Is A chiller neccesary for a reek tank?

[Andrea1]

Hello everyone.. Newbie here...With a perplexing questions!
We just bought a 90 gallon tank. A dream for us... We live in south florida where it gets hot and muggy. We keep our tank out of direct sunlight, and the room we keep the tank is air conditioned with a fan. We set the tank up two days ago. We have 130 pds of live rock, 6 percula clowns, a dozen damsels, 100 snails, 100 crabs small, 4 starfish, including burrowing seastar. We were told we have to wait 6 weeks for soft corals to be introduced. No problem of course...worth the wait...
Our water temperature reading this am is 81.2 degrees. Now it is 80.7. Yesterday, the temp was 78 and went up to 82. We have been reading as much as possible about sustaining soft and hard corals as well as fishes, and what the right temperature should be, but we have not come up with a unanimous answer. Please help. The aquarium store we bought the tank and equipment from hes been wonderful and the owner is a marine biologist. His advice is to get the $800.00 chiller...What is yours?
You experts out there...please help us..
Thank you all...
Andrea

 

[Anonymous]

If the tank is in an air conditioned room, I bet you can keep your tank stable at between 80 and 82 without a chiller.

 

[Andrea1]

I think so too, but is the temperature okay for soft and hard coral to live comfortably in?

 

[ChrisRD]

Yes, that temp range is fine.

and... :welcome:

 

[Andrea1]

Thank you, Chris another question: You see, we have no problem spending the money on a chiller. We want to do what is best for the aquarium inhabitants. We want a beautiful aquarium and we want to do it right. With all said. I am pretty sure we will go with a chiller, just in case. We would like the chiller to stay inside because we have bad hurricane seasons here, We want a chiller that makes minimal noise and minimal heat output. Preferrbly one with a built in heater. We like the windows open in the winter and it can get cold here. Please, what chiller would you suggest we get or consider?
Thank yu so much,
Andrea

 

[Anonymous]

I unfortunately don't know the first thing about chillers, so I can't help ya there...but what about a gas powered generator for those rough times during hurricane season?

 

[ChrisRD]

I've never used a chiller on any of my tanks, so I can't really recommend anything. You'd probably get the best feedback to that question by posting it as a separate topic in the General Reefkeeping Discussion forum where it will probably get noticed by more of our members that use chillers.

HTH

 

[Andrea1]

Well, guys, we just spoke to our aquarium guy, the marine biologist, and we went with 1/4 power aqua chiller with a built in heater... Better to be safe than sorry...Huh?
Anyway, I thank you so much for your time and help. You will hear from me quite a bit in the future...
God bless you all.
Andrea

 

[Jolieve]

Many of us reefkeepers who aren't in hurricane areas have considered power generators for our tanks in the event of a power outage. I know I need to come up with something because we're due for another outage soon and I have no way to keep flow going in the tanks if we lose power.

Something to think about,
J.

 

[Andrea1]

So true...Living here in the heart of hurricanes. Four last season...Thank God, they skirted us for the most part... we did get a generator last year. Always good to have one here in Florida...Worth the money spent...

 

[Anonymous]

I live if Fort Myers and my tank survived 4 days without power after Charley. I never used a chiller and don't have a generator, but I do wish I had a generator. I don't know how much longer my tank would have made it without power.

Oh yeah, :welcome:

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

You have 18 fish in a 2 day old tank?

 

[Juck]

lol,, I was wondering when someone would spot that.

 

[Jolieve]

Andrea.. I have a hard time believing that a marine biologist would have advised you to keep six perculas in a 90 gallon tank. At the end of the day, if they don't die in the ammonia cycle they will end up killing each other.

Also.. with 18 fish, this tank is at it's limit for biological load. You will not be able to add any more fish to this system until others die. I'd recommend removing the ones you don't want to have in the tank for the next 10 years and returning them to your lfs, then calling this "marine biologist" on where he got his degree..

I hope I don't sound like I'm harping or being mean. I just believed you when you said you wanted to do things right and really felt that you should know that this is not right. There should not be any fish in your tank right now, or for the next three weeks while the live rock has time to establish the necessary bacterial populations in the tank to handle ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.

J.

 

[Anonymous]

I live if Fort Myers and my tank survived 4 days without power after Charley. I never used a chiller and don't have a generator, but I do wish I had a generator. I don't know how much longer my tank would have made it without power.

Oh yeah, :welcome:

Louey

an electrician without a generator - man I am gonna toss all of my brushes! :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Andy wrote:

an electrician without a generator -

Sad, isn't it.

Louey

 

[RobertoVespucci]

Many of us reefkeepers who aren't in hurricane areas have considered power generators for our tanks in the event of a power outage. I know I need to come up with something because we're due for another outage soon and I have no way to keep flow going in the tanks if we lose power.

Something to think about,
J.

Battery powered airpumps and lift tubes would keep the gases exchanged and water moving. Could even drive a countercurrent skimmer. Though, I'm not really sure where the tank size/cost breakpoint would be compared to a generator. I guess it also depends on how 'insured' you want to be.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy wrote:

an electrician without a generator -

Sad, isn't it.

Louey

Hey the carpenter's house is always falling apart!


I'd keep an eye on the temperature. I'm in NJ, but when it gets hot, I run the Central Air, and keep the lids open on the top of my tank. The lighting is what really warms the tank.

Also, I keep a few empty soda bottles filled with water in the Freezer...if things get bad, I can pop them in the sump as large ice cubes... I believe Laura D gets the credit for this one too... not my idea, but works great.

~wings~

 

[WRASSER]

Depending on how big everything is you could buy a battery back up that goes to the computer and hook it up to the pump that runs themain pump. i have a MAG1200 running my 150, the cpu back up runs like 2hrs at 857 watts (something like that), well the MAG runs on 120 watts so the back up can run it for a couple of days.

 

[Andrea1]

Jolieve, I am thankful for your advice. I know you mean well....
Both my husband and myself are truly amazed at all the information, you all here, aquarium shops, books and etc...differ. It seems, we are all in conflict with one another...regarding starting a reef tank..temperature, fishes and invertebrates..which way is the right way to sart a reef tank? I think our marine biologist guy, with regards to his methods, put fishes in our tank to advance the process of bacterial growth..causing the spike in ammonia to happen quicker...I am still learning, so I may not have a good rational to that last statement. I may forward your, Jolieve, concerns to him (M. Biologist) so he can explain his reasons. Why there are 18 fishes in our tank? Anyway, my husband just tested our levels and here they are: Temp. 78.3, Alkalinity Norm, PH 8.2 (up from 8.0 Yesterday), NH3/NH4 .5 (up from .4 Yest), NO2 .02 (same as yest), NO3 .5 (same as yest), Specific Gravity 1.0245 (same as yest), Please let me know what this means and are we missing any other tests?
All our fish are eating and seem happy. We lost 2 horseshoe crabs.
I ask that you please keep the advice flowing and we will weigh all advice, which we are thankful for, and we will continue to research and if nothing prevails, as it seems, it might not, trial and error will be our only hope.. since there seems to be no single correct way of starting a reef tank... that all agree on. If I am wrong, please tell me so..
Okay, again thank you so very much for your posts. Please give me feedback regarding the tests and more...
God bless you all,
Andrea