Looking for a chiller for a 125Gallon

[GregM779]

Hey guys, I'm looking at getting a chiller soon (with hurricane season coming) and was looking for suggestions. I would like to know the good brands, how many hp and about what it's gonna cost me. I don't need a chiller with the A/C runnning but once the power goes out the temp begins to rise.
Also, I don't mind buying used equipment as long as it is in good shape.
Thanks,
Greg

[Ludwigia73]

A baggie with ice cubes works pretty well... saved my tank.

[GregM779]

I already plan on filling my frezzer w/ 2 liters of water before the storm but there's so much money in my tank I just don't want to risk it if possible. Thanks for the tip though.

[Ludwigia73]

Those gel packs work pretty well, also.

[tooshay]

I have an Aqualogic 1/4 HP that is rated for a 125-180 gallon tank. It was $750.00 from Marine Depot, and suits my tank perfectly.

[daywn]

I have a via aqua 1/4 hp flow through.It took a dive off the table when i was cleaning it.It has power,but doesn't come on.Don't have the time to mess with it to see what's wrong with it.I'll trade it for a couple nice frags if you want to try to get it working.It's about a year old.
Thanks Paul

[dgasmd]

Greg:

A couple of suggestions from someone that did an extensive amount of homework in terms of chillers.

First off, go with a unit you can grow with. That means that I wuld go with a unit bigger than what you need now. A 1/4 HP unit will be plenty for you now, but I would go with a 1/3 HP unit if you can afford the difference. Not only will it be more efficient, but it will also run less overall. Plus, you can still have plenty of room to grow shuld you upgrade to a 180g tank or even mor up to probably 300g +/-.

Second, get a 2 stage unit. For this I would talk to Gayle and I would go see her unit. She has the cooling tower inside the house with all her other equipment and then the condenser and such sits outside. It is by far the most efficient unit there is since you mantain all the heat outside.

Third, plumb it to the outside. It will keep all the heat and nise outside.

Brands vary in price. Pacific Coatsd Imports is the one I have. Fairly new and I got pretty good customer service when asking them some questions and such. I had seen a 1/2 HP unit running and it sounded good, so I got the upside down version of that, 2/1 = 2 HP LOL......... Aqualogic seems to be the oldest brand int he aquarium trade. Reliable for the most part. A bit expensive. Artica is another brand very well rated by others. I would seriously do a good search here for feedback on the different units.

Now, if you want this to cool your tank in a storm without power, then you need to look into a unit that has an amperage rating below what your generator can handle. You need to find that first.

[Bocaswim]

Hi Greg,

You can check out the chiller when you come by to see the frags this weekend. I am really happy with the design of the system, and the overall cost of operaing it, although it did require an AC guy to install it. Good thing for me he had kids who needed swim lessons :)

[GregM779]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check out Gayle's system this weekend and definitely want to go bigger than needed. I would still like to be used to save a few bucks, so if anyone heres of someone selling let me know.