Ziggy953
Aquarium Advice Addict
I would have to look it up. I kept my 250s about 15" off the water and that was over 24" of water. I just see you having heat issues with it that close.
Dont use a battery charger to run fans. I am assuming your fans will require 12VDC and 200mA or so. You can get a "wallwort" at radioshack that will work just fine.
Battery chargers are designed to work in a much different manor than a power supply. They have a circuit meant to detect charging and charging progress, they arent a simply step down xfmr with a rectifier and filter.
Find the operating voltage of your fans and how much current they draw, then match them up to a plug in wall transformer from radioshack. Very, very easy!
Matt
Yeah, i raised the light to 8 inches from that water and now my water temp has been at 80 degrees all day, and that's without running a fan as well. So yeah, that was definitely a big help on Ziggy's part.
Also, it's a 14k bulb, not a 20k. 20k is too blue for my taste. I wanted a crisp white, and honestly, the 14000k bulb is SO nice. It's like pure white.
Yeah, i see what you mean Ziggy. I would have gone with LED's as well since they're really awesome, but putting something together for my tank would have definitely costed me +$200 and i don't have that kind of money right now. This MH came with everything, ballast, UV lens, hanging kit, pendant and bulb all for $140.. and it was a quality pendant.. so i just couldn't pass it up. Ya know? However, when i get the chance, the next time i need to change the bulb out i'm definitely going to get a really nice one.. maybe something like an Ushio or Pheonix. I'm also thinking that when i get a job i could get a few LED's and integrate them with the pendant i have now.. to use as actinic supplementation. And i'm sure i could do it, since those 460nm Cree LED's are out there. Just need to get a heatsink and a power supply. I'm good with soldering and wiring.. so putting it together won't be a problem at all. I just need to get the materials first haha.
ryshark, i'm sure the bulb your talking about is nice and all, but the bulb these people were going to give me was going to be really blue. The bulbs they supply aren't top of the line, but they aren't garbage either, so i had to go with the 14k.
Time for that ATO