Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Apex Controller and JBJ Chiller on/off cycle

afm32607 · 07/05/2018, 02:33 PM

Recently hooked up a JBJ Chiller to a FW aquarium place in a terrace at a family members house.

The chiller works well to bring the temp down, especially as the ambient air has approached 90 degrees the past week. The problem is that the chiller doesn't seem to turn on until its thermostat reads 79 or higher and will then run until the thermostat reads 77 degrees. This is okay on cooler days that don't heat the tank up quickly, but on warmer days the 2 degree swings are much more rapid (heats up in an hour and turns on for 15-20 minutes).

To try to combat the temp swings I tried to to the following: I set the JBJ chiller to 78 degrees on its own sensor and have it set to turn off at 77.9 degrees on the controller and not have it turn back on until the controller reads 78.5. The off program cuts off the final degree drop in temperature and the on program, hopefully, limits the time in which the chiller is switched on and off.

The question is will this hurt the chiller, controller or fish? 2 degrees dosen't seem like a lot but if it has to do it 18 times a day, that is a lot of stress on the fish. In the same vein the 18 times the chiller is turned on and off could be harmful to it.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

07/05/2018, 02:33 PM	#1
afm32607 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 279	Apex Controller and JBJ Chiller on/off cycle Recently hooked up a JBJ Chiller to a FW aquarium place in a terrace at a family members house. The chiller works well to bring the temp down, especially as the ambient air has approached 90 degrees the past week. The problem is that the chiller doesn't seem to turn on until its thermostat reads 79 or higher and will then run until the thermostat reads 77 degrees. This is okay on cooler days that don't heat the tank up quickly, but on warmer days the 2 degree swings are much more rapid (heats up in an hour and turns on for 15-20 minutes). To try to combat the temp swings I tried to to the following: I set the JBJ chiller to 78 degrees on its own sensor and have it set to turn off at 77.9 degrees on the controller and not have it turn back on until the controller reads 78.5. The off program cuts off the final degree drop in temperature and the on program, hopefully, limits the time in which the chiller is switched on and off. The question is will this hurt the chiller, controller or fish? 2 degrees dosen't seem like a lot but if it has to do it 18 times a day, that is a lot of stress on the fish. In the same vein the 18 times the chiller is turned on and off could be harmful to it. Any thoughts are appreciated.