Need help mounting Metal Halides

[s0s0sleepy]

Well i just bought 3 metal halide pendants to put inside my canopy. The canopy is 60in long and 24in dept and 24in tall. How would i mount them inside the canopy? Should i attach them to a piece of aluminum to avoid the heat soaking into the wood and possibly causing a fire? as well taking advantage of the aluminum not oxidizing from the saltwater. Or can i just mount it directly onto the wood? Also, are there any ideas on how i can get some ventilation inside the canopy, oppose from the obvious comuputer fans. This is my first time placing these kind of metal halides into a canopy. Any information would be greatly apreciated.

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by s0s0sleepy http:///forum/thread/380122/need-help-mounting-metal-halides#post_3307455
Well i just bought 3 metal halide pendants to put inside my canopy. The canopy is 60in long and 24in dept and 24in tall. How would i mount them inside the canopy? Should i attach them to a piece of aluminum to avoid the heat soaking into the wood and possibly causing a fire? as well taking advantage of the aluminum not oxidizing from the saltwater. Or can i just mount it directly onto the wood? Also, are there any ideas on how i can get some ventilation inside the canopy, oppose from the obvious comuputer fans. This is my first time placing these kind of metal halides into a canopy. Any information would be greatly apreciated.
3 pendants? What wattage are they? I'd say you need to install vents and some type of fans for sure. If they are in pendants you'll probably be ok mounting them to the wood but if you wanted to mount a sheet of aluminum between them and the wood it probably wouldn't be an all bad idea. Can you get us a picture of your lights and the inside of your canopy?
 

 

[s0s0sleepy]

Here are the pictures. I made a mistake, the canopy is about 14inches tall.
 

 

[acrylic51]

Are there any mounting holes on the top side of the reflector housing? There isn't any need to put aluminum between the reflector housing and the wood itself. They will be just fine without it. You could make brackets and attach it to the housing and screw directly into the underside of the canopy as well.

 

[s0s0sleepy]

There are mounting holes on top of the reflectors, but i would have to make some type of bracket to attach to the reflector.

 

[spanko]

The problem I see will be the thickness of the top that opens on the canopy (you may have to bolt completely through) coupled with the arc the lights will travel when opening that top. As for the heat issue you do need to adequately ventalate the canopy or you will heat up the tank. To keep the heat of the reflector from heating the wood you mount it to use a spacer to move the reflector away from the wood a tad and give some room for air to flow between. (Teflon would be my material of choice here) Like this.
 

 

[acrylic51]

I don't see why you couldn't use the spacers Spanko recommended and use the existing mounting holes already in the housing. Have to looks at pulling the housing apart and attaching the housing and the putting it all back together again? It would eliminate any brackets that will eventually corrode???

 

[s0s0sleepy]

I did think about taking it apart and doing it that way, but if i use all alluminum brackets, i think they should be ok. I also came up with a different idea, let me know if this would work. This is looking from the top, cutting 3 square holes, placing one long piece of aluminum over the top of these 3 holes, and then attaching the reflectors from the inside to the rod. I would make the square
hole not too large, but just enough to get the top of the reflector to not make contact with the wood. I would use these holes to let the heat escape. Possibly applying some fans to it. Let me know what you guys think. This is just a rough sketch of it. I really dont have a problem heating up the tank since i have a chiller.

 

[acrylic51]

Quote:Originally Posted by s0s0sleepy http:///forum/thread/380122/need-help-mounting-metal-halides#post_3307996
I did think about taking it apart and doing it that way, but if i use all alluminum brackets, i think they should be ok. I also came up with a different idea, let me know if this would work. This is looking from the top, cutting 3 square holes, placing one long piece of aluminum over the top of these 3 holes, and then attaching the reflectors from the inside to the rod. I would make the square
hole not too large, but just enough to get the top of the reflector to not make contact with the wood. I would use these holes to let the heat escape. Possibly applying some fans to it. Let me know what you guys think. This is just a rough sketch of it. I really dont have a problem heating up the tank since i have a chiller.

That would work fine!!!