Oceanic 1/10 Horsepower Chiller.

[Jasonanatal]

Hello everyone. I am wondering if anyone has any personal experience with the Oceanic ling of Chillers more specifically the Ocean 1/10 Horsepower Chiller. I am currently in the market for a more powerful Chiller since my landlord believes that he is in a competition with Hell for the heat awards. The factors that are influencing my purchase are listed below.

• Efficieny is the utmost concern. My current Chiller is rated at 1/15 Horspower and constantly turns on in order in order to combat the temperature within my home.
• Decibel rating is second on my list. My current Chiller is rate at 36 decibals and runs ultra quiet. Sometimes I didn't know it was one until I looked at the operation LED. To place things in perspective a whisper is rated at 20 decibels and a normal conversation is rated at 60 decibels.
• Maintenance is third. My current Chiller only required the safety screen to be cleaned out.
• Cost is fourth with is irrelevant.

 

[PhoenixOne]

I am currently in the market for a more powerful Chiller since my landlord believes that he is in a competition with Hell for the heat awards.

:lol:, That was a good one!!

I'm sure the experts here would like to know what size tank you are running, what kind of lights and how many powerheads you have.

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Why not get a larger version of your current chiller?

 

[coralite]

Why dont you get some iceprobes? each one has a pull down of 5F degrees on a 50 gallon, ~3F degrees on a 100 gallon. At about $100 each you can daisy chain them for larger tanks or increased temperature reduction and that way you also get some redundancy in case one fails. These are energy efficient thermoelectric probes which you can just plumb in the side of your sump so installation is quite easy.

 

[cali_reef]

Why dont you get some iceprobes? each one has a pull down of 5F degrees on a 50 gallon, ~3F degrees on a 100 gallon. At about $100 each you can daisy chain them for larger tanks or increased temperature reduction and that way you also get some redundancy in case one fails. These are energy efficient thermoelectric probes which you can just plumb in the side of your sump so installation is quite easy.

Where did you get your spec from?

This is from marinedepot's site:
Cooling Performance

A single IPAC-50W chiller can cool 10 gallons of water 6?F to 8?F below ambient air temperature in a standard aquarium. Multiple Aquarium Chillers can be used to achieve higher temperature differentials.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~chillers_coolworks_iceprobe_information.html

Let me start drilling my 300G tank with 30 holes so I can keep my fish tank at 84'F on those NY 92'F day. :lol2:.

 

[coralite]

The performance of the iceprobes is highly dependent on the ambient air temperature, not the water temp.

If you have a tank of water which is in equilibrium with the air temp, you can expect a modest pull-down. Since reef tanks usually run higher than the air temperature, it is much easier for an iceprobe to cool water more than 8F per 10 gallons. This is due to a higher gradient of water temp. I set up a cool water 20 gallon tank with a single iceprobe which had no heat input and I managed a pulldown of 15 degrees.

Basically it is easier to cool a tank which is hotter than the air temp than a tank which is the same temp as the air.

 

[Savager]

The performance of the iceprobes is highly dependent on the ambient air temperature, not the water temp.

If you have a tank of water which is in equilibrium with the air temp, you can expect a modest pull-down. Since reef tanks usually run higher than the air temperature, it is much easier for an iceprobe to cool water more than 8F per 10 gallons. This is due to a higher gradient of water temp. I set up a cool water 20 gallon tank with a single iceprobe which had no heat input and I managed a pulldown of 15 degrees.

Basically it is easier to cool a tank which is hotter than the air temp than a tank which is the same temp as the air.

Ice Probe is a piece of junk if you are planning to use it on the tank that bigger than 10G. Honestly, I tried it on my 18G tank and it didn't even reduced 1 degree. If I blow very cheap fan on top of my tank, I can reduced atleast 5 degree off, but this Ice Probe didn't do anything for me. I was glad I bought it very cheap, so I sold it same price without any problem.

 

[cali_reef]

The performance of the iceprobes is highly dependent on the ambient air temperature, not the water temp.

If you have a tank of water which is in equilibrium with the air temp, you can expect a modest pull-down. Since reef tanks usually run higher than the air temperature, it is much easier for an iceprobe to cool water more than 8F per 10 gallons. This is due to a higher gradient of water temp. I set up a cool water 20 gallon tank with a single iceprobe which had no heat input and I managed a pulldown of 15 degrees.

Basically it is easier to cool a tank which is hotter than the air temp than a tank which is the same temp as the air.

So let me get this right, you have a 20 gallon tank with 0 heat input, wouldn't the tank water temperature become equilibrium with the room temperature over time? you are dropping another 15 deg from room temp? so your iceprobe is lowering the 20 gallon of water temp by 15deg while the room is trying to raise it back to room temp? I think the probe would have to work harder against the room temp vs. a higher tank water temp being chilled by the iceprobe and the lower ambient room temp cooling the water at the same time, provide no additional heat is being added in both case.

Must be the thinner air at where you are :backtotop

 

[Jasonanatal]

Reply to PhoenizOne.

:lol:, That was a good one!!

I'm sure the experts here would like to know what size tank you are running, what kind of lights and how many powerheads you have.

PhoenixOne, that is a very good point. I hae a 28 gallon Nano Cube HQI with 150 Metal Halide 14,000k Bulb and 2 JBJ Powerheads Rated at 275 gph.

 

[cali_reef]

PhoenixOne, that is a very good point. I hae a 28 gallon Nano Cube HQI with 150 Metal Halide 14,000k Bulb and 2 JBJ Powerheads Rated at 275 gph.

You will need 6 iceprobes to cool that tank :lol2:

 

[Jasonanatal]

Reply to OctaviousMonk.

Why not get a larger version of your current chiller?

Octaviousmonk, I have honestly considered that but their are some particular asthestic differences in the Oceanic Chiller compared to my current JBJ Artica Titanium Chiller that are appealing.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Reply to Coralite.

Why dont you get some iceprobes? each one has a pull down of 5F degrees on a 50 gallon, ~3F degrees on a 100 gallon. At about $100 each you can daisy chain them for larger tanks or increased temperature reduction and that way you also get some redundancy in case one fails. These are energy efficient thermoelectric probes which you can just plumb in the side of your sump so installation is quite easy.

Coralite, the Iceprobes are a piece of equipment that definitely does not appeal to me since I have honestly heard horrible reviews about them and I also don't have the adequate space to accomodate it within the Rear Baffles of the Aquarium if I could get past the horrible reviews.

 

[coralite]

I dont know what iceprobes you guys have been using. A brand new out-of-the box version will ice over in less than a minute when it is run out of water. What do you think is in those micro, thermo electric chillers anyway?

It's a simple device with only one moving part, the fan.
I have used dozens of these for scientific research of coral larvae where careful control of water temp was a must because chillers were too expensive and less reliable. I even have temperature logs which showed that the temperature varied less than 1F over two weeks.

Granted these are only 5 gallon bins but they were in a very hot shack and they were reliable enough for study purposes. You want someone else to take an iceprobe and wrap it in a box and call it a chiller so you can pay more for it you go ahead. I think most of the nay-saying is coming from people who heard this and that, not from people like me who have used them over and over without fail. :tired:

 

[cali_reef]

I used one and it did not do anything for my 10 gallon tank. Nay sayer with experience here, not "heard it" from someone.

BTW, are you sure those plastic tubs are 5 gallon each? they look too small\short to be 5 gallons when I see them next to those cinder blocks.