Water Chiller

[ABFour]

I've got a 550 gallon pennisula freshwater aquarium at my office. The filtration is oversized due to the Flying River Turtle. The primary pump is a Pentair Variable Speed which attaches to an Aqua Ultima II Sand Filter. The return line passes through an inline heater and into twin Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizers. The ambient temperature in the office doesn't fluctuate ±73 degrees, however, the plumbing and filtration equipment is located in a room that doesn't have air conditioning. We installed a blower into the room to bring office air into the space, but we're having a difficult time keeping the tank temperature under 87 degrees in the summer.

The heater is set to 80 degrees and is not cycling ON, so this isn't a source of heat. The UV does produce heat, but I need the water quality for the turtle.

I'm starting to investigate a water chiller and had a few questions.

1) Should I plumb the intake / discharge directly into my existing plumbing?
2) Will the head pressure and back pressure prevent the chiller from working correctly?
3) Any brands of chillers to avoid or seek?
4) Any other ideas to get the water down to low 80's?

 

[Ansorgii]

I don't have experience with aquarium chillers, but cooling systems in general and Tempertaure issues during the summer.

If the cooler has its own pump/doesn't rely on an outside source for flow, I would recommend connecting it in a way the pressures of the plumbing don't affect it and vice versa. Putting pumps after each other usually isn't the best idea. Especially if they are designed for a certain envelope to function. And obviously put it in a way so the cooled water enters the tank and not the plumbing, to use the cooled water more effectively.

A concern I have is, when you install the cooler (pressumeably in the room of the pump) where does the heat go? Is the room well ventilated or not? Because if not, you will just create more heat.

If we assume that the heat comes mostly from the air in the plumbing room, which I would think, it would be good idea to find a way of isolate the plumbing to minimize the heat they absorb.

Another solution would be to cool the room of the plumbing or costruct a smaller room around the plumbing to cool. However it is difficult to judge which solution is the best, as it depends on many factors and goals, like cost, efficiency, maintenece, ease and reliabilty. Maybe you can create a "box" around the Filtration that gets supplied with your cold office air, that would be my first idea to try, but I have no knowledge about how it looks there.

Can you maybe share a foto or plan and what temperatures are to be expected in the plumbing room?

And what is the temperature of the water in your faucet? When I had heat issues I used the lucily always cold water from my faucet (15-18°C) to help cool things down. Putting it directly in the tank would be the most efficient, but you can also run it through a heat exchanger.

 

[duanes]

Just a couple thoughts before running out for a chiller.
Are you sure the heater is totally cycling off?
Just because the LED light is off, It may still be heating,
I´ve had a number of heaters fail in the off position (especially on-line types.)
One in-line heater started to melt the PVC pipe it fed.

First thing I´d do, is unplug the heater for an extended period just to be sure.

Another thought, is sometimes if a pump is malfunctioning, they sometimes run very hot.
I noticed in a 300 gallon system, the water was extra hot, and when I touched the pump, the motor was close to burning up.
Once the pump was replaced temps were back to normal.