How to cool two different water parameters with one chiller
As I am a cheapskate and didn't want to buy two chillers but wanted to be able to keep a couple of different shrimp species at different water parameters. I decided to try and use one tank divided into several sections and have only some of the sections chilled and run it all through a split sump.
I purchased a 120x45x45 cm fish tank divided into 3 equal sections from a local aquarium builder and then added in 2 extra sections in the outside chambers. As each end was going to have the same water parameters the division I added needed to allow the water through but still keep baby shrimp apart. I achieved this by drilling three 40 mm holes in each one and used silicone to add on some 40 grade stainless steel mesh. I also left a 2 cm gap at the bottom as this would be covered by the soil and still allow some water to flow between the sections.
I made up a sump which was divided in two sections to have the outside chambers flow into one side and the middle into the other with the pump from the outside chambers hooked up to the chiller.
I tested this concept on the single 4' tank divided into 3, which later became the lower tank in the rack, to make sure it worked. As glass is a great conductor of heat,the middle section was always the same temperature as the outside chambers