# Water Chillers



## Robert F Porter (8 Apr 2021)

Hello there. I am in the middle of scoping out the necessary equipment for a new 240 L tank. One query I had concerns water chillers. I live in London and these days typically (usually in August) the temperature rises to close to 40 degrees C for a week or two. This put me in mind that I might need to buy a water chiller because I will be aiming to keep my tank at 24 degrees C. Water chillers are not really discussed in the books and the chillers I see online are pretty pricy. What is the advice here, and what do most people do? If chillers are a good way forward, what is a recommended solution?  Many thanks


----------



## Nick potts (8 Apr 2021)

Chillers are expensive, they also pump out lots of heat so are usually best placed outside, or at least in a different room from the aquarium.

Another option is cooling fans attached to a temperature controller, I have used large fans before and they can typically drop the temp but 2-3c or more. 

Having the temp rise in the summer, and raise really high for a couple of weeks is likely not going to cause you any issues.


----------



## John q (9 Apr 2021)

I wouldn't have thought the tap water temp would get above 25c even in a hot summer so water changes are the best option, you could also add some ice to a bag and float that in the tank, although I expect that would only have a minor impact on a 240l tank.


----------



## Robert F Porter (9 Apr 2021)

Thank you very much. From what you both say looks like water chillers are on the whole an expensive distraction, so I can save myself some money here and just be prepared to do the gruntwork carrying the water bucket from the bath to the aquarium!


----------



## zozo (9 Apr 2021)

You could put large pet bottles in the freezer and put 1 or 2 in the tank when it's hot.  I tried this a few time with 1.5-litre bottle frozen water floating in a 60-litre tank and worked pretty good.


----------



## mort (9 Apr 2021)

I ran a lfs that was in a flat roof building with 3 outside walls that baked in the summer, add to that thousands of liters of heated water and we still only had to run a chiller on the high end corals for a couple of days a year.
I found ice (frozen ro in our case) did very little to manage the temperature but it only got to 28c or so and if you have enough oxygen at that level you will be fine.

Fans are great and we had big industrial sized ones. Its this evaporative cooling that is far more effective than anything else for me but still is often needed in our climate.  
Planted tanks tend to be run with led and open top and this is much cooler than using a lid or metal halide which might benefit from a chiller but again only a couple of days a year.


----------



## Hufsa (9 Apr 2021)

I use a couple of old pc fans to keep my tank below 26 degrees in the summer. I control them with an Inkbird and ive found them to be very effective at cooling down the tank. Im sure I could get the temperature lower but I settled for a balance between temperature and evaporation. Switching from T8 to LED lights also made a big difference but most use LED nowadays anyway so maybe not so helpful for most. All in all Ive found evaporative cooling very effective and it has undoubtedly saved my tank during the last few years unusual heatwaves.


----------



## Kevin Eades (9 Apr 2021)

Robert F Porter said:


> Thank you very much. From what you both say looks like water chillers are on the whole an expensive distraction, so I can save myself some money here and just be prepared to do the gruntwork carrying the water bucket from the bath to the aquarium!


Get yourself a small pump and some piping. I was using buckets for years. Until I researched aquascaping and watched geoerge farmers water change videos and realised I was making my life very hard. Now I can change 3 tanks in less than an hour (90l 110l and 57l tanks) I have two hoses one waste out to garden one fills using gravity from a bucket in the bath.


----------



## X3NiTH (9 Apr 2021)

If you absolutely need cooling for a large volume and want to minimise evaporation you can’t go far wrong with the coolers from D-D, I’m currently running the 300 series on a Fluval EVO 57L as my Reef tank is in the kitchen with no ability to open a window, last summer temps got really high and the cheap Peltier eBay cooler I was using died on me, wasn’t taking chances.





This cooler was bought as overkill for this tank as its intended use is on a 260L’ish Reef I’m building. 

Absolutely gets the job done, able to achieve 10 degree temp drop on 150L, 5 degree drop on 300L.


----------



## Hufsa (9 Apr 2021)

X3NiTH said:


> This cooler was bought as overkill for this tank as its intended use is on a 260L’ish Reef I’m building.
> Absolutely gets the job done, able to achieve 10 degree temp drop on 150L, 5 degree drop on 300L.



If these ridiculous heatwaves continue each summer im gonna have to spring for one of these coolers for my self, or move to Siberia..


----------



## ceg4048 (10 Apr 2021)

Robert F Porter said:


> This put me in mind that I might need to buy a water chiller because I will be aiming to keep my tank at 24 degrees C. Water chillers are not really discussed in the books and the chillers I see online are pretty pricy. What is the advice here, and what do most people do?


Hello,
         Most people do nothing, as chilling a planted freshwater tank is completely unnecessary unless there is some special requirement. Having a desire to keep the tank at 24 degrees seems an arbitrary decision unless it is required for a breeding program or some such objective. As mentioned, the water temperature will not necessarily rise to 40, especially for a large water volume of nearly 240 liters.  If it's only for a few weeks in the year it's hardly worth the price of a chiller.
If the water temperature rises then simply do large water changes using cold tap, and/or add ice cubes. This is a lot cheaper than buying another refrigerator for your tank.

Cheers,


----------



## fredi (18 Jun 2022)

Due to the current weather, I thought i would add my experience
I keep mostly tropheus, which have high oxygen demand, in the wild they are found in highly oxygenated turbulent regions, I now have a tank with Loricads, which also have high oxygen demands
A few years ago after loosing some large tropheus (despite multiple airstones, and venturi returns on filters), i purchased a few  Hailea water coolers
They are not perfect, the control temperature is only adjustable in 1 degree steps, the hose connections are not confidence inspiring (not had a leak yet🤞🤞🤞🙏🙏🙏) ,  i offset the measured temperature by half a degree to get the temperature i require
Clearly they cost a fair amount to purchase, and i hate to think  about the running costs
No fish lost since purchase though
The room the tanks are in was 34degrees yesterday, water temp 25.5 in tropheus tanks, 27.4 in “pleco” tank
There you have it
​


----------



## Aleman (18 Jun 2022)

Take a look at second hand python chillers, coupled with an inkbird, or D-D temp controller. It'll have no issues keeping it cool .... However, they are noisy, and put out heat, not to mention electricity consumption!!😱😱😱😱. In the brewery, it can keep a 500L fermenter at 20C on the hottest of days, even with an active fermentation under way!

If I was to use one I'd probably decouple it and chill a sump.


----------



## Conort2 (18 Jun 2022)

fredi said:


> The room the tanks are in was 34degrees yesterday, water temp 25.5 in tropheus tanks, 27.4 in “pleco” tank


What plecos are you keeping? Most of the most commonly kept species in the trade such as hypancistrus, l134 and similar actually prefer warmer temperatures.


----------



## fredi (18 Jun 2022)

Conort2 said:


> What plecos are you keeping? Most of the most commonly kept species in the trade such as hypancistrus, l134 and similar actually prefer warmer temperatures.


I have L027( Armbrusteri), L200, and otocinclus Cacoma
The L027, and L200  would be ok a bit higher, don’t think the oto’s would though, the tropheus are ok at 28, but dissolved oxygen soon starts to become a problem
I cannot (not prepared to) turn the tank into a jacuzzi
I am out all day (at work), so required a 100% solution
I run a GHL computer which controls temperature, and when i ran t5’s, it dimmed the lights as temperature rose (which obviously helped), leds, have less impact on water temperature
Problem  is once the sun comes round (after 1230 ish), even with windows open, the temperature in the “fish room” continues to rise with time, i have put sheets of 20mm polystyrene inside the windows, which helped a lot, but i still couldn’t keep water temp below 30 (when i got home), i used to but bags of ice cubes in the tanks, as the temperature dropped, the fish became more active
The chillers mean i can keep the tanks at whatever temperature i desire, I have lost zero fish since purchasing them, and would purchase them again in a heartbeat
It’s clearly  best for the fish to have consistent parameters, the tropheus continue to spawn even in this weather, so i know they appreciate it😊


----------



## fredi (18 Jun 2022)

Aleman said:


> Take a look at second hand python chillers, coupled with an inkbird, or D-D temp controller. It'll have no issues keeping it cool .... However, they are noisy, and put out heat, not to mention electricity consumption!!😱😱😱😱. In the brewery, it can keep a 500L fermenter at 20C on the hottest of days, even with an active fermentation under way!
> 
> If I was to use one I'd probably decouple it and chill a sump.


The hailea chillers are not too noisey,  they do however impact on flow, if connected to filter outlet, not checked power consumption, too frightening 😂😩😩😩😩
I use Eheim pumps, switched by ghl,  its a mess, but i put it all away, once it cools down a bit


----------



## Mortis (16 Aug 2022)

Ill give you some advice as a fishkeeper from Mumbai where its hot and humid for half the year and cooling the tank is a perpetual discussion on our fish groups

1] Cooling or PC fans are good enough to keep water temps at acceptable levels IF your average humidity levels are below 70* and you have air movement to carry the evaporated water out of the room. Also keep in mind you will need to top up with RO or similar more often.
2] Chillers are the most effective but you have to size them right and have a good pump as well as ventilation to get rid of the hot exhausted air. Main cons are they are expensive to buy and kind of medium to expensive to run. Also spares, service and repairs are hard to come by. Most people rely on an Air Con technician to repair otherwise they get dumped when they fail out of warranty.
3] Option 3 is what I use. Move the tank into the bedroom and get an Air Conditioner. Keeps the tank cool and you as well. The cost of purchasing and running is not much more than an aquarium chiller which only chills one tank. Also you need not use it all day just FYI. My AC is only used at night and brings tank temps down to 22* in the morning and its gets up to a max of 26-27 on the hottest days by night and then the cycle repeats.

So I would suggest starting with the cheapest option i.e. a bank of fans blowing across the surface and then if the tank is in the bedroom get an AC. From what Ive been hearing from my friends in the UK you guys are going to need it


----------

