nanoty Posted March 20, 2007 Author Share Posted March 20, 2007 nice Except my livingroom sounds like an airport Not really, I can hear them but most of the noise is from the blower fan taped to the open feeding door nice huh. Anyways, if this works do you think it is worth messing with another config. and modifying the reflector and all that crap or should I just put it together permanetaly like this and shut the hell up??? Link to comment
Qwank Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Except my livingroom sounds like an airport Not really, I can hear them but most of the noise is from the blower fan taped to the open feeding door nice huh. Anyways, if this works do you think it is worth messing with another config. and modifying the reflector and all that crap or should I just put it together permanetaly like this and shut the hell up??? hey i know where you can put the blower. theres just enough space on either side of the tanks hood right after the feeder door and before the air grilles. the blower should fit there perfectly. as long as you dont mind it sticking out the side of your tank. just put the exhaust holes in the back and you should be all set. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 hey i know where you can put the blower. theres just enough space on either side of the tanks hood right after the feeder door and before the air grilles. the blower should fit there perfectly. as long as you dont mind it sticking out the side of your tank. just put the exhaust holes in the back and you should be all set. Dude I swear to God we are like connected or something, hold on that sounded gay. Anyways, that is exactly where I was thinking about putting it because it has my entertainment center on one side and open on the other. I am going to try and make a slot in the back for it to fit and try it back there to see if it has the same effect. If it does I am going to make a hinge so the fan can flip up when I open the door. If it does not work the same I am going to do the side of the hood like you said. BTW, it's been almost 9 hours and the tank hasn't hit 79 yet. That is less than 1 degree fluctuation. The only thing is the feeding door is open about an inch in the front, I wonder what it will do closed? When I ran without the evap fan and he feeding door open the temps still hit 85+ so I don't think having the door open a little is a big deal. Link to comment
Qwank Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 as long as you have exhuast holes it will do the same thing as having the door open. Link to comment
BSimm Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 as long as you have exhuast holes it will do the same thing as having the door open. Great progress... yeah, what Qwank said... drill some exhaust holes on the side of your hood and that could allow the air to escape easier, adding to the evap cooling...just like you are getting now. Sounds like you've got it closed to perfect. As to whether or not youwant to open up the reflector housing, that is up to you, but we have not hit the harsh summer heat yet...so, maybe you could leave it for a "just in case" scenario. Awesome work... now take some pictures and show us how you did it!!! BSimm Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 Great progress... yeah, what Qwank said... drill some exhaust holes on the side of your hood and that could allow the air to escape easier, adding to the evap cooling...just like you are getting now. Sounds like you've got it closed to perfect. As to whether or not youwant to open up the reflector housing, that is up to you, but we have not hit the harsh summer heat yet...so, maybe you could leave it for a "just in case" scenario. Awesome work... now take some pictures and show us how you did it!!! BSimm When I get the final thingy I will post a pic to show the working hood. 10 hours + today and I'm at 78.4 right now, less than 1 degree fluctuation. I will probably still open up the reflector and blow air across the light to ease the stress on the evap cooling. Perhaps I can turn the fans down a bit then and lessen the noise. Anyways, thanks for the support, how is yours doing? Link to comment
Qwank Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 what do you have the fans set at? suposidly this will all work with them set at 7.5v. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 what do you have the fans set at? suposidly this will all work with them set at 7.5v. They were only running at 6v. I might try 4.5v and see if it still works, at that voltage it's almost imposible to hear them. I do need to pick up a few more VVA's, I don't want all the fans on one if it craps out. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 21, 2007 Author Share Posted March 21, 2007 Ok I talked to artarmon42 and he explained to me that you could mount the fan in the rear and still open the door all the way as well as take it off. I cut a slot in the back and taped the scroll fan on and set them all for 4.5v for noise reduction. The rear fans are still pulling air in, one of the front fans is a scroll fan blowing hot air out and the other front fan is angled slightly as suggested by BSimm and is sucking cool air in and blowing on the reflector. It now about 3 hours in and temps have risen less than 1 degree so far. I am watching it and if it works out I will likely make this configuration permanent tonight. I will also probably put the rear evap cooling scroll fan on its own VVA so if temps start rising due to ambient temps I can adjust it to compensate. I'll sum up the final product when I'm done, although it will likely look a lot like artarmon42's setup. I guess it can't hurt to have one more write up for people to follow along with. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share Posted March 22, 2007 Ok, so I used the fan on the back of the tank today and while the heat was a little higher it didn't seem unmanagable. Highest temp after almost hours was 80.3 up from about 78.8 and it seemed to be leveling off. I only had the fans set on 4.5v for noise reduction and at the end I opened the feeding door about 1/2 a centimeter to simulate the vents I am going to put in the hood. I have taken everything back apart (for the 48th time) and epoxied the fans in place where I want them. I will leave them overnight and finish it up tomorrow and hopefully be "done". I will take pics of the final product and sum up everything if it all works out like I hope it will, then it will be time for some livestock BTW, yes I'm a post whore Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 I'd recommend you look for fans with the highest CFM rating inside the hood. Don't go for "directed" airflow... you'll find that you get much better results with pure brute force. So: Ditch the scroll fan INSIDE the hood. Move lots of air and the heat will find a way out by itself. Find the "thickest" fan that will fit inside (I think I saw BSimm's hood with those ultra-thin fans). If you read the labels, the thicker the fan, the thicker the blade, the more air is moved. You'll know this is better, simply by touching the top of the hood during the MH light cycle, and 10 minutes after the MH has turned off. And remember to keep the fans inside the hood running for a good 30 minutes AFTER the MH has switched off. That's needed to cool the MH reflector and other heat sinks inside the hood... Otherwise it can warp the splashguard and damage the life expectancy of the other components (such as the fans themselves!). The rear scroll fan is for evaporative cooling. You can synch it to the MH light cycle, as you'll only need the cooling power while the MH is on and heating up the water. Link to comment
BSimm Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Great advice Artarmon... I've just received some bigger fans that I'm going to throw in there. I've had to run my fans at 9v or even 12 v to get the movement i need. So, I think, with the larger fans I will be even better off. I too ordered the scroll fan, and will likely be mounting that on the back too. I'll keep you guys up to date with the results. Im out of town now, so it won't be until next week. BSimm Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share Posted March 22, 2007 That is good advice. It seems to me that the "thick" fans I have are quite a bit louder than the thin ones so I was trying to find a happy medium between cooling and noise since the tank is in my living room next to me TV. I have 3 good fans pulling air in, the scroll fan seems more efficient at moving more hot air out (hand test) My hood is super cool, I can put my hand directly over the light on the hood and hardly notice any heat. The glass is where all the heat ends up, I do run my fans for about 45 minutes after the lights go off but I want my evap fan on a different VVA to do just that (turn it off with the lights). I drilled vents in the front of the hood to direct airflow more across the water, it seems efficient since this morning when I turned everything on the tank actually droped 1 degree before the light heated up. I may have to start the evap fan about 30 minutes after the light and turn it off the same time. Anyways, that's where I'm at right now. I love getting advice, especially from those who have done this but I glued all the fans last night. I used a high heat silicon type epoxy (it says for fireplaces and aquarium safe) so it can be easily peeled off if I need to change something. Thanks again to everyone who participated and I will be sure to do a write up after the final test today. Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 That is good advice. It seems to me that the "thick" fans I have are quite a bit louder than the thin ones so I was trying to find a happy medium between cooling and noise since the tank is in my living room next to me TV. Fans create noise primarily based on 2 factors: 1) How much air is being pushed around (the noise is from the air movement) 2) Whether the fan has good bearings (the noise is from the fan mechanism) Generally speaking, if you buy good quality fans (with metal bearings) the noise will come from mostly point 1. So all things being equal, a high CFM fan (running at lower voltage) vs a low CFM fan (running at top voltage), that push the same amount of CFM, will generate the same amount of noise. If you want to lower fan noise, you have to look for specifically low-noise fans. One of the quietest fans I've ever had was the Silverstone: (notice the slots on the outer ring). Of course, that was the quietest fan I found 2+ years ago. I'm sure technology has improved since then, so you should do your own research. Oh, and that fan will definitely not fit inside the NC hood Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 Fans create noise primarily based on 2 factors:1) How much air is being pushed around (the noise is from the air movement) 2) Whether the fan has good bearings (the noise is from the fan mechanism) Generally speaking, if you buy good quality fans (with metal bearings) the noise will come from mostly point 1. So all things being equal, a high CFM fan (running at lower voltage) vs a low CFM fan (running at top voltage), that push the same amount of CFM, will generate the same amount of noise. If you want to lower fan noise, you have to look for specifically low-noise fans. One of the quietest fans I've ever had was the Silverstone: (notice the slots on the outer ring). Of course, that was the quietest fan I found 2+ years ago. I'm sure technology has improved since then, so you should do your own research. Oh, and that fan will definitely not fit inside the NC hood Thanks for the .......uh.......help . Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 Just a quick update because I've been so busy. Temps in the tank have been staying under 81 degrees all day which is lower than with the stock lights. I actually went to the LFS today and got a few of my first corals. Green star polys and a few single mushrooms. One of the mushroom frags has some zoa polyps on it but they haven't open back up yet, $5 for both . Anyways, I will try and get some pics up tomorrow, looks like the retro is all done I will get a final write up for that later, time for some livestock. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 I got (actually my wife because I suck at taking pics) some pics of the couple of frags I got yesterday. I know it's not much but I want to start out slow and not dump $300 in corals in the tank at one time. The MH light is working well (knock, knock) with temp swings less than 2 degrees all day. I am getting used to the fan noise . I threw some chaeto in a suction cup soap dish because I am starting to see some hair algae. I am hoping to get rid of it without introducing more CUC but if it gets out of hand I will be looking for a few emerald crabs or something else to mow it down. Also I caught my 2 blue-leg hermits wrestling with my nassarius snail. I couldn't tell who was winning but when I broke it up the stupid crabs were covered in slime and could barely move. I haven't decided whether to take them back to the LFS or step on them in the driveway jk. I've still got a lot of work to do. I want to add another voltage adapter to the evap fan and build a fuge light for the back so I can move the chaeto. One of the next things on the list is a MJ900 to replace the stock pos pump. Anyways, on to the pics. As always, please leave feedback. I'm getting lonely talking to myself here all the time. If you have any questions or comments I am here to answer or ignore, whichever seems neccesary. Thanks. Two single mushrooms. I will give them a few weeks before I decide if I want to cut them up. Here is a close up of the mushrooms, notice the polyps on the first frag. I saw one open yesterday for a little bit but other than that haven't gotten a good look. Will they be alright, does it just take some adjustment? They did go from pretty low PC to MH lights. Here is a bad shot at my GSPs. They seem to really enjoy the light although some haven't opened up from the move. Last but not least here is a hideous FTS. Everything has been kind of neglected during the retro. As I add to it I will also be cleaning house. Thanks for looking. What do you think for a first timer? Link to comment
MWafler Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Well Nanoty, you posted on my tank so I'll post on yours. Cool Tank! Link to comment
Qwank Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 wow the tank is looking good. the MH looks great. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 26, 2007 Author Share Posted March 26, 2007 Put my xenia in last night and it instantly perked up to the MH light. Playing with the macro settings on my camera but I still suck so be nice. Shroom One more FTS, everything is going to be overrun with hair algae soon Link to comment
BSimm Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Great work! So... what did the final configuration look like? Any pictures? Any details??? I increased the size of my fans... went with 4 fans each the 60mmx25mm as compared to the 60x10. Definitley louder, but I hope to run them at lower voltage. Not sure when I'll get a full day's test in, but I'll let you know. Did you end up going with a scroll fan in back??? BSimm Link to comment
Qwank Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 i'm starting my MH tomorrow. I cant wait. i'll keep you guys posted in another thread. Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Great work! So... what did the final configuration look like? Any pictures? Any details??? I increased the size of my fans... went with 4 fans each the 60mmx25mm as compared to the 60x10. Definitley louder, but I hope to run them at lower voltage. Not sure when I'll get a full day's test in, but I'll let you know. Did you end up going with a scroll fan in back??? BSimm Thanks, the final config isnt any different and yes I did add the rear fan. I don't think it's very efficient as I think most of the air is deflected into the rear chambers. I am sure it helps but I am thinking of a way to direct the airflow to the water surface. I will get pics when I have a chance to take it back off one night. I want to do a final summary for anyone else. The fans run at 6v and they are a little loud but not much more than stock. It's mainly the scroll fans making the noise. Start up temps today were around 79 at about 7:30 this morning, nothing is sorted or timed but when I turned them off about 45 minutes ago (13 hours......about 3 too long) it was just at 81. That is still lower temps than with the stock lights. I was going to start a DIY ATO but since I put the hood on, even with the evap fan, I rarely have to top off so I may just skip it. Next in line is a new pump and linelock splitter or rotating deflector. I am battling a green hair algae problem and am open to suggestions. I did start the tank with dechloronated tap water months ago but have been using distilled water for changes and topoffs sinces I learned better. Other than that, I am going to continue slowly adding corals. I think my next buy is either a torch or frogspawn. My wife is also hitting me up for a some finger leathers. Anyways, thanks for looking and I will continue to keep it updated. BTW I'm downloading a short video I took of my xenia so check back in a little when it's done. i'm starting my MH tomorrow. I cant wait. i'll keep you guys posted in another thread. Is that you Qwank? Link to comment
nanoty Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Here it is, just for kicks. http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o244/go...nt=MVI_1023.flv Edit: Sorry I'm really not post whoring, I though it would add to my last post. Link to comment
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