 |
|
| Home | Marine Aquariums |
Freshwater Aquariums |
Planted Aquariums |
Brackish Systems |
Ponds,
lakes & fountains |
Turtles & Amphibians |
Aquatic Business |
Aquatic Science |
Ask the WWM Crew a Question |
| Please visit our Sponsors | ||||
Web Listing 1/9/12 Arctica Chiller Not Turning On -- 08/09/10
Electric Volts... trouble -- 07/24/07 Hi I
have a 130 gallon 2-California round stingray tank. <Chilled...?>
Fish and live sand only... soon to be in their new 300 gallon. Well
yesterday the baby ray 3" stopped eating and has been lethargic.
All day today I've been debating weather or not to quarantine him.
<?> I have 1 other California round ray in the tank she is fine.
Eating and acting ray-like. So all water levels are fine <?> no
scratches, the rays are 1 year old and have had nothing new added to
the tank, except a chiller 2 weeks ago. <Ah, good> I feed grass
shrimp on occasion (after being quarantined for 1 week and treated for
parasites) and give the rays vitamins from Mazuri. <Very good> So
all day I was trying to figure out what could be wrong. Well at the end
of the day I did a water change and I had a cut on my finger and I felt
electric shocks on my finger (from the chiller) is this the reason my
ray is sick? <Definitely could be> And what should I do? <Two
things for sure. Install a GFCI, AND find/fix the source of stray
current... Here likely an ungrounded outlet... can be easily checked...
See WWM re GFIs> Or is it because of the shrimp? Is there any good
medications for this? <...? For what...?> The larger ray is fine.
Please help!! I love the little guy!! Thanks for your time <Do you
understand the above? You might be badly shocked/electrocuted as
well... Bob Fenner> Michelle
Jalli Chiller 4/27/07 Hi Bob, Scott from Blue Marlin again. <Hey Scotter> I got a call the other day from a frantic home owner about a leaking chiller on a 350 gallon reef tank!!!! Upon inspection, the previous maintenance company installed the chiller (which replaced a west coast aquatics chiller) but clearly couldn't quite get the supply fitting to tighten up so they smeared the whole thing with some sort of goop that hardened but obviously didn't work because it leaks. <Bunk!> The chiller has only one small label on it that was writing in Japanese, or similar Asian text, so it has been hard to figure out what brand it is. I finally had the homeowner call his previous maintenance company to ask and they said that it was a Jalli Corporation brand. I didn't even know they existed. Do you know if they have a website or contact information so I can order new fittings? Am trying to get the homeowner to install a JBJ or similar chiller, but they spent about $1,000 on this Jalli thing so I can appreciate their unwillingness to spend more. So any help would be much appreciated. Thanks -- Scott C. Wirtz Owner Blue Marlin Aquatic Creations <Yeeikes... I would likely try cutting off (gingerly) the existing material (try crushing the bits with channel locks... if this doesn't split the material, sawing with a hacksaw blade in three parallel lines, about equi-distant across the threads... yes, will foul up a bit, but can be Siliconed over with new thread to thread couplers...) I would also call Todd Gabriel at Custom Aquatic: www.customaquatics.com as I think they handle or used to handle this line. Good luck. Bob Fenner> New chiller install - Temperature swings Being in Arizona, and using as much lighting as one can stuff into canopy, I have always struggled with temperature related issues. Using fans, I achieved a stable 84 degrees. With exception of the rare spike, and lots of algae, I have not had many problems with this temp. I finally decided the fan attrition rate was too high, and have purchased a 1/4 hp chiller (around 120 gallons of water to cool). I would like to get to that magical number of 78 degrees, with the occasional swing to 79 or 80 on the 115 degree days. My question is: what is a safe amount to drop the temp from day to day without causing stress to the corals or fish? Should I do this over a couple of weeks, or a couple of days? Thanks! <Hi. I would aim to drop the temperature over a period of a few days. Lower it one (1) degree every day until you achieve the temperature that you want. 79 degrees F. sounds like a good temperature.> Take Care, Graham Stephan Wetwebmedia.com Crew - Chiller can't keep up! - I currently have a 110 Gallon tank with 2 x 250 watt Metal Halides and 2 x 03 Actinics PC. I am having, what I think is a problem. My tank temp. goes from 78 in the morning, then when the light start turning on it will reach about 84 degrees. <A six degree swing is pretty sizable and stressful.> I think that is too much fluctuation in temp. I currently have a 1/5 chiller, which runs about 12+ hours a day. <I guess it can't keep up w/ the tank, unless it's plumbed incorrectly or you have it in the aquarium cabinet.> What should I do? Buy a bigger chiller (1/3 or ½)? <I'd start by removing all or part of the cover (if one) and using a cheap fan to blow across the surface of the water. My 120 that runs 2x400w MH and 220w of VHO actinics uses only a 9.99 Wal-Mart fan for all its cooling needs. Try it!> If so, in-line or coil, which one is better on electricity and chilling? <In line's are better.> My current electricity bill is 200 + a month. <Ouch! Good luck! -Kevin> Help and thanks in advance. Michael Water cooling, Harmful metals 7/11/05 I'm trying to set up a cooling device for my aquarium because it is reaching temperatures of 80 F plus in the summer and was wondering if there are any problems with using an aluminum coil chiller. <Ah, yes... aluminum is toxic in concentration, and unless there is a thermal exchange mechanism, exposing system water to the air as in "swamp cooling" will add too much pollution. Bob Fenner> Chiller performance 8/24/06 Hello! Hope you can offer me some technical help here. As I explained in the previous e-mail, my chiller broke down a couple of weeks ago and I lost almost everything in my tank. Now I had it fixed (the compressor was replaced and the heat exchanger lines flushed out of any debris) and is working again but after some research I read many warnings about short cycling of the compressor if the unit too big for the aquarium volume. The chiller I have is a Resun CL-650, a 1/4 hp unit and my tank a 55gal + 10 gal refugium, will this be what killed my chiller? <Mmm, doubtful> I don't recall the frequency of the on-off cycles previously (it have been working for more than a year) but now I am and the compressor kicks in for more or less 15 minutes to pull down 2deg from 84deg to 82deg set point and then shut off for about 20 minutes and the cycle repeats (this with an air temp of +/- 91deg in my living room) would this cycle be considered short cycling? <Is rather short, but shouldn't be a problem here. Bob Fenner> Chiller Type/Placement - 09/29/06 Being in Alaska, I have never had much need for chillers, but know I am being asked to put a 100g saltwater tank in the hallway of an office building. <<Okay>> All of the offices have huge inefficient windows making the offices cold, so they crank the heat up. The hallway doesn't lose much heat so it is always over 80-85 degrees. <<Uncomfortable>> This puts my tank averaging 92 degrees. <<Yikes!>> The tank is a self-contained one, meaning there is a false wall in the tank and there is an overflow system into the back where there is a pre-filter, a skimmer, and a wet/dry trickle, then a pump returning it to the tank. <<Yes...am familiar with (if not a fan of) the design>> Nothing ever leaves the tank. I would rather not drill bulkheads, but have read that the drop-in chillers should be drop kicked. <<I've only ever used in-line chillers but have heard the drop-in design is "less than efficient" as well>> Also I read that even if I use an in-line chiller, the heat pulled from the tank will increase the temp in the room and will heat the tank etc. A vicious cycle. What are your thoughts? <<Mostly truth here. I initially installed my chiller under the tank...didn't have problems with keeping the tank cool (the chiller did a very good job of this), but the chiller pumped a bunch of heat in to the room...ended up relocating/plumbing the unit from under the house in the crawlspace. To be quite honest, it sounds like you have a "much less than ideal location" here for a tank. You will need a fairly large chiller (I'm estimating 1/2hp in-line...3/4hp drop-in) to get the "pull-down" it appears you will need. You can locate the chiller under/next to the tank and still maintain temperature (in the tank) in my opinion, but the heat/noise pumped in to the hall will be terrible (who would want to stand out there and view this tank under such conditions?!) Unless you have means of remotely locating a chiller, I'm not sure placing this tank here is plausible under current conditions. Regards, Eric Russell>>. Octopus and Chilling Incident Hi Bob, I tried frozen shrimp (the ones that are for human consumption) which was totally rejected by the octopus. I then tried some small frozen fish which was also ignored. Today I will start feeding it with live oysters which will be staying in the other tank and fed to it at a rate of 3-4 / day. The only question is how can I know that it is well fed .. or perhaps overfed.. <Do look for small live crabs... If the animal is very small (like the size of your thumb), small live crustaceans of other sorts> Do you still have your octopus in that tank ? How long have you been keeping it ? <Have never kept these cephalopods, other than in retail settings> A really interesting animal.. I think that in the next edition of your book you should include more information about it.. as well as some cool water marine fishes.. (as usually our website is at your disposal for this purpose). I hope that till then we will have acquired enough information to justify a chapter in your "Bible" !! <Thank you for this. Some friends and I are writing some related works together... the next on "The Best Fishes for Marine Aquariums"... and the following work will likely be on "non-fishes"... will accumulate your note here for this latter title> You will read full details in the August update of our site but I would like to let you know in advance (for your book.. ) While on a business trip the thermostat of the chiller stuck in the "on" position and the water temperature dropped from 21 C to 4 C where it stayed for 12 hours. My son stopped the chiller and allowed the temperature to reach 21C in 20 hours. No fish or invertebrate losses !! <Amazing how tough aquatic life can be when it starts in good health. Bob Fenner> George Temperature Fluctuations- needs add-on controller for chiller 6/18/03 Hello Crew of Great Wetness! <I'm not that happy to see you, but cheers anyway <G>> I have a question regarding temperature. I had to purchase a chiller because my setup was forcing tank temperatures above 84 degrees in a house that has an ambient temp. of 78 degrees! The chiller comes on at 79 degrees, runs for about 20 minutes, then shuts off when the temp. hits 81 degrees. This is automatic, at least the 2 degree difference between when it kicks on and when it shuts off is automatic, I don't have control of it, I just set it for 80 degrees. The happens about every 3 hours or so. Is this 2 degree fluctuation between 79 and 81 too much based on the frequency? <2 degrees is tolerable. DO add on a digital controller if you prefer though for finer control> I don't think I could do anything to change this...Thank you Paul <best regards, Anthony> Not Moving Query Before Answering.. Making a Tank Quieter and Cooler 4/6/05 (Whose Take?) Hi. I sent this e-mail to you last week and since I received no response, I thought maybe my Spam Blocker got it. So I am going to resend from a different e-mail address. <Sorry that you didn't get a reply. With the huge volume of mail that we get, once in a while one gets blocked, bounced, lost, etc. Thanks for giving us a second chance!> I appreciate any help you can give me. (I have looked at other questions and answers on your site and they tend to conclude that: there is no quiet way to cool a tank with a chiller and the JBJ chiller is probably the best on the market today. So maybe my questions below are not worth responding to.) <All questions deserve a reply! Most chillers are noisy, but it is not hopeless.> I have two questions that are related. Let me start by describing my current setup. I have a 135 gallon reef aquarium with a 30 gallon sump. It is six feet long with 4 VHO lights (kept about 3 inches above the glass) and is used as a room partition with dedicated outlets in the cabinet under the tank. I had a custom cabinet built with the air vents on the 4 doors below, on both sides. I have a single return that is powered by a Mag 9.5 (950 GPH) pump. In addition to the return pump, in the sump I have a Aqua Medic Turboflotor protein skimmer powered by a Rio pump and also a smaller 200 gph Rio pump for more power through the skimmer. Finally I have a drop-in 1/4 HP Delta chiller with the coil placed in the sump. The tank is doing great. <Sounds like a very nice set-up. Submersible pumps like the Rio and Mag add a surprising amount of heat!> I moved into an a/c apartment about 1 ½ [??] ago, which we keep about 68-72 degrees. Even in the winter my tank runs hot. The chiller is set to run when the temperature of the water is 77 degrees and it seems to be running 4-6 hours a day, mostly when the lights are on (which is around 11 hours per day). Without the chiller on, the tank will go above 85 degrees during the day and come down to around only 82 degrees at night. In the summer the temperature goes even higher. <77 degrees is a bit on the low side for a target temperature. Most folks run their reef tanks at 80-82 degrees. In the summer I often tolerate up to 85. It is much more important to avoid spikes greater than about 5 degrees. Adding vents and fans to the cabinet and hood will help a lot. I had a very similar set-up and never needed a chiller.> Question 1: My wife complains about the noise since the tank is right in the middle of the living room/den. Any way that I can make the setup quieter? <Since this is an apartment, you can't move the chiller to the basement. You can place the chiller on a vibration dampening pad.> Question 2: The chiller seems to be not performing well. I bought it about 3 years ago. I try to keep the water at about 77-79 degrees. Over the past couple of months, I have seen the tank go to 85 plus degrees and hear the chiller running but the coil is not very cold. (The grills are kept fairly clean and clear.) If I play with the chiller (jiggle the adjustable coil hose or turn the chiller off and back on) it seems to kick in better. With summer approaching I am getting nervous. Any ideas what I can do to cool the tank? Should I buy a new cooler that might work better? Is there a chiller out there that would also make the tank a little quieter. <I am not sure which chiller will be quieter. I would have a pro look at your current chiller. It is often hard to find refrigeration or AC folks that will look at a chiller, but if you shop around you will find one.> Additional question to my earlier e-mail: If I get the JBL in-line chiller, with my set-up do you think I can get a Mag 12 (1200 GPH) pump, send the water first through the cooler and then straight back to the tank or do you think it is better to have another pump in the sump that sends the water to the chiller and back to the sump? Is the heat from adding another pump to the sump defeating the purpose of a chiller? <I would suggest one large external pump to supply both the chiller and the tank. This will reduce the heat being transferred to the tank. Running through the chiller to the tank will cost you a great deal of flow and may exceed the maximum pressure recommended by the manufacturer.> Thank you for your help. David <Glad to help!> Making a Tank Quieter and Cooler Hi. I sent this e-mail to you last week and since I received no response, I thought maybe my Spam Blocker got it. So I am going to resend from a different e-mail address. <Don't know what happened David, I did send the response.> <<And Marina posted on Dailies.>> I appreciate any help you can give me. (I have looked at other questions and answers on your site and they tend to conclude that: there is no quiet way to cool a tank with a chiller and the JBL chiller is probably the best on the market today. So maybe my questions below are not worth responding to.) <<NEVER the case!>> I have two questions that are related. Let me start by describing my current setup. I have a 135 gallon reef aquarium with a 30 gallon sump. It is six feet long with 4 VHO lights (kept about 3 inches above the glass) and is used as a room partition with dedicated outlets in the cabinet under the tank. I had a custom cabinet built with the air vents on the 4 doors below, on both sides. I have a single return that is powered by a Mag 9.5 (950 GPH) pump. In addition to the return pump, in the sump I have a Aqua Medic Turboflotor protein skimmer powered by a Rio pump and also a smaller 200 gph Rio pump for more power through the skimmer. Finally I have a drop-in 1/4 HP Delta chiller with the coil placed in the sump. The tank is doing great. I moved into an a/c apartment about 1½ [??] ago, which we keep about 68-72 degrees. Even in the winter my tank runs hot. The chiller is set to run when the temperature of the water is 77 degrees and it seems to be running 4-6 hours a day, mostly when the lights are on (which is around 11 hours per day). Without the chiller on, the tank will go above 85 degrees during the day and come down to around only 82 degrees at night. In the summer the temperature goes even higher. <David, your chiller may need a Freon charge. Any A/C guy can do this.> Question 1: My wife complains about the noise since the tank is right in the middle of the living room/den. Any way that I can make the setup quieter? <Ask the wife to leave?:):) Joking. Try lining the interior of the cabinet with insulating Styrofoam. That should help.> Question 2: The chiller seems to be not performing well. I bought it about 3 years ago. I try to keep the water at about 77-79 degrees. Over the past couple of months, I have seen the tank go to 85 plus degrees and hear the chiller running but the coil is not very cold. (The grills are kept fairly clean and clear.) If I play with the chiller (jiggle the adjustable coil hose or turn the chiller off and back on) it seems to kick in better. With summer approaching I am getting nervous. Any ideas what I can do to cool the tank? Should I buy a new cooler that might work better? Is there a chiller out there that would also make the tank a little quieter? <As above, check the Freon level.> (Additional question to my earlier e-mail) If I get the JBL in-line chiller, with my set-up do you think I can get a Mag 12 (1200 GPH) pump, send the water first through the cooler and then straight back to the tank or do you think it is better to have another pump in the sump that sends the water to the chiller and back to the sump? Is the heat from adding another pump to the sump defeating the purpose of a chiller? <Any additional pumps is going to add a little additional heat to the tank. Thing is if you pump the water through the chiller and into the tank you will get a significant flow drop. I think I would use another pump to pump water from the sump to the chiller and back into the sump and use the existing pump for flow back into the tank.> Thank you for your help. <You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)> |
|
|
Features: |
|
| Featured Sponsors: |
