We started the tank up 1-6-06, built in the wall in our bsmt, so it is visible from both the family room and my home office and love the set up, although it has been real trial and error. Hopefully I successfully attached the photo - this view is from my office side - there is storage on both side of the tank, with vents in walls to adjoining rooms to help with air circulation. The intensity of our lights was generating too much heat, so we replaced the glass aquarium tops with "eggcrate" and our water temp is now stable at 78-79 (thanks to suggestion from this site!). We were also forced to add a few more vents in the walls, and also added 2 more computer fans (had 2 to start with). However, we are still having 2 problems: 1) the actinics are overheating and turning off. The problem seems to be the ballast, which gets extremely hot. Both actinic and MH ballasts are mounted above the lights (but not visible in photo). The 2 addt'l computer fans have helped some, as the lts are staying on alot longer (4-5 hrs) before turning off, staying off for maybe 1/2 hour, then coming back on. Is the only solultion to move the ballasts out of the confined space? I did have a portable fan jerry-rigged until we added teh 2 small fans, and had no problems with the lts turning off then - but it was really noisy. Any suggestions?
Second problem: our GFIC tripped a couple times this past week. We had an electrician install a dedicated circuit (we added the aquarium during a total remodel of the bsmt) and he was aware of all our power needs. Any ideas aside from calling him back in?
thanks.
Second problem: our GFIC tripped a couple times this past week. We had an electrician install a dedicated circuit (we added the aquarium during a total remodel of the bsmt) and he was aware of all our power needs. Any ideas aside from calling him back in?
thanks.
