Chilling and making an aquarium cooler and better place

Aquarium chiller (or cooler); an unusual and unknown piece of equipment in many countries... That's how one description of these items could be written. In my previous article, I was talking about heaters in aquariums. Unlike the winter months, warm months in summer means problems with high temperatures, which could lead to fish problems. Also, fishes will live longer if you keep them in water which is colder than 30°C (86°F). Making an aquarium a cooler place is sometimes very difficult, because no-one will keep adding ice cubes into the water each day for weeks on end. Generally, there are a few ways how to keep the water cool. These techniques include adding ice, fish tank chillers, darkening the room and so on.

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Firstly, make sure you need an aquarium chiller for your tank. When the temperature exceeds 30°C (86°F), you should do something about it because not all fish prefer such conditions. Secondly, make sure you have no other options available to lower the temperature in your aquarium. Sometimes, open windows or dark places for a fish tank could mean a successful fight against high temperatures. At least this solution is cheaper than buying a cooler.

When do you need the fish tank chiller?

Basically, you must understand why fishes can't survive in high-temperature waters for long time. As the water temperature increases, fish metabolism increases too. This means more movement, but also a higher pulse as well as raising liver activity. Fish will then breath faster than normal and everything goes faster in general. On the other hand, if the temperature in your tank is about 20°C, the fish are calm, and they don't swim too much. Something between these two states is optimum and that's why an aquarium chiller is important in a case when your fish tank becomes overheated.

If you can’t do anything to lower the temperature (including adding ice, placing a fan in front of the aquarium, etc.), you will probably need some kind of chiller. So let’s quickly go through how an aquarium water coolers work. It’s all based on the same principle as air conditioners. First, the water is pumped through the heat exchanger, where the cold compressed gas flows. This compressed gas is there in order to pick up the heat from the water in an aquarium. The heat is taken back to the compressor and the pressure drops. Finally, the heat is taken to a radiator. A fan sucks new air and lets the hot air go out of the chiller.

In essence, a simple principle. Of course, it’s still better to use ice in bottles, because that is cheaper. On the other hand, when you go on a summer holiday, you will probably need some automated mechanism which will keep the water temperature in your aquarium stable. But, buying a cooler is cheaper than running an air conditioner in the house just because of one, two or three aquariums. Before you do so, make sure you have enough space for the new equipment. In my experience, chillers are usually large, which means they will be about 30cm (about 13³) in length, height and depth. They should also be quiet. The temperature controller can be digital or analog, it really doesn’t matter; only the quality matters.

But the hot summer months aren’t the only reason to cool an aquarium. A fish tank chiller is especially needed when you run an aquarium with fishes which prefer to live in extremely cold water only. The average temperature in many European creeks reaches only about 12°C (53°F) and you will need a chiller in order to keep fish alive and happy with the conditions.

I have told about the advantages, but there are a few disadvantages too. Firstly, every piece of electrical equipment needs some energy. The average chiller requires about 80-100 watts per hour. Secondly, it (the chiller) isn’t the cheapest stuff. Maybe there are other disadvantages of fish tank chillers, but these two are the most important.

Warranty and last note

As with piece of every electrical equipment, chillers must be top quality. For this reason, I don't recommend you buy a used or unreliable cooler. It's not a matter of low quality products, but you can't be sure what any person did with the chiller that you're going to buy. If that person is someone who you have known for a long time, or some reputable dealer, then go ahead and buy it. But buying any equipment from an unknown market might not end happily.

Even though I was speaking about coolers in general, I would like to point out that they're used for saltwater tanks much more than for freshwater ones.





Source: marineandreef.com
Images sources: asf.ca, java-aquariums.org

Links to shops

We have found some aquarium chillers which you may be interested in. However, Aqua-Fish.Net is not related to the destination websites in any way. If any of the links doesn't work, tell us about it via the form at the bottom of this page, please!

• jbjchillers.com
• aquatictech.com
• aquacave.com
• thatpetplace.com
• marinedepot.com
• aquariumguys.com

Bear in mind that you'll likely get a discount after calling the seller (email communication often don't work in terms of discounts). Sometimes savings can exceed hundreds of dollars, and that's how an expensive chiller can become quite cheap.

Another useful website

• Cooling Summer Aquariums at nippyfish.net!

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Aquarium Chiller and Ways of Cooling Fish Tanks has been viewed 18139 times since May 26th, 2011.