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Chillers | Reef2Reef

Author: Justin

Aug. 11, 2025

Chillers | Reef2Reef

Dan

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Location: Forestville

I live in Sydney, Australia where the temperatures in summer can regularly be over 30 degrees C (high 80's) but only usually for a few days at a time, do you think this would require a chiller, guess it would be best to pre plan it if needed.

If so what would you recommend for a 56 gallon tank

Peach02

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Location: Australia

I've got a 30 gallon and live in Sydney aswell, I haven't needed a chiller yet but we will see what summer brings especially how it's looking to be a scorcher

Reesj

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I'm in the same boat buddy. New to this and from SRi LAnka with about same tank volume. Our temprature stays around 27-28 mostly(water atleast) but few months in year it can creep up over 30C.
Chillers are quite expensive and Cost crazy amount in Electricicty over here. So far my plan:
Keep 2 large water bottles in freezer. Everyday Take one out mid day and put it in Sump and float it. Will slowly decreese the temprature hopefully to offset the daytime temp high.
For me no corals added yet and I have 4-5 months left for high tem swings so waiting game for now.

KrisReef

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I live in Southern California and I have a chiller (and a heater) so my tank temp stays stable year-round.

Recently it has been hot and humid and the chiller runs for many hours during the day and I have not had to add top-off water since the humidity when up. If you have dry air you might only need a circulation fan blowing over the tank to remove heat by evaporation?
If you have high humidity in Sydney then I would recommend getting a chiller. They are rated according to the water volume of the tank and the degrees you need to lower the tank below ambient temperature.
Some people just get air conditioning and cool the entire house to keep the tank cool. That doesn't work for me because in the winter the wife has to have the house at 98.6F and in the summer she wants it at -50F. My tank and chiller are in the garage to avoid conflicts with my princesses delicate temperature needs.

Abdullah Al Faruq

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You should have provided more than just informing us of your tank size. I am sure it all depends on what is being kept in there. Effects of temperature that high vary from animal to animal. Reading through writings will tell you that fish only tanks will not demand chillers from you. As you climb higher up the ladder you will notice advices telling you to maintain a steady temperature for LPS and SPS corals. If you are able to invest, you could get one and every thing else that is needed, keeping in mind that your tank will ultimately evolve from being a 'barely marine' to a full blown 'reef town' in a few years time. Hailea chillers are quit affordable and reliable. So, plan and research and plan.;Pompus Hope that helps.

lapin

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I live in Texas and this summer here has us at 41 days over 100F = 37C
I have A/C = conditioned air and we keep the house at 74F = 23C
I do have a fan blowing on the sump for some extra evaporative cooling.
My tank stays at 79 to 80

muzikalmatt

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I was having issues with high temps on my 40g IM Nuvo AIO tank and I added an Inkibird temperature controller with a cheap clip-on desk fan and I've had no issues since. When I first added the fan, it brought the tank temperature down by 3 degrees in about 90 minutes. I was pretty surprised. It does increase my ATO usage due to evaporative cooling, but it's a much cheaper route than a chiller. The only downside imo is the fan isn't that attractive sitting on top of my tank. OP OP

Dan

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At the moment I don’t have any fish as I’m just past the cycling stance. Added a clean up crew and I am now adding the first corals. I’m not in a rush to add fish I would rather go slow and get over all the teething issues before I do so I don’t stress about stuff when the fish arrive. Timings wise though I will probably add a fish in the next six weeks but we won’t quite be in summer yet. Sounds like a plan to have a fan ready though.

Roger W

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I live in Sydney, Australia where the temperatures in summer can regularly be over 30 degrees C (high 80's) but only usually for a few days at a time, do you think this would require a chiller, guess it would be best to pre plan it if needed.

If so what would you recommend for a 56 gallon tank

Hi
I also live in Sydney and spent the whole of last summer watching the aquarium thermometer and constantly changing bottles of frozen water in the tank. Trying to keep 25 degrees in the aquarium on 30 or 40 degree days is virtually impossible, and I did loose corals .I looked at fans but despite the great stories really concerned with top up water and keeping salinity levels. So in winter I searched the web and found a half price Hailea chiller at one of the larger pet shops in western Sydney. About to install it this week as the temperatures and bushfires increase. Hopefully my fish and coral are going to enjoy this better this year.

Reesj

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Lol same boat here. I also realised that its hard during winter to get temprature at 28C as my water tem try to creep to 30C or so.
So I also got a Hailea chiller for like $350 bucks. You can see it in my build thread. I have set it up at 27C now and it kciks in at 28C.