Cooling Fans for Hood

[Doug01]

I was just wondering if anybody had ever tried this? I am about to put together a 125 Gallon Reef tank from a 75 Gallon Reef Tank. I am also getting 2 400W Metal Halide fixtures.

The question is:

1) How high to mount the Metal Halide lights.

2) Would two of these work for cooling? 200MM Big Boy Fans. One for input air and one for output air? It would blow right across the water and take the heat out.

Antec - Big Boy 200


Thoughts?

[ccCapt]

Any reason in particular you are getting the 400w fixtures? 175w or 250w will work fine and cost much less to run. Also, typically 1 MH bulb will cover a 2' sq. area. A 6' tank should use 3 bulbs.

1- bulbs should be at least 12" above the water.
2- sure, I use basically the same kind of fans in my canopy, but I have both pulling the hot air out tho....and I only use 175w MH. Those 400's will produce a ton of heat.

You can check out my build thread (link is below). I have pics of the canopy I built in there.

[Doug01]

I was getting the 400W Fixtures so I can possibly move up later and wouldn't have to rebuy the lighting. Plus I would like to have as much lighting as possible. I guess I also neglected to mention that I also have 4 24" Power Compact bulbs in there also. Thanks for the info on your hood build.

[ccCapt]

You can use 400's, but they are definitely overkill for the depth of a 125. 400's are needed for deep tanks. If you got 175's or 250's you would not have to upgrade in the future. I can keep anything and everything in my tank with 3x175.
I'm not trying to talk you out of the 400's, but realize they will be expensive to run and will produce alot of heat....and there is no advantage to using them on that size tank.

[austinsdad]

Might have to consider a cooler with all that heat too.

[melosu58]

Moved to General Hardware and equipment discussion.