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skyjuice123

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Everything posted by skyjuice123

  1. 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
  2. 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..
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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..
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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..
  10. 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..
  11. 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.
  12. 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
  13. 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.
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. That is a very big size tank about 375 gallons. exceeded the JBJ website limit for quick sizing. All depend on whether you wanted to keep coral or just fish.; The lightings make a lot difference in chiller load. they are pple who use 1/3 hp just for fish. In NYC, this guy use 1/3 hp for reef for similar size tank which is amazing. The temperature there can get as high as 40C during summer. Look at his tank. Guess this guy just couldn't bother http://www.anchoraquariumservice.com/?p=9 JBJ recommended a chiller size of about 1.5 HP according to this catalogue http://www.coralreef...um=chillers_jbj However, many in the Web just use about 1 HP. This guy uses 2 nos 3/4 tons split unit chiller which has about 1 HP each. and I like his professional work http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=522988&pp=25&page=8 A reef tank would need about 4 watts per gallons of lighting, this can work out to about 1400 watts to 1500 watts for lighting alone My working is around 1 hp, one size up should be around 1.25 hp. 1.5 HP should be plenty.
  17. Good question but I have no done any measurement or research on live rock. can only speak from technical standpoint. Assuming the occupants of the live rock doesn't emit any heat, the live rock are just calcium carbonate formation much like any stone or concrete block or wall. They does not produce but just store up energy. Water has a specific heat capacity 4 times that of the rock (4.1 kj/kg/K vs 0.96 kj/kg/k) ; meaning rocks store less energy than water. Rightfully speaking, one can reduce the cooling load when there are many rocks in the tank. But because the rock are not always solid and there are actually water in most part of them, it is not advisable and it is also not a common practice to minus the live rock when calculating the volume for estimating chiller load. Remember also that heat are actually gain through glasses and the water surface and equipment and live rocks are not a part in play. Specifying larger chiller does not necessary means more power efficiency. Actually, it is the other way round for freon chillers. Motors always run more efficiently under full load than part load condition, which sometimes can be as low as 40% efficient; moreover, starting and running chiller for a short period are not within most design specification. This is because lubricating oil are carried around by freon in the refrigeration cycle. The compressor motor might not get enough oil from freon for proper lubrication for short running period. It might increase the wear. Furthermore, starting load (or ampere) of a motor is always 3 or 4 times and sometimes 6 times the running load. Rightfully, it is only good to size chiller 20-40% larger when there is no future loads to be considered. Aquairum chiller manufacturer often advise sizing chillers to run on a 20 - 30 minutes cycle or about 6-8 hours running time per day.
  18. Here is a good article advising on beam angle for plants and Aqua works. small 5 mm type usually have beam angle of around 90-120. http://www.proledsys...vex-lenses.html
  19. Here is an article on how to design aquarium LED lightings. sometime, one might like to highlight certain areas. It mentioned that normal LED without the lens has a beam angle about 90 to 120 degree, this is far too wide and unfocus for most application. He never teach pple how to select the lens.. may be one would have to trial and error. http://support.luxeo...uarium-lighting
  20. Agree.. there are also many different type of lens. Select the right one. Here is some len selection depending on the beam angle http://www.luxeonstar.com/Select-By-Beam-Angle-s/277.htm
  21. There are 2 ways to fix an external probe; a) to relocate existing temperature probe from the evaporator box to the tank or sump. It is shown here in the last section. http://skyjuiceiswat...m-chillers.html to install an additional temperature controller. Relocating existing probe will need to have a very good water pump.
  22. Went to JBJ website.. now realise why Arctica users have high water flow rate for chiller. For 1/5 hp, JBJ's recommendation is min 480 gph(1800 LPH) and max 1320 gph(5000 LPH). For Resun CL650 1/4 hp, they recommended min of 1800 LPH but some only use a 1000LPH canister or pump. Aquarium chillers have a small evaporator box of not more than 10 litres . The temperature probe is always located very close to the cooling coil (for Resun CL650, it is almost touching to the coil). They will need high flow pump for the probe to give accurate temperature, I ever tested CL650 using only a 600 LPH pump with external temperature probe cooling water down 1 degree C. It worked fine cutting-in and out of the temperature setting with little change in timing. 600 LPH pump can transfer about 700 watts of cooling and CL650 has only a cooling output of 650 Watts. If one wants to save energy, using an external temperature probe with lower capacity pump should do the same job.
  23. Do not always think that LED is always more efficient than fluorescent fittings although it is true that they will emit less heat to reduce chiller load. US Department of Energy (DOE) found in 2009 that LEDs were in fact less efficient. What make them efficient is because its smaller size and lesser emitted heat enable efficient and cheap plastic reflectors and lens to be used. so please use them with proper reflectors and lens and not bare especially when you DIY. http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.sg/2012/11/led-lights-saves-energy.html
  24. Presume that 3500 is in LPH.. the specified rate should be less than 1,500 LPH for a 1/5 HP chiller.. that high flow rate might explain the longer timing for start stop. Most chillers have start stop timing less than 1/2 hour. Thanks
  25. Mathematically, one can estimate the consumption Use 1hp=2.8 kw cooling (not 0.746 kw which is for workdone not cooling), then cooling kw for 1/5 hp is 2.8/5 or 560 watts. With COP of 1.3 for most aquarium chiller, that will give an input electricity watt @ 560/1.3 or 430 watts. running the chiller @ 1hr on and 2 hr rest, it will run about 8 hrs/day, and hence, elect consumption will be 430*8/1000=3.4 kwh per day or 103 kwh per month.. With tariff of 0.2727 per kwh, the monthly bill should be around 103*0.2727 or $28/= per month.
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