Introduction and a chiller questions for new SoCal temperate tank

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself to the forums. I have been a long time keeper of African Cichlids. I have grown a bit tired of the freshwater setup and have wanted to go SW for quite some time. I figure since I live less than 50 yards from the reefs here in San Diego a temperate setup would make for easy stocking of the tank. Plus I think our local life is more interesting than tropical, just my opinion of course though. I free dive nearly 2-3 times a week and am always coming across all sorts of cool things, it would be cool to have a place to put them (aside form bringing them home to eat anyways). Caught an octopus last night, which I just ended up releasing. I figure since our summer water temps hovers in the low 70's I would shoot for a water temp around 68 or so to keep chilling costs down. I have a 90 gallon tank with a 25 gallon sump. MY home has A/C (which is rarely needed) and never gets much above 73 or so inside. I would keep my current T5 lighting setup (4 bulbs). Do you think I would be able to get away with a 1/15 HP chiller? The rest I can figure out I think regarding caring for the SW vs FW tank. Just doesn't seem to be much info on chiller requirements out there. I am hoping to keep the initial cost down as much as possible to justify this switch with the wife...

Thanks!

Yea I know how you feel with the chiller information. There isnt a lot of temperate information that iv been able to begin with. Unfortunately that said I cant help you with temperate given that I know almost nothing. I'l see if i can find any information about chillers and get back to you about what size you may need.

Hi ..And welcome

Chillers are cheaper to run the larger you go. It uses less to keep the water at temp.

A smaller one stays on longer to reach temp and hold it, so uses more power and produces alot of heat in the room from constant running.

Always a good idea to go one or two sizes larger than required for temperate Marine.

In your case a 1/15th chiller is to small. your not just chilling the water your also cooling the heat from pumps, wave generators, Skimmers, lights etc, the larger flows required for marine also cause heat transfer.

The choices out there are cheap and nasty or quality. spend the money now and get a quality unit and it will last for years .

The caring side is a bit differant ,you have alot of things to keep an eye on and a chiiler helps keep alot of problems under control in a captive tank if you keep it cold enough ,summer temps in a captive area increases the chances of parasite attack and if your not using a quaritine tank then watch out (Trust me I know from recent experiance with Marine Velvet caused buy increased heat from a algae scrubber and a under powered chiller.)

The best investments are return pump, Skimmer and Chiller all best being larger than required ,I use a pump that produces 3 times the flow required and a skimmer 2 sizes larger, And now a chiller 4 times the size. HTH's