Hi again,
Yes i did buy both my chillers in sydney. The first aqua-one one that i got was a pre-loved one that i have bidded for on ebay and it was delivered to my house. The second one i got was a hailea 150A that i ordered in from an aquarium shop locally and went to pick it up. This was the brand new one i got. If you enquire and express interest in ordering in a chiller, you can actually arrange your local aquarium shop to place an order for you. So, in my experience, its more worthwhile to do your research online first, comparing various brands and prices rather than leaving it to the hands of your pet shop to recommend one for you.
Most importantly, look that the chiller has the capacity to chill the volume of water in your tank. There is no point getting one that cannot effectively chill the volume of water you have. Not only does it not reach the temperature you desire, you risk getting the chiller damaged. Obviously there is no need to get a super powerful chiller that is an overkill and cost an arm and leg to boot.
Secondly, check that the chiller is a reputable brand that has spare parts easily available. I like the cheaper "Resun" and "Hailea" because although economical, a lot of aquarium shops stock them and you can always have it repaired readily in the event of damage. If you go for some obscure brand, there might not be repair service or spare parts easily available.
Thirdly, make sure your tank can actually use a chiller. For example, i use an external canister filter. I simply connect my chiller to the "outflow" tubing such that filtered water is cooled down before returning back to the tank. If you use another filter type, you might like to look at how you can connect a chiller in.
One advantage of chillers is that it normally doesn't work merely as a 'chiller'. A lot of chillers allow you to adjust and set a temperature to a decimal place. The chiller will aim to maintain the tank water at this temperature. For eg. if you set at 16 degrees celsius. It will keep to this temp in 35 degrees celsius summer and also this temperature at 4 degrees celsius winter. Therefore, even in the coldest winter, your chiller is acutally a 'heater'. The benefit is that throughout the year, there is almost no temperature fluctuations. It depends on your aim though, because you can also stop the chiller during winter months to promote the drop in temp to induce breeding.
You can actually also order marine chillers online and arrange for delivery. I shall private message you a link you can go to which shows you a list of chillers and prices which you can place an order for delivery throughout australia.
Air conditioning can be a double-edged sword really. On one hand it does cool the ambient temperature. (Therefore, i will logically think of setting it to 18 degrees). However, it affects everyone in that room and i can see why you would need a jumper especially if you intend to keep it on all the time. It can also be rather expensive in terms of utilities, when you compare it to a chiller which will be on 'standby' mode when the water temp is within range.
Cheers
