Chiller plumbing question

[PorkPie5000]

My girlfriend recently purchased a Pacific Coast CL-280 chiller for me as a gift and I'm looking for some advice on plumbing it in.

I have a 75 gal oceanic reef ready with Precision Marine R24 refugium and ES100 skimmer. There is a Mag 7 on the skimmer and a Mag 7 for the return from the refugium.

A couple of LFS have given me advice and I'm not sure I believe either of them. One said that I could put the chiller inline on my return but I don't think the Mag 7 will have enough fortitude to push the water through it. The other said to drop a power head in the sump and pump out of the sump into the chiller and then just return to the sump. Won't the sump be getting awfully "chilly" if I do that? On the other hand, would that be any different than putting a drop in chiller in the sump?

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[krullulon]

I have the same chiller on a 90g/40g sump reef. it's a great little chiller! I also have a mag 7 on my reef devil and have found it to be a great combination.

I don't have my chiller inline with the return -- i have a genx pump pulling water from the sump near the exit valve of the skimmer, sending it through the chiller and then returning it near the intake of my main iwaki return that sends it back to the main display.

don't worry about the water getting too cold -- keep in mind that the water runs through the chiller constantly and the temp pulldown, especially with the pac coast model you have, is very slow -- so water will go through the chiller and exit about 1/10th of a degree cooler than when it went in... and it will just keep doing that over time until it's reached whatever temp you set. because the flow from your system is so high, there will never be a case when the water sits long enough to get significantly colder than the overall system temp.

 

[PorkPie5000]

Krullulon, thanks for the info! What pump exactly are you using?

 

[krullulon]

ya know, i can't remember the model number and can't find it easily online, i'll post it later when i get home.

 

[krullulon]

ok, it's the Gen-X GX2400, 635gph.

 

[srbayless]

Howdy,

I second Krullulon's setup. You will want to be able to control the flow going through the chiller, and that is next to impossible if you put it inline on the return line. The only time I would worry about putting the chiller output in the sump is if you have a very low amount of water passing through the sump. It sounds like you have enough flow, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Peace,

Scott.

 

[Qwiv]

I was thinking of putting a 'T' on my return line from the tank to the sump and connecting one end to the inlet of the chiller and the other to the sump. Anyone see anything wrong with letting Gravity do the work?