New Lighting and HEAT in the canopy

[Itchy]

We went and got new lighting for the tank today. Came home tonight and hooked it all up and put the canopy back on top of the tank. I opened the doors and stuck my hand in the canopy and it was HOT in there! The lights consist of this in a 48" fixture:

2-65W Actinic
2-65W 10,000K

The fixture has cooling fans, but I'm concerned with the canopy being wood. Should I be worried or should I add some ventilation to the canopy?

[Irisservice]

Ventilation is a must I have a same setup mounted above my canopy which has a 3" fan and still have two 4" fans and two 4" vents in the canopy.

[Pineapple House]

I agree, you must have some good ventilation. You can buy fans at home depot, and mount them into your hood. You could get a few 4" fans, mount them right in. Quite simple, I did the same thing with mine, didn't cost more than $25.00 and some elbow grease :)

PH =)

[Pineapple House]

Also, is your lighting wired correctly? Sometimes, if you have faulty wiring, that could creat some extra heat in your hood, which will heat up the temperature in your aquarium. I would check your wiring, as well as buy some extra fans.

PH =)

[ssgibby]

You can also apply a laminate (Formica) to the interior of your canopy, This will prevent the wood from absorbing moisture/condensation... Also makes it easier to clean. Exactly how hot is it?

[phistio]

formica comes in all sorts of finishes...even a brush steel...which has some nice reflective capabilities, but regular white should be fine...also, a small bead of silicone around the seams will completely seal the formica to the canopy, preventing any damage to the wood.

[Itchy]

I agree, you must have some good ventilation. You can buy fans at home depot, and mount them into your hood. You could get a few 4" fans, mount them right in. Quite simple, I did the same thing with mine, didn't cost more than $25.00 and some elbow grease :)

PH =)

For the time being, I have just removed the canopy to keep heat from building up inside. When I have some free time, I'll add some ventilation fans to suck the heat out.

The light must be wired correctly..it came from a reputable LFS which came with high recommendations from my boss...also a saltwater aquarium fan. The light has raised the temp of my tank by about 2-3 degrees which still keeps it in the ideal range...78-79F.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[kennerd]

Irisservice:

I have to ask: your sig line says you have 4x65 PC's on your tank: Is that the tank in the picture you posted?

WOW: don't get me wrong at all, but all that ventilation sounds like a bit of overkill for that kind of lighting, and a pretty elaborate canopy system for only 4x65?!? Just curious if you forgot to add that you have Halides running in there as well!!

I have 4x96 over my 65 gal in a CSL ABS hood with a 2" fan and 2" vent, with no heat problems. Then again, the tank is open in fron and in back of the fixture, I only evap 3/4 gal/day and tank temps never cap 80'.

[Irisservice]

I have to ask: your sig line says you have 4x65 PC's on your tank: Is that the tank in the picture you posted?
Yes,but I plan to add two more 03 Actinic in the next two-three months.
(love the blue)

WOW: don't get me wrong at all, but all that ventilation sounds like a bit of overkill for that kind of lighting, and a pretty elaborate canopy system for only 4x65?!? Just curious if you forgot to add that you have Halides running in there as well!!
When you close it all in a hood it gets hot!!!

Why does it look bad?

[kennerd]

Yeah, I guess so! So how is the canopy/hood setup? Looks pretty tall: are you losing a lot of intensity from the bulbs being set up off the water so high, or do you have the ballasts, etc. in the upper enclosure?

[Irisservice]

So how is the canopy/hood setup?
Its just a standard custom sealife hood but with different bulbs.

Looks pretty tall: are you losing a lot of intensity from the bulbs being set up off the water so high
maybe a little it only 6" above water. But with it being that high the spread it good. Plus the entire canopy is coated with reflective alunium tape. So that make up for some of the loss.

[kennerd]

Gotcha. OK, I snagged your photo to outline the pieces I wanted to ask about.
http://home.earthlink.net/~obrienken/_uimages/irishood.jpg

The piece indicated in red looks like your lighting fixture, but what is the setup indicated in blue? Looks eally tall, but then again the scale may be making it look wierd: your 4x65 has two rows of bulbs, 2 in each row, right?

I'm asking, because when I was looking for a new canopy, I found one with two extra canopies and a 58 gal tank and stand (all for $100) and the fellow had 3 halides(250,250,175) + 2 VHO(95,95) in this hood, with 4 IceCap 4" fans along the back and all of his ballasts in the extra canopy on top. he also ran a closed loop chiller: all this on a 58 gal!

Nice to have the ballasts up & away from water drips, etc. and the heat dissapates upward. Here's the pics:




http://home.earthlink.net/~obrienken/_uimages/Tankamp
http://home.earthlink.net/~obrienken/_uimages/Canopy.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~obrienken/_uimages/hoodlightingsetup.jpg

[Irisservice]

The piece indicated in red looks like your lighting fixture, but what is the setup indicated in blue? Looks eally tall, but then again the scale may be making it look wierd: your 4x65 has two rows of bulbs, 2 in each row, right?
Yes it the lighting fixture. The canopy is about 8"tall but it overlaps the tank 1.5"-2". Yes thats corect about the bulb config.


Nice to have the ballasts up & away from water drips, etc. and the heat dissapates upward. Here's the pics:
Yes it is but i wanted it to be simple for me to remove to work on tank. light come off as one piece. Which is about 25-30lbs and leaves canopy which about 10lbs. so easy to take apart.