Hi, not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I’m not crazy about the noise coming out of the light cooling fans on my JBJ 28 gallon CFQuad. Anyone ever mod these to use something quieter or have any ideas?

It has 2 fans now but looks like it has spots for 4 fans (for the HQI version I assume). So my first thought was to add a couple more fans and run them all slower.

Thanks for any insight.

-Will

Fans with FDB or a Fluid Dynamic bearings are much quieter compaired to sleve or ball bearing fans.

OK, so maybe I start with just trying to replace whats there with better fans then. I'll see what I can find.

Thanks
-Will

SilenX makes quiet fans in many sizes. One would prob fit your hood

Yes, please update us on the results. I have a 24 gallon nano cube and am very interested in replacing the fans to a quiter and more efficent set.

So after a few tries I got something that is much quieter.

The stock fan is a 50mm Quickflow fan rated at 8.92 CFM and 25.95dba

My first plan was to find a quieter 50mm replacement, like one with fluid bearing like mentioned in a previous post. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to find anything quieter in that size. I did find one that was rated at 18dba, but it turned out to be every bit as loud as the stock fans when installed.

So I picked up some SilenX 60mm IXP-35-16 18CFM 16dba fans at Fry’s for about $7 each. It turns out that the space where the fan is installed is just bigger than the 50mm fan. So I was able to actually just take the 60mm fan and press it snugly into the same spot. It’s actually a perfect fit and the fan stays put without any fasteners, but isn’t tight enough that it deforms the plastic around it. While it probably doesn’t need it, I added some tape around the edges to keep the fan there.

The fans come with a 3 pin connector and the power supply in the light fixture is a 2 pin. It also comes with an adapter for connect to a computer power supply with 2 wires going to a hard drive style power plug. So I plugged in the 3 pin to 2 pin adapter, cut off the computer connector and soldered it to the connectors from the original fan.

The results are great. While still audible, the fans are no longer the dominant sound in the room. It’s a big improvement of about 5dba real improvement up close and about 7dba less about 10 feet away. In short, it’s a lot quieter.

Temps appear about the same so far. Measured with an IR thermometer around the outside of the light fixture, temps are identical to what they were all over.

Silenx does make some even quieter 60mm fans and I am tempted to see if I can make it even quieter without impacting heat.

An interesting aside, this light fixture has two fans, but is wired for 4 like you would have on an HQI model. So one could conceivably power a small evaporative cooling fan or other device from the fixture, possibly avoiding the need for another device to plug into AC.

-Will