anyone go from not using chiller to using one?

Again I'm talking a couple of hundred not thousands lol. I strongly agree that if you cooling something more than a 50 gallon Res then yup perhaps a used aquarium chiller is not for you. I will have a look at some aquarium ones (specs) as I am probably going to have to add to my passive quite soon and see what there about. I'm used to5-6 ton geo's, not to many air source water units here yet, I'm a dealer for maritime geothermal that just came out with an air source, water unit that looks pretty cool. Just had a webinar on it, very impressive COP's

Just adding some more of my 2 sense again. I don't know how many buckets and Rez size your are trying to cool but what I found has worked for me well , with little to no issues, was ordering stainless steel and making coils for my buckets and Rez's. My main system is 4 -13 gallons buckets plus a 13 gallon controller with a 5 gallon bucket on top where water is in constant vortex dropping into controller. Overkill yes but gives me the piece of mind the water is nice and mix and not sitting still. I also have a 30 gallon Rez for the flower room and a 27 gallon tote I made for some extra clones I had sitting around as well as my 20 gallon Rez for my veg room and various buckets. I am able to cool all of this with a 1/10hp chiller, a 15 gallon bucket of water and a 500 gph pump and stainless steel coils and. the chiller is like 5 years old and still working like a charm. And it is a very efficient way of cooling the water as well as maintaining the same temp I every bucket

Yes it doesn't take a huge chiller to do that. The worst thing you can do is oversize it and have it short cycle. There are some really good sizing calculators if you google.

Budley Doright said:

Again I'm talking a couple of hundred not thousands lol. I strongly agree that if you cooling something more than a 50 gallon Res then yup perhaps a used aquarium chiller is not for you. I will have a look at some aquarium ones (specs) as I am probably going to have to add to my passive quite soon and see what there about. I'm used to5-6 ton geo's, not to many air source water units here yet, I'm a dealer for maritime geothermal that just came out with an air source, water unit that looks pretty cool. Just had a webinar on it, very impressive COP's

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I'd very much like to hear more.

I find some very interesting things happen with my water cooling system, most of which are quite beneficial.

The reason air source are not very popular here is the need for defrosts and that in itself contributes to the lack of use. Manufactures have tweaked the defrost cycles and fans to achieve some pretty exciting ratings. Still can't beat geo though for savings. Sounds like you've got it covered though. Have you got your unit in place and running both heating and cooling yet?

Budley Doright said:

The reason air source are not very popular here is the need for defrosts and that in itself contributes to the lack of use. Manufactures have tweaked the defrost cycles and fans to achieve some pretty exciting ratings. Still can't beat geo though for savings. Sounds like you've got it covered though. Have you got your unit in place and running both heating and cooling yet?

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This is just above my head;
Air source?
Need for defrosts?
Geo, as in geothermal?
Unit isn't here yet.

ttystikk said:

This is just above my head;
Air source?
Need for defrosts?
Geo, as in geothermal?
Unit isn't here yet.

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Oh I thought you had it already and were up and running, sorry. But you did say you were getting a Surna unit correct? They are an air source chiller but I also was thinking you got a heat pump type unit and not just cooling with passive heating. You should google Maritime geothermal and check out their air source water heat pump, it's pretty cool with dedicated heating and cooling for water. And yes sorry, if it's a heat pump it needs defrost but your not looking at heat pumps . Probably something to consider if heating is a big concern, unless you need to chill the water 24/7. Then yes you'll have lots of excess heat to use .

Budley Doright said:

Oh I thought you had it already and were up and running, sorry. But you did say you were getting a Surna unit correct? They are an air source chiller but I also was thinking you got a heat pump type unit and not just cooling with passive heating. You should google Maritime geothermal and check out their air source water heat pump, it's pretty cool with dedicated heating and cooling for water. And yes sorry, if it's a heat pump it needs defrost but your not looking at heat pumps . Probably something to consider if heating is a big concern, unless you need to chill the water 24/7. Then yes you'll have lots of excess heat to use .

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Run a flip, heat your house. Seemed pretty straightforward to me.

ttystikk said:

Run a flip, heat your house. Seemed pretty straightforward to me.

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As it should be lol.

Check out my thread in my signature for instruction on my DIY chiller. If you have access to cold water and a drain in your grow then you can run my DIY chiller and it will kick any off the shelf chiller's ass all day long. I would never go back to a traditional chiller.

AKGrowAreo said:

Check out my thread in my signature for instruction on my DIY chiller. If you have access to cold water and a drain in your grow then you can run my DIY chiller and it will kick any off the shelf chiller's ass all day long. I would never go back to a traditional chiller.

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This is great as long as you can stand the thought of wasting all that water, or if you have another use for it.

ttystikk said:

This is great as long as you can stand the thought of wasting all that water, or if you have another use for it.

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All of our water ends up getting recycled and put back to the earth clean as can be, so I have no problem with letting some fresh water flow because I am not on metered water. If I was, that would obviously be a different story. I have never seen metered water except for in commercial lease applications, so for homegrow it usually works out great.

AKGrowAreo said:

All of our water ends up getting recycled and put back to the earth clean as can be, so I have no problem with letting some fresh water flow because I am not on metered water. If I was, that would obviously be a different story. I have never seen metered water except for in commercial lease applications, so for homegrow it usually works out great.

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If your in municipal water here it's metered . I'm on a well so perfect. But I'm finding that once the outdoor temps get above 50 I struggle with my passive system to keep it at 65 but still tweaking it. Think I need some fin tubes like tyy has to make for Better heat exchange

Budley Doright said:

If your in municipal water here it's metered . I'm on a well so perfect. But I'm finding that once the outdoor temps get above 50 I struggle with my passive system to keep it at 65 but still tweaking it. Think I need some fin tubes like tyy has to make for Better heat exchange

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Do you use wort chillers? I am lucky to have 40 degree cold tap water at its hottest in the summer.

AKGrowAreo said:

Do you use wort chillers? I am lucky to have 40 degree cold tap water at its hottest in the summer.

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Every one of my water to water heat exchange cores is just like a mini wort chiller. No fins.

There are finds on the radiators in my water cooled air handlers, that's to help transfer heat from the air.

ttystikk said:

Every one of my water to water heat exchange cores is just like a mini wort chiller.

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Awesome. Do you have any pics of them? I browsed though your thread, but didn't find any. Probably didn't dig through enough. You're always killing it @ttystikk , keep up the excellent work!!!

AKGrowAreo said:

Awesome. Do you have any pics of them? I browsed though your thread, but didn't find any. Probably didn't dig through enough. You're always killing it @ttystikk , keep up the excellent work!!!

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Buried in there somewhere, maybe. I just use 1/2" od copper HVAC tubing, bent into a coil.

ttystikk said:

Buried in there somewhere, maybe. I just use 1/2" od copper HVAC tubing, bent into a coil.

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Awesome. Good to hear that copper works. I had always heard rumors that copper leached into the nutes, maybe I'll stop wasting money on the stainless steel ones...

AKGrowAreo said:

Awesome. Good to hear that copper works. I had always heard rumors that copper leached into the nutes, maybe I'll stop wasting money on the stainless steel ones...

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Copper will kill the roots of any plants that touch it, but it won't go through the whole system.

AKGrowAreo said:

Do you use wort chillers? I am lucky to have 40 degree cold tap water at its hottest in the summer.

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I use tube in tube heat exchangers ( get them out of used geothermal units) my cooling loop is a closed system, the cooling side which goes outdoors, and is 200' of copper tubing, is filled with glycol. My well water is 55 and goes up to 59 in the summer months.