 1500L external cannisters can I somehow hook up say a 500L chiller so it does both oulets of the 2 filters .

Total volume of 1 tank is 87L each.

[MrShrimp]

@blackcat, what you are trying to do is very difficult but I'm interested to see if anyone has a solution. If you do succeed, then your whole system will be as one similar to a rack using a sump so if you get a bad batch of shrimps, then it's possible it could spread to other tanks.

[blackcat]

Im just thinking a) space b) cost hmmmmm what to do what to do

[blackcat]

Does that make my predicament clearer!

[Squiggle]

Not really, basically you want two canisters running through one chiller then split to feed into two tanks, it is possible but you need to be able to adjust the flow of the two lines running back from the chiller to the tanks. You will need to keep an eye on the adjustment of the taps cause if you get it wrong you'll overfill one tank & drain the other, definitely not the result you want. :dejection:

[blackcat]

:-( so I need 2 chillers ???

On the front of the tanks in the pic you will see controller taps that allow me to control the flow woukd that help

... arrrrgghhh this is making my head hurt lol

[Squiggle]

Short answer, yes you will need two chillers. :encouragement: Long answer, it is possible to do with one chiller & there are a few ways to do it but if you head hurts just thinking about whether it's possible or not then your brain will melt & you'll end up shivering in the fetal position when you try & get your head around getting all the parts, calculating & adjusting the flow rates & installing all the plumbing, lol :victorious:

[Wraithie]

Run 1 chiller on 2 tanks and move your prized caridinias to those.

[CNgo2006]

Why don't you get a sump, plumb all 4 to it then you can use a single chiller. Connect the 2 canisters to the sump for extra filtration. If the tanks are already drilled then it won't be so hard, just grab a cheap second hand tank/sump