Improving my chiller's performance in enclosed room.

[seldin]

I have 55 gallon reef and a 1/3 hp chiller that is several years old. Last year, I thought it would be great to make a fish room out of the washing machine closet area in the back of my tank.

I was very dissatisfied with the contractor, even though I had researched what I wanted. Obviously, I should have done a better job.

When the chiller was moved to it's new equipment closet, I vented it outside similar to a dryer vent.

Before, when the chiller was underneath my tank, I could have the office area where I have tank, when not in use, climb to 90 and chiller still did adequate job.

Last year, after venting the chiller in the washing machine / fish room, the performance of the chiller went south. I tested it and did find that I could cool a bucket of water at a hot temperature to 68 degrees in minutes when the chiller was out of the closet, so I knew it worked.

Here are tips that helped with performance:

- Ran chiller and tubing outside of fish tank, with vinegar water for 1 day.
- Cleaned the hell out of the chiller to remove as much salt deposits as possible. Still left some, but as best as I could do, without disassembling it.

After the above, I was not getting the performance increase that I got from just running the chiller in my tank stand.

This year, I remembered, that the previous owner ( who ran an aquarium service company ), used to run his chillers without the cover. ( I vented my chiller to the outside with a fan ).

When I removed the venting cover, I just let the vented pipe stay loose in closet with the fan installed. I also had previously put a fan in closet.

**** Anyway, I got DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT WITH COVER REMOVED. That's my COOL tip !!!

I can see, that my venting to the outside was not successful, because even with a fan blowing through the chiller, it probably, does not have enough power to vent to the outside. However, without the cover, the chiller has improved back to it's old self and still remained in closet.

PS. I just put up a new rimless Solana in the same room. However, the light is very much above the tank, so a powerful fan blows the top of the water. Wow, does that work great, for a few degrees. Obviously, it is important to have an ATO working well.

I do understand, when the office get's too warm, I will probably have to turn on the office A/C. However, the whole point, is to just put it on when necessary.