Chiller?

[Beetlejuice]

A friend w/ a all the bells and whistles on his 120gl tank insist that getting and running a chiller on my 60gl set-up is a most. Live in Los Angeles. So it never gets hot at night, but in the middle of summer in the afternoons the heat can get up there. Def never would be an issue any other time of the year. Any thoughts? Or any one else living in the LA County?

 

[JustinKBreen]

If you keep your house's ac on and don't have a lot of heat output on your lights you wont need a chiller imo. I live in the Inland Empire so it gets 5-10 degrees hotter here than la.

 

[Flreefer]

I agree with Justin.
As long as you aren't running metal halides, your house AC, should do it.
I live in south Florida, it's hot!! I keep my AC at 75, and my tank runs at 78-79 degrees, under T5's.
Each tank will vary slightly because of the amount of other equipment, each pump adds a little heat, and size of tank, a larger tank is more stable than a smaller one, but IMO, you should be OK without a chiller.

 

[tonedogz]

you could also open up the top of the tank and put a vented cover such as egg crate and use your a/c and a couple of small cooling fans blowing accross the surface

 

[Beetlejuice]

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep those tricks of cooling in mind!

 

[Grease]

My tank use to run around 80-82. So I got a little fan for it. I run the fan the same time I run my lights. I have them both on timers. Now it stays around 77-78 all day n night. I also run my ac at 70 during the summer. I'm from the northeast so the weather probably a little different but it still get hot n humid here.