skyjuice123

I have blogged about the detail and construction of the cooling tower as shown here http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.sg/2017/03/lower-reef-tank-temperature-without.html

I have retired the cooling tower a long time ago. The following sketch will give some idea on how to construct the cooling tower which was located at the back of the reef tank with a pump sump below the tank. The tower was about 4 feet tall and filled with loose packed dry media made from flatten twine string that has gaps to allow air to pass through them. Water is fed through the top section using 2 Nos of 20 mm U shape plastic tube and overflow reservoirs without drilling any hole in the reef tank. The water is then allow to go through the rain shower plate, which is basically a plastic sheet full of small holes. I used the setup for about 2 years without any other filters although I stored some dead corals inside the pump sump. The set up can cool the water only to 27 C which is the wet bulb temperature of our ambient air. Constant feed of light Limewater and kalkwasser is all that is necessary to replenish lost water..

Can construct a cooling tower using plastic sheets to form a standing rectangular box of 10"x10" and about 4 ft tall, then run water through the tower, allowing water to form a "rain shower" within the rectangular box. On the top, run an extracting fan to cool the cooling tower. Can allow water to 'rain" through filter media to form the dry filter. Use this set up before to cool a 4 ft reef tank for about 2 years without problem.

Here is a forum page with video that talks about voltages in aquarium http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2182599 A voltage of 10 volts should be considered as induced voltage and not voltage leakages if you use a multimeter with one end of test probe on electrical earth lead and the other test probe in the water. Salt water is an electrolyte. It is said to have enough power to light up a small light bulb in this experiment depending on the amount of salt. http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/wc/oceans/4/wcoc4_2a.html As for the occupants in the tank, it is the voltage gradient or volts per meter across the water that will be more harmful than the voltages between the tank and the electrical earth. This voltage gradient would generate current that might cause dead fish or unusual behaviors in the fish http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/aquariummaintenancecare/a/aastrayvoltage.htm Because water is a good electricity conductor, the voltage gradient should be in micro or nano volts. This is not measurable by normal multimeter. Wonder if any brother/sister here have carried out any experiment or come across work being done to detect or determine the deadly voltage gradient.

These chillers sometimes have very different meaning for watts. On one chiller, it refers to cooling output watts and on the other chiller, it could mean electricity input watts; for example, resun's 650 watts refers to cooling output watts whereas Teco's 350 watts refers to electricity input watts. I have measured performance of resun 1/4 hp, it consumed about 495 watts of electricity so that COP(coefficient of performance) is about 650/495=1.33. On the other hand, 1/5 hp teco will have an cooling output of 2,800 watts/hp or 560 watts. With electricity input of 350 watts, the COP is about 560/350=1.6.. one can therefore say the teco chiller is slightly more efficient and hence, commands a higher price.

The thumb rule for airconditioning outdoor unit is to have about 600 mm clearances from the walls with no air obstruction at the air outlet grilles. As the 1/5 hp aquarium chiller unit is about 1/20 the capacity of an ordinary aircond unit, an all round clearance of 300 mm from the walls or sides of cabinet should be sufficient provided the outlet grille is facing out and is as close as to the edge of the open door to ensure no air short circuiting..

Just like airconditioner cooling your room. The heat load is the same irrespective of whether the airconditioner is a larger or smaller. The bigger the capacity, the quicker will be the time to cool. Once the set temperature is reached, the airconditioner will be switched off. The cooled air will then dissipate through the walls and pick up the human loads, therfore, the time to dissipate the cooling load does not depend on the size of the airconditioner. Note that you have set the new chiller to cut in @ 26C, 1 C below the old chiller.. If the new chiller cut out at same temperature at the old one, say 29C, the extra 1 C may lengthen the turn off time. Have a feeling that your old chiller is not working as efficient and the new one.

Pluzzled by your description. The rest period should be about the same unless the tank was not operating under the same conditions or one of the temperature settings is not correct; also the electricity bills cannot be too far off if your tank is the same unless your newer chiller is much much more energy efficient. Think you are taking off the SingPower electricity bill.. that can be affected by weather, pattern of electricity usage etc.

Check if the following site will help you.. http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.sg/2013/04/what-size-aquarium-chiller.html 1/10 hp would appear under powered; a 1/4 hp would be too big.. Manufacturers often suggest one to size a chiller to run a total of 8 hours per day.. too big a size will cool faster but will consume more energy because it seldom run at full load when the motor is most efficient... slightly underpowered chiller will be more efficient and save electricity but it may not give enough power for cooling during hot weather. Normal advice is to up a size larger to allow additional equipment and take care of degrading performances.. There are freon and Peltier chiller. The latter is an electronic chiller which is less efficient in term of energy consumption.. the following website compare them http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8360208476930679953#editor/target=post;postID=1066339280847409995 happy reading..

Chillers will be running at least 8-10 hrs per day on and off. IceProbe and Peltier chillers are electronic chiller that are NOT as efficient as Freon type chiller.. Need to consider electricity bills.. smaller size is the advantage for these chillers..

Drop in coils are not much more efficient than ordinary chillers except one can omit the circulating pump which is required for normal chiller. But most reefer have in-line filters that will need pumping anyway. so net net, not much power saving as can been seen from this table from manufacturer of drop-in coils http://www.aquaticeco.com/images/static/charts/TLD_specs.gif The advantage is only smaller in size. The disadvantage is inflexible limited by the freon tubes (often rubber type like those in cars) which can be a source for freon leakages requiring regular top of freon gas.

Forget about those power savers.. yes, it will improve power factors and may reduce the current if one has inductive load so that one can load more appliances in the same circuit but it did nothing to improve the kwh consumed. This is because kw is not affected by power factor and our electricity meter only records kw and ignore the kvar. As capacitors do have leakages, it may consume power instead. Read more about power savers in here http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.sg/2008/10/power-savers-does-it-really-save.html

You will need to tell pple what size of tank etc. JBJ has a website where one can work out the sizes for various tanks. Use 3.8 litres per gallon and max temperature(30C or 87F) for current water temperature. Remember to add 20% for lighting load to take care of ballast if fluorescent is used. Finally, up one size larger because chiller will degrade in performance over time also for future additional work. http://chiller.jbjlighting.com/prod_chiller_size.asp There are many DIYs, from using a bar fridge to full size job using air conditioning unit. Google to find out. Not as easy as buying a second hand unit.

Assuming that one has a 100% insulated tank with no pumps and lights etc i.e. no heat can get out or into the tank. The chiller will get the same energy out of the tank irrespective of the tank's temperature because both scenarios have the same temperature differences of 2C. In the real world, the tanks are exposed to the ambient air and therefore, gains heat from its surroundings, The lower the tank temperature, the more heat gain from the surroundings and hence, the harder the chiller will have to work. The principle is about the same as our room air conditioning system. Depending on the tank sizes, the heat gain from the exposed glasses can be responsible for 15-50% of the chiller load; therefore, by insulating the tanks, one can save up to 35% of this energy depending on the size of the tank. Raising the tank temperature will save energy too. For every 1C raise, one should save at least 5-6% (assuming same as room airconditioning) of the heat gain through the glasses. http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.sg/2012/12/insulation-for-reef-tanks.html

One of the heat gains of the aquarium is through the glasses which have thickness varies according to the tank capacity. The thickness ranges from 4 mm for a 2 ft tank to about 12 mm for a 6 ft tank. The heat gains or energy losses will vary according to the thickness of the glass; the thicker the glass, the less energy losses. The heat gain through the exposed glasses can be responsible for 50% of the energy losses for a 2 ft to about 19% for a 6 ft tank. By insulating the tanks with ¼” thick polystyrene foam for all sides except the font viewing panel, as much as 30% of the energy can be saved and hence, the cooling bills. The thicker the insulation, the more the energy or cooling bills will be saved. Some reefers use foam to mimic the rocks as a backdrop, this will also save energy. http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.sg/2012/12/insulation-for-reef-tanks.html