Lighting Help!! Please!!

[LordFinesse]

Long-time reefkeeper just set up another new tank and using halide lights for the first time.

I have an All-Glass 90 gallon aquarium (standard size with overflow) with an oak stand and canopy. (Other info: 3-4 inch sand bed, 100 lbs. live rock, sump that specs say is for tanks up to 150 gallons or so).

So, I got a good deal on a dual ballast and two retrofit kits. I installed the 2 250-watt halide retrofit kits into the canopy (I would say the bulbs are 6-8 inches from the water). Obviously, this creates a bit of heat. Any recommendations for cooling? Obviously, I could go buy a chiller, but I prefer not to do this, if there are other possible alternatives. Are there any fans I could install into the canopy that would help enough? I'm hoping someone recommend some cooling fans that will be enough, but I have the feeling I'm going to be told that I either need a chiller or I need to ditch the canopy and keep the bulbs further from the water (which I won't be ditching the canopy).

I keep my house, BTW, in the 65-73 degree range (thank you A/C in the summer).

Thanks for the help!

 

[Anonymous]

There are no fans in your canopy currently? Ouch. Yeah, with halides in a canopy fans are pretty much an absolute neccessity. Standard recommendation is two fans (you can use the fans they sell as computer cooling fans, mounting them directly to holes drilled in the sides of the canopy. Bigger the better as far as cooling is concerned, but usually at a trade off of the larger fans being louder), one blowing into the canopy and the other blowing out of it. If you can't do two fans for whatever reason and are limited to just one, have it blowing into the canopy.

If that's not enough you can also add a cooling fan that blows at the surface of the water to get more evaporative cooling, which can work surprisingly well at the trade off of needing to add much more top off water.

Every tank and set up is different, so I can't promise how much of a difference all of the above will make, whether it will be enough for your application or not. It will make at least some difference, though.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you have a sump?


I blow a fan across my open sump for evaporative cooling.

Can bring the tank temp down ~4-5 degrees in my circumstance.

(Tank stays ~ 3-4 degrees warmer than the ambient air of the house this way)

 

[benni]

I use a fan blowing across my surface water and one blowing over my sump surface as well. I have 2-250 halides and only on the hottest do I get nervous when the temperature approaches 85-86. Usually, no problem though and I live in the south. When I do have a spike in temperature, I turn on the ceiling fan and if that does not help, I have purified bottles of water (the same water I use to top off-in case of a leak) that I keep frozen and I throw them in the sump during midday. Don't have to do that much though, just a nice safety net to have.