Chiller Help

[stormcrow]

I need some help setting up a chiller. I purchased a Titan 250. The installation manual is poor and I didn't find anything better on their website. I can use all the help I can get setting it up. Thanks in advance.
Jim

[BillyZ]

(just giving this a bump)

anyone out there have one of these chillers and can offer some info?

[BillyZ]

you must be the first on the block to own one of these

what kind of trouble are you having? if you give me a description of what you're trying to accomplish, and if possible, lay out the pieces and the pump on the floor and take a pic to post here I'll try and help you as best I can.

Have you tried e-mailing to manufacurer? Lots of folks actualy have pretty good success going right to the source. You might give that a try.

[stormcrow]

I moved from freshwater to saltwater after 18 years so this is uncharted territory for me. I did go to the manufacturer's website and di not find anything more than that which came with the chiller and the company is based in Denmark I believe.

My trouble is setup and installation. I am thinking I need to set up a pump whic is plumbed to the chiller for the input and outpu? I want to know if;
1. This is correct?
2. What kind of pump can I use (outside of the tank)?
3. Any plumbing suggestions; IE. tubing, pvc, etc.?
Pretty much anything which pertains to the setup. Thank you all for your help

[BillyZ]

from what I can guess, this is an In-line chiller. what that means is that with the other external plumbing for your tank, if you have any, you simply pass the water through this before it returns to your tank and it cools the water on the way.

If you don't currently have any external plumbing (say for a sump/fuge/simmer etc) then you'll need to create what's called a closed loop. A closed loop is basically a pump that just draws water out of your tank and pumps it back in. The purpose of a closed loop is to create water movement which is very important in a SW tank. You'll simply pump water out of the tank with a pump that you'll buy, pump the water into your chiller, then back into the tank. From what I saw, your chiller is recomended for 50 to 200 uhhh doh... either liters or gallons per hour. Find that out and what ever pump you use for your closed loop should fit in that range.

[pecan2phat]

From the specs that I saw on the Titan 250, the flow rate should be between 50 - 200 gph.
If you utilize a sump on your setup, then you can devise a tee fitting incorporating a ball valve. Problem with this is, you end up spending money for fittings, tubing, return piping, ball valve & you would need a pressure gauge to ascertain the flow rate.
I would take the easy way out & just hook up a Fluval 204 cannister filter to the chiller. This way you won't need to figure out the flow rate. The Fluval 204 is rated @ 180 gph and over time if you use this also as a media trap such as carbon, the flow rate will slightly decrease but never towards the 50 gph minimum that the Titan needs.
This would be the simplest setup, you can hook this up on your 60g tank like any generic cannister setup 'cept that the Titan will be in-line or if you have a sump, you can hook up the intake & outake on each end of the sump. (don't hook up one end to the tank and the sump, you'll create a siphon during a power outage & will flood your sump, cabinet & floor)
I currently use a Fluval 104 to push water @ a slow flow rate through a UV sterilizer utilizing the sump method. This also permits me to take advantage of stuffing carbon in the canister due to the effectiveness of water forced through carbon vs "flowing around" the carbon. In the past I hooked up all kinds of do hickeys to tee of my return pump with flow rate measurers & I still ended up going the cannister way after constant adjustments to the ball valve. I found that canisters hooked up above water level such as sump setups tend to trap air over time, but with the newer design of the fluval series, it has not lost it's siphon over a period of 12 months. Hope this helps.