My Chiller is Not Chilling!

[Dentoid]

I set up my Peltech Geotronic chiller up 3 days ago and it is not doing the job. I have a 90G tank and it's model 400. I have a 500 gph pump because of the 4' headpressure. I have the chiller set at 78 and the temperature hasn't gone below 80 and it actually goes up to 81 as the day goes on. It doesn't seem to be keeping up with the heating from the MH's. Any ideas?

 

[sasquatch]

Is it actually running? internal sensor or remote? did you burp it? are you getting flow out the output side?

 

[Dentoid]

It's running continuously. Blowing hot air out of the four fans. It has factory settings, but I have the remote hooked up and that is how I set the temperature at 78. Perhaps the remote is not working? Although the remote is showing the incoming water temperature, which is 1-2 degrees higher than what my Aqua Controller shows. There is water coming out of the output. Also, about an hour after I got it running my skimmer went haywire, overflowed, it was ugly. Today it just started to settle down and I've been able to raise the output tube, but not to the level I usually have it. Could there have been some manufacturing goo inside the chiller?

 

[DaveK]

These sort of chillers are based upon some very interesting technology, but in my opinion they are not near powerful enough to do much in an aquarium of any size.

This method of chilling has been used, with other forms of liquid cooling, in some personal computer systems. With only a small amount of heat to remove, they are fine. However, I also recall an experiment some of the computer geeks did. The goal was to use a couple of similar devices to cool a can of beer. As I recall, this took hours, and while a fun project, not really effective.

The amount of heat contained in a 90 gal tank is massive. You need quite a lot of cooling to reduce the temp.

Like the skimmer ratings, and most other ratings of aquarium equipment, the manufacturers tend to be "very optimistic" in what the product can do.

My advice, return the unit, and get a real chiller, or air condition the entire room or house to reduce the temp.

 

[Dentoid]

My house is air conditioned. I keep it at 72! The temperature does drop after the MH's go off. This unit is very quite, that's what I like about it!

 

[mps9506]

I'm not familar with these chillers, does it use a peltier to cool the water? My experience with these is they are only as effective as whatever removes the heat from the "hot side" which is usually fans or water and a radiator. souds like Dave knows more about them. I only know about peltiers from the computer hobby where some folks use them to cool cpu's.

 

[tbittner]

72?!?!? OMG!!! My wife would FREEZE to death!!! LOL!!!

I have a very hard time convincing her to keep it at 79. She sets it at 83 at night. My tank does warm up to 81, 82, and I have seen it on a rare occasion at 83. I DO have a chiller and I'm hoping to hook it up on the 4th after I get my refugium done and running.

 

[DaveK]

Since you already have the house air conditioned, and I assume you have done all the normal stuff like placing a fan to move air across the water surface of the tank or sump, I think the only alternative is to get a more conventional chiller.

These could be located away from the main tank, if you are willing to run the plumbing, and that resolves the possible noise issue.

Having a quiet chiller is nice, but only if it first works. From your description, the unit you has is working, since it puts out warm air. However, the amount of cooling to the tank is not enough to put even a dent in the overall water temp.

 

[sasquatch]

Hey Scott just read a product review, as Dave pointed out its a chiller of a different sort, as its really a glorified heat sink any ambient heat near the unit will slow it down, I think its meant for very slow regulation and wont be able to deal with the surge of heat from the MH

 

[outprowllin]

if this helps. i have a 90 gallon with two 250 watt mh s over the top of it. i keep the house at 72, and use no chiller at all. i pulled the hood forward one inch and placed a pancake fan directly behind each bulb. the air carries the heat out through the one inch gap at the front of the tank and the heat blows straight down towards the floor. the tank never goes above 80 degrees and ussually hovers around 78-79. by the way i live in south florida and its africa hot here...i will mark my 2 yr anniversery with out a chiller in the first week of august.. i keep mainly sps and and have no problems...just thought id pipe up since you said you keep your house at 72...if you vent the hood right you can get away without a chiller all together.......2 cents worth........jaime

 

[cheeks69]

My house is air conditioned. I keep it at 72! The temperature does drop after the MH's go off. This unit is very quite, that's what I like about it!

Wow I'm surprised with an ambient temp of 72 degrees you'd still need a chiller, how many watts of halides are you running ? Are you keeping it at 78F because of the BS ? If not I wouldn't worry about the 81 degrees as most reef inhabitants can easily handle that temp. but it does suck to invest money in a chller and it not do the job.

 

[DaveK]

I'm not familar with these chillers, does it use a peltier to cool the water? My experience with these is they are only as effective as whatever removes the heat from the "hot side" which is usually fans or water and a radiator. souds like Dave knows more about them. I only know about peltiers from the computer hobby where some folks use them to cool cpu's.

My experience is from the computer side also. Yes, they can be real nice when you want to cool a few sq inches of CPU in a computer. It's quite different to cool a large tank.

If you look at the units on the company web page (see them here (offsite link) -
Ocean GEOtronic® USA ) you can see that they look exactly like one to eight computer type coolers ganged together.

It seems reasonable that if a couple of peltiers take a couple of hours to cool a can of beer, even 4 of them are not going to do much in a 90 gal tank.

I really wish I had a better answer than getting a more conventional chiller, but I just don't see these things going the job.

 

[outprowllin]

im not knocking thier chiller technology but, being an a/c technician her in florida i think i can cool the tank off better with a gallon jug of ice placed in the sump. thier method seens like it would tak a long time to overcome the heatload of 90 (give or take a few) gallons of water. a good old reliable chiller with freon gas will certainly transfer heat more readilly that this devise..in my opinion of coarse. this sems to basicly work on thansfer through air movment through the (for lack of a better term) coil. there isnt any heat absorption that i can see. is it based on just convestion or am i missing somthing?...jaime

 

[Dentoid]

I'm glad to have started a discussion on this type of chilling. I still have faith that this technology will work, I just have to figure out what is wrong. I'm going to contact Peltech and tell them the problem I am having. Thanks for all your input.

 

[Frankie]

Lighting is not the only thing that causes heat. You could also be fighting some pumps. Any submersible pump will heat the water a good bit. Also exterior ones. So you need to factor in all these things when it comes to heat. Most of my heat comes from the pumps. My venting in the lighting area keeps the surface water pretty cool and i agree with outprowllin that if properly vented, heat from the lights will be a minimum. Wish i could help you Scott. I need to go read up on this chiller like Sasquatch did. He didn't sound to impressed though.

 

[Dentoid]

You're right about that Frankie. With the pump to the Geotronic I now have 4 pumps in my sump! Return, skimmer, chiller and small PH for my phosban reactor. I have a fan running in the tank stand over the sump.

 

[FateX8]

heres a REALLY good page about the geotronics
Reef Central Online Community - Just got the coolest chiller!
theres tons of people on that thread that uses them, maybe they can beter assist you
from what i read in that thread, that chiller is supposedly VERY good
but it does cost a bit more

 

[DaveK]

My house is air conditioned. I keep it at 72! The temperature does drop after the MH's go off. This unit is very quite, that's what I like about it!

Another thought occurred to me. What kind of MH lighting are you using?

I had a problem with my 250w MHs throwing a lot of heat. They are double ended bulbs and the fixture used UV blocking glass. It still let a lot of heat through in the form of IR (inferred), almost like a heat lamp.

I got some relief by replacing the manufacturer's supplied glass with Robax glass. This glass blocks UV and IR. You can get Robax glass here - offsite link - SCHOTT Applied Energy Systems

However, Robax is extremely expensive, about .50 a square inch, so make sure this is the problem before you purchase.

 

[tbittner]

Great point Dave!

I replaced my glass top with egg crate and my tank would only heat up by one or two degrees then.

 

[Dentoid]

I figured it out. I had forgotten that my Aqua Controller was set to keep the tank at 80. So everytime the temp would drop below 80 the Aqua Controller would turn on the heater in the sump. :smack:I COULD OF HAD A V-8! I turned off the heater and this morning the temperature had come down to 78 where I have it set on the Geotronic chiller. I have yet to see how it performs over time. I'll keep you posted.