Ventilation ideas for canopy build?
- Thread starter ozorowsky
- Start date
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KreativJustin
Aquarium Advice Freak
You could find 120v fans, and run a plug into your wall! 
Or you could find 12v fans, use an old cell phone charger or something that uses 12v. Then use the plug end to plug into your wall, and pigtail the other side.
This is very easy to do. Since it is three sided I would put 1 fan blowing in, and 1 blowing out. That way your circulating the air. Stick them on opposite sides so they are at a steady flow. This will allow the air to be 'sucked' out while cooler air is being blown in. Very handy.
-- Edit --
When I say fans I mean like computer fans (12v) and they make them bigger and support higher voltage (120 I believe for your wall socket).
Or you could find 12v fans, use an old cell phone charger or something that uses 12v. Then use the plug end to plug into your wall, and pigtail the other side.
This is very easy to do. Since it is three sided I would put 1 fan blowing in, and 1 blowing out. That way your circulating the air. Stick them on opposite sides so they are at a steady flow. This will allow the air to be 'sucked' out while cooler air is being blown in. Very handy.
-- Edit --
When I say fans I mean like computer fans (12v) and they make them bigger and support higher voltage (120 I believe for your wall socket).
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mrbee2828
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I'm going to be getting on my canopy build in a few weeks. I bought a 120v fan at radio shack about he size of a PC case fan I was going to wire to a switch and plug into the wall. It was horribly loud so if you get one you can avoid the one there
Rutrag
Aquarium Advice Addict
You might take a look at these:
Aquarium Cooling Fans: Zoo Med Aqua Cool Aquarium Cooling Fan AA-13
It clips to the side of the tank and you can aim the airflow. I'm unsure as to how that would work with your canopy though. Can't hurt to look!
Here's a 4" fan from Marine Depot that looks to be 115V AC. It's pretty cheap as well. (Less than $7) I bet you'd have to wire it up though, which I'm not sure how to do.
Hamilton 4 Inch Fan
Aquarium Cooling Fans: Zoo Med Aqua Cool Aquarium Cooling Fan AA-13
It clips to the side of the tank and you can aim the airflow. I'm unsure as to how that would work with your canopy though. Can't hurt to look!
Here's a 4" fan from Marine Depot that looks to be 115V AC. It's pretty cheap as well. (Less than $7) I bet you'd have to wire it up though, which I'm not sure how to do.
Hamilton 4 Inch Fan
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mrbee2828
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Yeah that's like the one from Radio Shack. It just has 2 wires and can plug right into the wall. You'd wire it up to a normal switch in a box and you can get everything at HD or Lowe's for a few bucks. If you get it let me know how loud it is.
If I were to buy a regular PC fan, how would I wire that to the wall? Just buy a power cord and cut the wires and splice the two leads together?
Curious if I would need some form of voltage regulator or something.
I'm ok with splicing wires, and doing wiring but don't know much about "do this to make that work to electrical outlet"
Could you post a pic of that setup?
That worked ok with halides under there? I opened the lid the other day and it was surprisingly hot. Uncomfortably so. With the lid open everything is fine.
I gotcha; I don't think that particular solution would work for my canopy though
Here is my canopy build thread:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/new-canopy-build-167170.html
Thank you very much for sharing the pictures though!
It is open on one of the short sides. THe tank is 6 ft long 2 ft wide; one of the 2 ft sides is open. Both of the 6 ft sides and the top is all enclosed; Thats why I'm looking for a simple solution where I can put 4 fans in the top; like 2 intake in teh center blowing cool air in and 2 exhaust at the ends blowing cool air out.
If you look at my pics; see its like a coffin? I was thinking spacing them out along the top back part where the lid sits on, and have them on the same timer as my halides, because thats really the only time it gets unbearably hot in there.
KreativJustin
Aquarium Advice Freak
Like I said earlier. If you use a 12v fan from a PC just splice it to a 12v phone charger or any wall plug that uses 12v so it don't over juice the fan.
For what its worth I found these: 220V 230V 240 V AC Cooling Fan. 120mm x 25mm items in AC Fan Depot store on eBay!
I'm thinking of buying 4 of them.
I'm thinking of buying 4 of them.
The Editor
Aquarium Advice Activist
Good god those fans are expensive.... Loud too I'll bet...
If it were me I'd just get cheap 120mm PC fans....
For example 4 of these: Computer PC Case 4 Pin Cool Cooler Cooling Fan 120mm | eBay
Plus one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-110-240V...=Laptop_Adapters_Chargers&hash=item3f0c5d44b2
Makes an easy cooling solution for a lot cheaper than that previous fan.
Like KreativJustin said it'd be easy enough to wire them up to an old phone charger or any other 12V converter...
EDIT:
Or you could just cut vents in the top panel like you mentioned in your other thread... If your lights are kicking out that much heat then cutting vents in the top will allow the hot air to rise naturally and exit the hood.
Cool air will be drawn in the open side, you should get a nice passive flow of cooling air through the hood just by cutting the vent holes...
At any rate if you are gonna rig up fans I'd definitely have the air intake in the side and exhaust on the top. No point fighting against hot air's natural tendency to rise...
If it were me I'd just get cheap 120mm PC fans....
For example 4 of these: Computer PC Case 4 Pin Cool Cooler Cooling Fan 120mm | eBay
Plus one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-110-240V...=Laptop_Adapters_Chargers&hash=item3f0c5d44b2
Makes an easy cooling solution for a lot cheaper than that previous fan.
Like KreativJustin said it'd be easy enough to wire them up to an old phone charger or any other 12V converter...
EDIT:
Or you could just cut vents in the top panel like you mentioned in your other thread... If your lights are kicking out that much heat then cutting vents in the top will allow the hot air to rise naturally and exit the hood.
Cool air will be drawn in the open side, you should get a nice passive flow of cooling air through the hood just by cutting the vent holes...
At any rate if you are gonna rig up fans I'd definitely have the air intake in the side and exhaust on the top. No point fighting against hot air's natural tendency to rise...
hey all one more question here. . .
Do you know the name of a device I can wire between the wall outlet and the fans to regulate speed per temperature?
Would this work?
Digital R Thermometer Meter C/F Two External -31-257F | eBay
Do you know the name of a device I can wire between the wall outlet and the fans to regulate speed per temperature?
Would this work?
Digital R Thermometer Meter C/F Two External -31-257F | eBay
The Editor
Aquarium Advice Activist
That looks like it's only a digital thermometer with no fan control features...
There are temperature sensitive fan controllers available, this one for example just plugs strait into the fan (you could clip off the female connector and just use the red and black wires, yellow is just a "sense" wire used to measure the RPM of the fan).
Alternatively you could splash a little more cash and get a device designed for a 5.25" expansion bay like this (DVD drive sized slot), which has temp sensors, LCD display, and most importantly custom settings for temperature. I'd be hesitant with this device though as once again there's not a lot said about the operation of it, ideally you'd be able to get hold of it and have a play with it and see if it suits your needs.
Does it need to be automatic? You could get a device like this which has manual control dials for you to adjust the speed as you see fit. Comes with 4 external temp probes (you could put two of these in with your lights, two in the exhaust stream) so you can monitor the temps and adjust as you see fit.
This solution can most likely be a "set and forget" solution. PC fan controllers are usually designed to deal with the variable heat load produced as your use of the PC changes. Your lights will likely come on in the morning, go off in the evening, and stay exactly the same in between those two events. As long as the fans are running I don't see that you'd need automatic speed adjusting. If you have a timer set for your lights, I'd just stick the fans on the same timer so they come on and turn off with the lights.
If it were me, I'd try the fans at full speed first and see if the noise bothered me at all. They'll be running pretty much unimpeded (air impedance and turbulence is pretty much the primary cause of annoying fan noise) in that large hood, if they do bother you then I'd look at reducing the speed. You may find that running them at half speed still provides ample cooling power.
HTH
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