cooling fan

[mlm]

I bought a fan to help cool the canopy but I am not sure if I should blow air into the canopy or suck it out?
mlm

 

[tacks]

I've got mine blowing into the canopy and pushing the air hot air (created by the lights) out.

 

[mr . salty]

I have two fans,,,Both are blowing IN...

 

[nosmada]

i hope im not the only one but, mine are blowing out. i put a slit in my canopy on the oppisite end so i has a current sucking cool air in and sweeping across my lights.does anyone think there is a problem with this or is it just prefrence ?
chris

 

[bigdave]

I personally have mine blowing out as well. As far as I know, it really doesn't matter. If you notice on computers, there are some blowing in, but the biggest one, the one on the powersupply, blows out.

 

[dburr]

Scientificly speaking,
fan blades catch more cool air than warm air because of density of the air.
In=more air and would be better.

 

[chainsaw5vent]

#1 plus. fans to help ventilate the hood. air exchange will help in keeping the temp down. mine is set up blowing into the hood.

 

[acuraman2]

As long as you have a vent for the hot air to leave youll be fine in a perfect world you would have two one blowing and one blowing out.

 

[fishforme]

I had the same question and did this experiment last night. I have two 250W MH lights and turned them on with a glass top on my tank for 15 minutes. I then measured the temperature (using a Raytech Laser Non-Contact Thermometer) of the glass and the plastic hinge using both a fan blowing ambient air into the canopy and sucking air out of the canopy. As it turns out, without the fan, the temperature of the glass/hundges was 174 degrees (the surface of the bulb is 250 degrees), when I turned on the fan and sucked hot air out, the temperature of the hinge/glass was 140 degrees and when I blew the ambient room temperature air into the canopy, the temperature of the hingle/glass was 104 degrees. I'm setting up my tank without the glass top to give me another 3 inches to the water, but I will be blowing the air into the canopy.

 

[nosmada]

well, after that, im going home and change my fan around thanks for that info fishforme
chris
[ December 05, 2001: Message edited by: Nosmada ]

 

[royce]

Fishforme,
that's the peftect controlled experiment - are you, perchance a scientist?

 

[fishforme]

Nope, a Mechanical Engineer. You are correct though -- in a perfectly controlled environement. There would be other factors such as the ambient temperature of the room, the disapation of heat through the water. But the basic prinicple will hold true. The only variable that bothers me is that by blowing air into the canopy, one may introduce airborne contaminants into the water. I'm not sure if that is a big issue or not.

 

[royce]

I can't think that the contaminants blowing into your tank are any worse than those blowing into the ocean, UNLESS, and this is a BIG exception, you are doing any cleaning or spraying in the area. In that case, I would just turn the fans off for a while until things settle down.

 

[johnnysalt]

Hey there Fishforme,
You've just settled a big mystery for lots of us! Thanks.....btw, do you have a website/pics of your tank, etc?!
If so, throw em in your signature for us!

 

[daluminum]

WOW and engineer did that. I figured that was something most technicians would do. But I guess since your a mechanical engineer you are smarter than most engineer's. HAHAHAH... ~Daniel _service "engineer" just F*in with you man.

 

[fishforme]

Believe it or not, my first saltwater tank is still cycling. I'm brand new to this stuff. I think I've done everything right the first time but I'm still learning new stuff everyday. Right now I'm trying to quite the protein skimmer. Thanks so much to everyone though because I've posted about a million questions thus far, and they've all been answered....

 

[wallda]

Way to go! I love it when ME's solve the mysteries of the world. 1.5 years and I will be another dreaded ME!!!!!!

 

[teog]

i have two fans plus three extra air holes on top of the canopy. One fan sucks in the other blows out. This works for me!

 

[von_rahvin]

i have 4 fans blowing in and 4 fans sucking out. they are very effective at cooling the lights, the only bad side effect is i lose 2 gallons of water per day. I custom built my hood and i have it mostly sealed, so i created a wind tunnel accross the lights

 

[jtoliver]

blowing out because I don't like dust buildup falling into my tank.