Looking for a really good cooling fan. Help?

[micagreenmachine]

I'm in the planning stage for my next tank (125 gal.) and I'm looking for the right equipment. The tank is going to be a divider between the living room and dining room (we're buying a loft)

and I need the cooling fan for the lights to be ULTRA QUIET! Going with a MH setup. We want this reef to be seen but not heard.

Are there any REALLY QUIET cooling fans out there to be had? The one on my custom sealife PC hood drives me nutz. I even tried replacing it with a fan from radio shack, it looked to be of better quality, but it howls like a dog in heat. It's going back on Monday.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
~Todd

 

[Mac1]

You might be better served by thinking about alternatives to conventional cooling as well. Standard logic (mine included), involves throwing a couple fans on the back of the hood and exhausting the hot air out that way. You could try mounting your Halides as pendandts, or place fans in the top of the hood...Do you have a sump somewhere un-obtrusive, where you could add many stronger fans, to compensate for the cooling? I can appreciate the noise fan's cause... my tanks are down in our basement, with all my computer equipment... The fans in my switch however, are so loud, that I can barely hear the tank over them, so I don't notice it as much as I used to.

- Mac

 

[Katspaw]

I think I can help you there. Radio Shack has 4 inch computer fans, they can be wired directly into normal plug for your house current. They cover a 65 ft area. I just placed four of them in my canopy on my new tank. When I plugged them in I didn't think that they were working because they were so quiet. I had to look up at the fans to see that the blades were turning. They cost 18.00 and change each. but they work really great. And radio shack is everywhere.

They also have a 3 in fan that cover a 32 ft area, but cost 16 and change. For two dollars more and twice the feet, go with the four inch.
I didn't read you post al the way thru , but I did get four fans from them and they are super quiet. Can't even hear them. maybe you got a bad one

Tracey

[ November 11, 2001: Message edited by: Katspaw ]

[ November 11, 2001: Message edited by: Katspaw ]</p>

 

[micagreenmachine]

Cool. Thanks for all the input!

The fan I've got is one of those (loud) 3" cooling fans. I don't think the 4" will fit in my current hood, but should work on the new one I'm getting. I guess I won't give up on radio shack yet. Maybe a trip to our local computer geek store is in order, but I thought that all they had were those 12 volters. (I'm allowed to call them computer geeks 'cause I am one)

~Todd

 

[fishnbarefoot]

I don't know if you have a Grainger Indutrial supply near you but the carry all sorts of fans and are a great place to get more duable things than you ccan sometimes elseware.I always check with them to see if there is a better alternative before I buy almost anything. I'm a factory manager so I have access to tons of these places so guess what I do all day! Try WWW.Grainger.Com, The Radio Shack thing sounds good too, but I always like the industrial model!!! I've purchased a few fans from them and can only hear the wind on the real high power ones. Shop around. Jim

 

[micagreenmachine]

Oh ya, we have Grainger out here. I used to work at an airport up here where they keep one of their corporate jets. At least, they used to. I haven't been back to that airport in a year.... I'll try to sneek over to Grainger this week. Do they have regulators (for my future co2/calcium reactor) and stuff like that too?

Thanks!

~t

 

[fishnbarefoot]

I think so, I just popped over to thier web site and looked up the "AXIAL" fans, 260 items. It's industrial stuff so it might be more. Like 25 bucks but more reliable and I noticed you can get replacement parts so when you do need to fix you don't have to replace entire unit. I've never had to replace one that I bought there but have had to replace ones that came on the original equipment. Only thing is your original question was about noise. Too many CFM can be noisy because of wind and too little can mean loss of production or heat build up in your hood. Since you have one near you stop in and check them out. Let us know how you do, Jim. <'}))))><

 

[suckair]

I also have MH lighting and use AC fans to cool them.. But like you I did not like the noise of high speed ball bearing ac fans. I did some research on ac fans and found that a low dB fan is made and purchased them.. Yes they were very quite but did not move as much air as the ball bearing fans did.. Also they failed after 9 months.

My solution was to purchase new ac ball bearing fans "that were super noisy" and ues a celing fan speed control on them.. This way I could dial their speed down to control noise and get a fan that would last for years! "note it is very important to use a fan speed control and not a dimmer. A dimmer is a resistance based not a frequency based control and can damage the fans!"

If you are tricky you can use X-10 systems to set the fan for dual speeds.. one thru the fan controler and one direct. That way when you are at work and the tank lights are on the fans can roar!

Randall

 

[IBJJ]

try a computer fan...i have 2 4" on my 180 that my lfs had and i can barely hear them standing next to them. I have 1 3" on my 55 from radio shack and its loud as hell.

 

[micagreenmachine]

Now THAT is a great idea! When I get my next tank set up and if it truly is too noisy, I'll get one of them there fan speed control thingies. I did notice that the fan I got from Radio Shack was only noisy when it was near it's maximum speed, not when it was still spooling up. Hek, I'd do two quiet fans instead of one loud one to keep the same flow...

Thanks for the great idea!

~t

 

[lawndoctor]

Thank you all for this thread. I designed my hood to accomodate two 3" fans but they were so noisy I took them out and my chiller has been on all the time. I knew that slowing the RPMs would help greatly but I had given up trying to figure out how to do it cheaply and effectively. Maybe now I can go back to my original design.

 

[micagreenmachine]

I checked out the local Grainger store today. They sold me a Dayton 4WT40 3+1/8" 30CFM 35db 115 volt axial fan. It's exactly what I wanted! I plugged it in here at work and all you can hear is the slight woosh of air coming out. Of course it was a "business" purchase.

Here's the link.

It was a little pricy ($23 bucks) but I don't care, the price is worth the peace and quiet!

I'll definitely be going back there, they have more than enough fans of all sizes to choose from.

Thanks for the advice and for the peace and quiet everyone!
~Todd

 

[bensenvill]

being a computer geek (and an obsessive overclocker), you need to go to web sites devoted to CPU overclocking. Its tech guys writing 5 page reviews about fans (IE their decible, amount of air they push, reliability). The 2 sites I have off hand are
http://www.fast-mhz.com/
http://www.insanehardware.com/index.shtml
I havent tooled around on those pages for a while but I'm sure you can find detailed reviews on computer fans that would be appropriate and the cheapest dealer for them.

~Terrence

 

[micagreenmachine]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Wind:
<strong>Does anybody have pics or examples or instructions on how to wire it to the regular house current?</strong><hr></blockquote>

As long as you get one for standard house current (115-120 volts AC) it's easy. If you get the wrong one (12 or 24 volts DC) return it and get the right one or you'll just cook it with household current. All you have to do is attach the two wires to electric prongs and plug it in. No magic here. I take an old extension cord, lop off the thing you plug things into, and just splice the two wires to the fan wires. They aren't polarized so it doesn't matter which wire flows to which prong. Use some sort of electric cap (what are those little thingies called?) to make the splices safe. I'd even put some electrical tape on just to be sure. Mine's hooked up and running right now, I had it goin within about 10 minutes of getting home the other day.

****CAUTION!!!****
---Do this at your own risk!--- I'm not an electrician, I just know how the stuff works and I'm ok with tinkering with it. I've learned a lot of this the hard way when I was a kid and know what 115 volts feels like (ouch)

. 115 volts can kill you dead, start fires, etc... so if you're not comfortable doing electric work yourself, find someone who knows what they're doing.

Good luck and BE CAREFUL!
~Todd

 

[Wind]

Does anybody have pics or examples or instructions on how to wire it to the regular house current?

 

[mweber]

I have always used an approach I don't see anyone else using that works great. I simply mount a bathroom exhaust fan somewhere where it can't be seen or heard. I duct the output of it outside so I don't add heat or humidity or smells to the house or business. I then duct the inlet of it to the top of the tank and the top of the sump using regular PVC fittings.

This actually acomplishes several purposes.

1. With the tank top being under a negative pressure it cuts salt creep out altogether.
2. Normally the Relative Humidity in the top of your tank runs near 100%, which makes evaporation very minimal. By continually exhausting that air you get much evaporation which cools your tank.
3. It rids the heat from your hood when the lights are on.
4. It keeps smells out of the living space.

DOWN SIDE

On a 180 it will probably evaporate about 3 gallons per day. You must have an automatic makeup system

In the winter you may want this heat & humidity in your house.