Hood Cooling Design Questions

[mikelush78]

Ok I have my 90 gallon reef cycling and I am trying to figure out how much air I need to have flowing in my Hood for cooling. I want enough air but I also want it to be quiet.

Right now I have 2 fans blowing in through the back and about 12 - 1" holes in the top of the hood to let the heat out. The fans that I have blowing in are on a parallel circuit from a 12v 1.25A power supply so I am guessing its cut in half. I put it on a circuit so that it would down the fans a bit cause they were to loud.

So my question is now how warm should I allow it to get in my aquarium hood... I would like a temperature so I can put a thermometer and see how my hood is actually being cooled... Any guesses?

Based on what I have described on my hood do you think i need 2 more fans in the back? What do you think..

[fsn77]

What type of lighting do you have? I only ask because if you have T5 HO lights, it's been shown that the bulbs generate their greatest intensity when the bulbs are at about 95F. If cooled too little or too much, their intensity decreases.

Otherwise, what's the temp in there now?

[mikelush78]

I have 542w of light on my reef...
(2) - 175w 10,000k halide
(2) - 96w Acidic compact

Not sure the temp in there i will put a thermometer in there tonight when i ghet home

[Reefscape]

I would suggest you do as i am doing at the moment with the hood i am just building...I am putting in two 8 cm computer case fans at each end of teh hood..Two at one end will be sucking air into the hood and the two at the opposite end of the hood blowing the hot air out...If you want to search the net, there are lots of diy cooling ideas for cooling a hood.

I am in the same boat as you..I am installing 2 250w metal halides plus actinics in my hood, so i can imagine how hot it is gonna get..

Here is a couple of other ways to cool it down in there..

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/cooling_fans.html

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/chilfansfaqs.htm

http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/archive/index.php/t-12405.html

http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/archive/index.php/t-12701.html

Hope this info helps you a little mate

Niko