Originally Posted by
reefraff
http:///forum/post/2598171
Don't know the particulars of those measurments but my PAR readings were a lot higher than that. Again, make sure you are comparing the Nova numbers with the same lamps as the tek. As far as the Tek vs ATI the ATI had double the output. I actually had to research because I couldn't believe the ATI was that much better and thought it was overdriving the lamps. It wasn't
As far as fans what this guy did was mold the splash shield at one end so it dropped to make a lip. He then mounted a crossflow fan (squirrel cage type about 10" wide as I remember) at the end so the air was pushed in and down the lamps but I believe he dialed the speed in using his PAR meter. You want to be careful with fans, OVERCOOLING THE LAMP WILL HURT THE PERFORMANCE MORE THAN LETTING THEM RUN HOT!!! If I can come across a used 54 watt Tek light I am going to do a refurb (replace the reflector and ballasts) and then come up with a set cooling scheme using available parts, hopefully one of the Azo fan arrays the doctors sells clamps to the rear of the tank. Thought I had a fixture lined up but the deal fell through.
They have those LED fans that can read out temp, one of those would be sweet. If you are using the splash shield you will increase the life of the lamps and ballasts by cooling the thing. The Sunlight Supply rep had said if we could prove the fans would improve the performance they would add a fan. Will not only I proved it so did the other guy and they still didn't add fans. What the german fixtures and the Aquactinics do is cool the lamps and ballasts. Be hard on a Tek because of where the ballasts are mounted.
If you add the fans make sure they are over the area where the ballasts are as far as left to right placement. I don't remember exactly how the Tek reflector mounts but if there is a gap out by the endcaps that would be great. Just a slight amount of airflow near the caps will make the lamps run sweet. If you are running the splash shield I personally would trim the length down so you could center the shield leaving about a half inch gap at each end running fans or not. Just the natural convection effect of the hot air rising would pull cooler air into the fixture.
This was my 20% solution
The little Azo array would look much nicer. Looks like your fixture is too wide front to back to use one of those maybe. It would also have to be raised. I suppose you could mount it right on the fixture. I think I'd rather cut the holes and mount the fans inside the fixture.
The fans with the temp on it are the ones i'm talking about. I do have a fan identical to the one shown and might be able to place it in the rear on the overflow not sure yet.
The lights when on push the splash guard down about ¼ of an inch on both sides when off they go back into place.
I might try it like shown above on the low setting and see how that works..
Right now i'm having a weird issue though with heat in the tank running between 80-82. I dropped the heater into my sump and lowered it but it seems to be staying the same temp I dunno if my heater is crap or what but the lights have been off for 4 hours it stayed the same temp all day so kind of weirding me out a bit on the temp but it is not due to the lights or it would have dropped by now... I might have done something when pulling it out and its a turn
[hr]
to set the temp and may not be actually working now. I might pull it out tomorrow and take the top off and see if I can't get it working right.
The par readings we did showed the ati and tek real close with giesmann bulbs the nova had the regular stock bulbs in it so yea big difference. I know the owner of the lfs ran it with giesmann bulbs and it was tons better but if your gong to do it might as well go with the tek off the bat and add bulbs when he can IMO. with 2 bulbs it would be fine till his next payday I would think. You are right about it being super wide it is the 8 bulb and it overhands the tank a little but it is setup high and I might take it as high as it will go tomorrow as well.
