is chiller a must for such setup?

richng · January 16, 2004

hi guys

me just wondering if i am going to setup a simple marine tank with a few fishes and live rock and some simple normal kind of corals... then is chiller a must? may i also know what is the ideal temperature for fish only and fish with corals setup?

many thanks

ciao!

alanseah · January 16, 2004

what kind of lighting will u be using..

also what type of coral and how big your fish tank is..

u need chiller becuase of coral as your temp can't go higher then 29 for most LPS as for SPS your temp must be at around 25 to 27

Tanggy · January 16, 2004

It all depends on a number of facttors. like Lighting, pumps in the water, ambient temp in your house, tank size, surface volume, kinds of corals kept.

The reason a chiller is use is to control the temp to be within a small variation. within 1-2 deg. FL is the coolest of all the lights, followed by the t5s and PL with MH being the hottest. (Due to the amount of light/wattage given off) Imagine for eg a 250watt MH. its like having 7 4ft FL tudes squeez into a 50cts coin. naturally the heat is immense. I tried turn my chiller off with my 250watt MH on me 3ft, the temp shot to 32 in 30 min with the lght just 6inches from the water.

Powerheads in the water also create heat. Fans can be employ to reduce the temp but increase maintainence as water evaporate at at fast rate (daily top up) causing flactuations in PH, salinity etc.

If a fish only tank, lighting would be just cosmetic and thus no need so much then its alot easier to control temp without a chiller. But if demanding corals/clams are kept then if buget allows, chiller is a good investment. :lol: