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Suggestions needed for chilling

chickennublet

chickennublet

Member
Joined
25 Oct 2019
Messages
91
Location
Singapore
Hello everyone
Writing from Singapore, where it is hot year round. Most folks require heating while people here need the opposite.
I would be grateful for some advice on aquarium chillers and what I can do to keep temperatures low generally. I am chilling my water to keep my fish happy, since I am keeping Corydoras which prefer cooler water. My tank will probably be above 30 degrees Celsius without the chiller which is too warm.
I bought a used Hailea chiller for a really good price. Hailea is a Chinese brand but widely used in Singapore and known to be reliable, but I wonder if it might be a bit underpowered for my tank which holds 81 litres of water. I am not very sure of the specs, except that it's a 1/10 HP chiller, whatever that's supposed to mean, and I have it set at 25 degrees Celsius. It cools the water down to 24.9 and then goes into standby mode until the temperature reaches 26 degrees, then it starts up again to cool the water down.
I noticed earlier at around 2pm shortly after the lights turned on that it took 25 whole minutes to cool the water from 26 to 25. It then went into standby mode for only 28 minutes before starting up again. I can't do much about how quickly the water heats up, but 25 minutes to cool the water is quite a long time.
I tried modifying the chiller so that the chiller measures the water in the tank instead. Earlier this morning with the lights off, it was on standby for about an hour which is nice, but it took nearly 40 minutes to cool the water by 1 degree! I only monitored it once before undoing the modification although maybe I should have let it run for a few hours.
I don't want my electricity bills to skyrocket, so I am wondering if I should purchase a higher rated chiller which should be able to chill the water quicker. The problem I have though is that the largest filter I can fit under my stand is a Biomaster 600 and I don't know if the flow rate will be high enough for a higher rated chiller. With filter media the flow rate will probably be just 600 L/H so i'm wondering what actually happens if I run a chiller but the flow rate is a bit too low for it. Should I go for a higher rated chiller or would it be a waste because I won't have the recommended flow rate?

I am also considering hanging my lights so that it is a distance from the water surface and wondering if that will help reduce the temperature somewhat.

Thank you everyone!
 
Hi,

It sounds like your current cooling cycle times are exactly what we would be after, we used to use a chiller on our old marine tanks.
If you get a bigger chiller then you may find the quicker temperature swings might affect your fish.
Would think your electricity bill will stay similar whatever size chiller you have, its going to use a similar amount of energy to do the same task of lowering the waters temperature.
For the lights, perhaps add a 120mm dc pc type fan to blow the heat away from the lights / waters surface, though that may increase the amount of top up water needed.
 
dino21 said:
Hi,

It sounds like your current cooling cycle times are exactly what we would be after, we used to use a chiller on our old marine tanks.
If you get a bigger chiller then you may find the quicker temperature swings might affect your fish.
Would think your electricity bill will stay similar whatever size chiller you have, its going to use a similar amount of energy to do the same task of lowering the waters temperature.
For the lights, perhaps add a 120mm dc pc type fan to blow the heat away from the lights / waters surface, though that may increase the amount of top up water needed.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the input. Which one is better from the two I described? As the standby and cooling times are quite different depending on where the temperature probe is. I assume the one that has a longer standby and chilling time is better?
 
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1HP = 745.7 watts. So your chiller uses 1/10HP, aka ~75w.

I'd say that both of the times listed are pretty good; I wouldn't want my water cooling off or heating up too rapidly.
 
A 1/10hp chiller uses about 200w+
A 1/4hp chiller uses about 300w+

larger chillers might be more efficient. larger surface area of metal fins, larger fans for heat venting, larger water tank/cooling area. there is a big difference between 1/10hp chillers and 1/4hp chillers.

as 1/10hp chillers are "weak" when it comes to a country with 30degree+ room temp, consider setting the temp at 26 instead of 25.

were you the one who suggested to me to wrap the water pipes with air-con insulation (if it was someone else, then its a good idea to try when you are using chillers).
 
Just looking at the average highs and low temps in Singapore year round...32* and 24* on average, that is crazy lol
 
Aqua360 said:
Just looking at the average highs and low temps in Singapore year round...32* and 24* on average, that is crazy lol
Click to expand...

I got the ol' :oops: when I told someone that I live at 2100m and temps from -30 to +40 are common here in Colorado.

Context: I was responding to a thread, saying that I insulated the back of my aquarium stand and back side of my tank with 1" pink foam insulation last year.
 
Le duke said:
I got the ol' :oops: when I told someone that I live at 2100m and temps from -30 to +40 are common here in Colorado.

Context: I was responding to a thread, saying that I insulated the back of my aquarium stand and back side of my tank with 1" pink foam insulation last year.
Click to expand...
when i stayed in Ottawa, I was told it could go between -40 in winter, and +40 in summer o_O
 
Le duke said:
I got the ol' :oops: when I told someone that I live at 2100m and temps from -30 to +40 are common here in Colorado.

Context: I was responding to a thread, saying that I insulated the back of my aquarium stand and back side of my tank with 1" pink foam insulation last year.
Click to expand...

Aqua360 said:
when i stayed in Ottawa, I was told it could go between -40 in winter, and +40 in summer o_O
Click to expand...
Those are some extreme temperatures holy crap.
 
chickennublet said:
Those are some extreme temperatures holy crap.
Click to expand...
Yeah luckily we were there for Summer only, so didn't see the flip side, but its supposed to be one of the few places with those extremes, who knows.

Would love to visit Singapore, was supposed to go a few years back, but Covid cancelled our trip :(
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

I've only passed through the airport a couple of times, and both times the weather was wet and my first thought was "wow, it is incredibly hot and sticky".

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...
at 80% humidity i'm not surprised!
 
I always thought it was more to do with oxygen than temperatures, as in fish will be fine with 30 as long as you keep an airstone running.

Speaking of Singapore, I'll be visiting end of May for a week - do you have any tips or suggestions of what to see besides the usual tourist things ? :D Any hidden gems that you can recommend?
 
palcente said:
I always thought it was more to do with oxygen than temperatures, as in fish will be fine with 30 as long as you keep an airstone running.

Speaking of Singapore, I'll be visiting end of May for a week - do you have any tips or suggestions of what to see besides the usual tourist things ? :D Any hidden gems that you can recommend?
Click to expand...
If you haven't already made plans to visit the attractions at Mandai Wildlife Reserve I would definitely recommend that you do. I'm sorry for suggesting something touristy but I absolutely love it there. River Wonders is a must visit if you're into freshwater habitats (and since you're on this forum I assume you are).

In terms of eats, I think hawker centres are the best place to get local food. You might have come across names like Newton Food Centre, Lau Pa Sat and Satay by the Bay if you're searching online but I think these are overrated and catered for tourists specifically so they'll be overrated and expensive. I'd suggest getting visiting hawker centres like Amoy Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre, Chinatown Complex, Tekka Centre.
Plenty of delicious and affordable options there. If you're not sure what to eat, just join the longest lines you see.

If you're looking for coffee you can get a really good cup of coffee from Alchemist. There are a few locations in Singapore. You should also try the local coffee which we call "kopi". It's usually sweetened with sugar or condensed milk but you can get it unsweetened too which I prefer. Any hawker centre or kopitiam (which is like a really small food court) will offer this. Local chains like Ya Kun and Toast Box make some really good toast and coffee too.

For general neighbourhoods to explore, Joo Chiat and Tiong Bahru are really nice.

Public transport is pretty easy to navigate and Google maps is fairly accurate. You can also use your contactless credit card or apps like Apple Pay or Google Wallet (if you've added your cards to those apps) to pay for public transport so no need to fret about getting a train card or anything like that. Would also suggest downloading the Grab application (and other alternatives) on your phone in case you need a taxi.

If for some reason you want to check out some fish stores, I would recommend Clementi Florist & Aquarium, it is insanely popular and there is a row of aquarium stores there. Honestly, they sell pretty run of the mill stuff so I don't go there much. There is another shop called BuyFish that is in the area which generally stocks more interesting fish. For shops focused on plants and aquascaping there is Living Shrimply, Fishy Business and Green Chapter.

If there's anything specific you're thinking about do let me know and I'll see if I can't suggest anything.
 
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chickennublet said:
If you haven't already made plans to visit the attractions at Mandai Wildlife Reserve I would definitely recommend that you do. I'm sorry for suggesting something touristy but I absolutely love it there. River Wonders is a must visit if you're into freshwater habitats (and since you're on this forum I assume you are).

In terms of eats, I think hawker centres are the best place to get local food. You might have come across names like Newton Food Centre, Lau Pa Sat and Satay by the Bay if you're searching online but I think these are overrated and catered for tourists specifically so they'll be overrated and expensive. I'd suggest getting visiting hawker centres like Amoy Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre, Chinatown Complex, Tekka Centre.
Plenty of delicious and affordable options there. If you're not sure what to eat, just join the longest lines you see.

If you're looking for coffee you can get a really good cup of coffee from Alchemist. There are a few locations in Singapore. You should also try the local coffee which we call "kopi". It's usually sweetened with sugar or condensed milk but you can get it unsweetened too which I prefer. Any hawker centre or kopitiam (which is like a really small food court) will offer this. Local chains like Ya Kun and Toast Box make some really good toast and coffee too.

For general neighbourhoods to explore, Joo Chiat and Tiong Bahru are really nice.

Public transport is pretty easy to navigate and Google maps is fairly accurate. You can also use your contactless credit card or apps like Apple Pay or Google Wallet (if you've added your cards to those apps) to pay for public transport so no need to fret about getting a train card or anything like that. Would also suggest downloading the Grab application (and other alternatives) on your phone in case you need a taxi.

If for some reason you want to check out some fish stores, I would recommend Clementi Florist & Aquarium, it is insanely popular and there is a row of aquarium stores there. Honestly, they sell pretty run of the mill stuff so I don't go there much. There is another shop called BuyFish that is in the area which generally stocks more interesting fish. For shops focused on plants and aquascaping there is Living Shrimply, Fishy Business and Green Chapter.

If there's anything specific you're thinking about do let me know and I'll see if I can't suggest anything.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the shrimply amazing response, it is greatly appreciated! Do you know if there are any day trips out of Singapore to that are worthwhile? Thank you again, this is great!
 
I met a couple of friends from the UK recently.

The key method to deal with the heat is to do the outdoor stuff early morning or in the evening. My friends were surprised when I told them I would pick them up at 7am but they agreed and they enjoyed being out and about early in the morning. We had breakfast at Smith Street Chinatown food centre and showed them the wet market, went to some stalls to pick up various tropical fruit for tasting.

10am-11am is a good time to head back to hotel for a quick nap as it starts getting hot but the aircon malls haven't opened yet. Then 11am onwards, you head to somewhere airconditioned. Then after 6pm, head outdoors again, eg: Singapore river /civic district.
 
palcente said:
Thank you for the shrimply amazing response, it is greatly appreciated! Do you know if there are any day trips out of Singapore to that are worthwhile? Thank you again, this is great!
Click to expand...

Mmm maybe a trip to the surrounding islands. Not incredibly familiar with them but they are still part of Singapore so you won't need your passport for those.

Otherwise a day trip to Johor Bahru in neighbouring Malaysia?
 
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