Heaters w/ MH
- Thread starter fishgirl
- Start date
mr . salty
Active Member
The fans dont cool the water, only blow away the heat made by the bulbs.I would/will use a heater during cooler months....STEVE
reptilicus
Member
Fishgirl,
fans actually do cool the water, a great deal in fact, often by 7-8 degrees if you have them working properly. The work by evaporative cooling, much the same way as sweating cools down a person. If your tank gets too hot, put a few fans on and you should contol it fine, maybe a 6" fan at either end of the hood (one to suck air in and one to suck it out) and one over the sump would keep the tank sufficiently cool. However, the only drawback is that you increase evaporation (which, if you dose Kalkwasser like me, is a good thing because it means you can increase calcium levels easily).
I know a guy who lives in SF who has a 55-gallon reef (a very beautiful one at that), with 2x400-watt MH's plus VHO actinic supplement.He has a chiller on his tank which he has never used, because the fans do such a great job of keeping his water temperature right. I've got 400-watt MH's over my tank and I only use fans to cool my tank, no problems.
HTH,
Tom
fans actually do cool the water, a great deal in fact, often by 7-8 degrees if you have them working properly. The work by evaporative cooling, much the same way as sweating cools down a person. If your tank gets too hot, put a few fans on and you should contol it fine, maybe a 6" fan at either end of the hood (one to suck air in and one to suck it out) and one over the sump would keep the tank sufficiently cool. However, the only drawback is that you increase evaporation (which, if you dose Kalkwasser like me, is a good thing because it means you can increase calcium levels easily).
I know a guy who lives in SF who has a 55-gallon reef (a very beautiful one at that), with 2x400-watt MH's plus VHO actinic supplement.He has a chiller on his tank which he has never used, because the fans do such a great job of keeping his water temperature right. I've got 400-watt MH's over my tank and I only use fans to cool my tank, no problems.
HTH,
Tom