Chiller Question

[russbriscoe]

I have the Aquamedic AT 5000 it is rated for 500 gal. My new system will have 620gal. Do you think I need to get a bigger one?

[Wolfenbuttel]

yes

[loubee]

I would because it will probably have to work flat out to nearly cope!

[dkling]

Originally Posted by russbriscoe

I have the Aquamedic AT 5000 it is rated for 500 gal. My new system will have 620gal. Do you think I need to get a bigger one?

Or a second one , to cover the difference.

[Fly Guy]

I dont think you necessarily do. Assuming you provide good ventilation in the canopy with a few holes in the top and a few small fans to help the airflow through the canopy and out..........I think that chiller should handle your tank fine.

Your system is barely bigger than it is rated for.

On my 225 im using a chiller rated for 80 gallons. lol

I DONT recommend this as I am working the crap out of it.............but that is a far cry from what you are talking about doing.

[combiemaster]

you would be ok if you put in 900 pounds of sand and 650 pounds of Live rock according to www.saltyzoo.com you would have volume of 501g of actual water in the tank. Remember the more stuff you add in the tank the less water will be in the tank. Besides i think yeah maybe you should get a bigger chiller. I would rather get a chiller thats over kill than to have something that is just right or under. you save money that way when you have to sell it cheap and get another at least thats what i think

[combiemaster]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

I dont think you necessarily do. Assuming you provide good ventilation in the canopy with a few holes in the top and a few small fans to help the airflow through the canopy and out..........I think that chiller should handle your tank fine.

Your system is barely bigger than it is rated for.

On my 225 im using a chiller rated for 80 gallons. lol

I DONT recommend this as I am working the crap out of it.............but that is a far cry from what you are talking about doing.

Fly your a mad man lol poor little chiller bet its always on huh.

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by combiemaster

Fly your a mad man lol poor little chiller bet its always on huh.

no...it shuts off for about 2 hours every day in the middle of the night


After posting this nobody here want to buy my used 1/10 PCI chiller do they

[russbriscoe]

My chiller sits far away from my tank over 40' and down 14'. I am not happy about my chiller running all day heating up the small room it sits in. I am also not excited about getting a new chiller.

I do not want to spend any more money...

[jeff262]

don't look at the gallons it can handle since that means NOTHING. you need to look at the amount you need to cool your water, if your going with fans in the tank and have AC in the house on hot days then you will only need to pull down the temp a few degrees here and there so your chiller will be fine. but if you don't run AC in the house on hot days then upgrade. chillers go by pulling down 20-30 degrees of temp on there rated capacity so if your tank is fairly temp stable then just use what you have since i would say the average tank only needs 5 degrees pull down on bad days. as for heating the room where the chiller is thats a myth, you will use the same BTU's to chiller the water no matter what size chiller you have so it will produce the same amount of heat either way, just the smaller chiller will be spread out over more time which actually can be good since it can keep the room colder since the heat has more time to ventilate. another myth is the chiller has to work harder and burn itself out, not all compressors are made equal but if your chiller has a good compressor, the Copeland being top dog, you will be fine. at work we have compressors that run outside in Arizona in pop machines that don't need service for 15-20 years. you could burn the compressor by trying to heat the freon to fast from the exchanger but you would need to be pulling down the full 25-30 temp for that to happen which if you do then you got more problem then needing a chiller
jeff

[russbriscoe]

Thanks Jeff and all the others... I talked with my wife and we are not going to make a change to the chiller. I am out of Cash for this build so if i need an upgrade then It will be next summer after things are set and running.