Ed-N Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 I've been talking alot with people at minibow.com and I duplicated Trevor7's 70W MH setup in my stock AGA minibow7 hood. 10W/gallon! No limitations for livestock now. Many thanks to Trevor7 and c_k_kuehne for their input. I have the aromat ballast, the Ushio bulb and the hellolights sockets. It's shielded by the All-Glass (read: glass) plate from the tank. I also lined the hood with reflective aluminum foil tape. There are two 60 mm fans from Radioshack, one on each side. One is pushing and one is pulling. These are the biggest I could fit nicely on the hood. Everything still looks very clean and stock. I don't like ghetto, sorry. THE BIG QUESTION: HEAT? The front, sides, and top of the hood are not warm at all. The bottom of the back of the hood is a little warm. (Much cooler than the plastic on my coffee maker every morning.) When I take the hood off, the glass is hot. Not scorching, but hot. The plastic rim around the glass toward the back is also hot, but I don't think anywhere close to warping or melting temps. It's funny, the ballast temperature is much hotter than any of the outside of the hood. The fan is blowing out slightly warm air, so I think it's doing a good job. Each fan has its own power supply in case of failure. The color of the Ushio bulb is a very nice bright white, not yellow at all. I don't miss the blue of actinics as much as I thought I would, but I'm still contemplating getting a 20K bulb. I'm still gonna hang around the house when it's on. When I'm gone, the PCs are going back on. I'll post some pics as soon as I get the time. Ed Link to comment
ngericke Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Where exactly did you get all of the components to build this? I looked at hellolights but I thought they were kind of high Link to comment
Ed-N Posted November 4, 2003 Author Share Posted November 4, 2003 Yeah, the light and sockets were from hellolights. Not particularly cheap. The ballast was $55 from ebay. Still beats most 150W setups. Ed Link to comment
AbSoluTc Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Im sorry to say this, but that is a fire hazard waiting to happen. There is not enough room in the stock AGA strip light to allow proper height or nominal circulation. Reflective tape burns just as good as most paper materials given enough time. I hope you don't have any problems, but you should think about making a few changes down the line. Link to comment
Ed-N Posted November 4, 2003 Author Share Posted November 4, 2003 AbSoluTc, You know, I somewhat agree with you. I talked a lot with Trevor7 about this. I was concerned about the heat. I'm watching it very carefully. I still have my back up plan of putting the 70W in a regent fixture. But so far, there has been no problem at all. I think the key is the long and very open circulation with the 60mm fans x 2. I appreciate your input. Ed Link to comment
trevor7 Posted November 5, 2003 Share Posted November 5, 2003 I guess I was the one that started the 70W MH in the stock minibow hood thread. Check it out here for pictures, etc. http://www.oc-creative.com/reef/forum/foru...sp?TID=388&PN=1 My setup has been up for about 4 weeks now. No heat issues at all with the two fans. One blows air in at one end and the other blows out of the other. Since the hood is so low and long things stay cools since there's no air hanging out in there. The reflective duct tape doesn't get hot at all... not even warm really. The only thing that gets hot is the glass directly under the bulb. Link to comment
movingshadow Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 have you thought of using LEDs for blue spectrum in your tank? IMO they would be relatively easy to install and depending on the light emittance (usually between 420nm-480nm depending on the type) they would achieve an effect similar to actinics. Since true actinic light peak at 420nm, a set of 2-4 LEDs ranging from 420nm to 470nm (standard blue LED) would do the job pretty well - if they are bright enough. But considering the luminous intensity of new LEDs and that looking into an LED over 3000mcd can permanently damage eysight, that shouldn't be a problem... I just found some on ebay in germany in a metal case and reflector Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 I think that would blind my fish..... Link to comment
Ed-N Posted November 7, 2003 Author Share Posted November 7, 2003 Yeah, We thought about the LED ideas: http://www.oc-creative.com/reef/forum/foru...?TID=388&KW=70W Ed Link to comment
adinsxq Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 usually not a good idea to have cool air blowing on a mh tube. natural dissipation of heat better for uniform of glass temp, light output, and overall longevity of the DE. also, though i'm not familiar of the long term effects of high heat on the plastic (i'm assuming it's ABS); just keep an eye out for discoloration, noxious fumes... things like that. Link to comment
Ed-N Posted November 7, 2003 Author Share Posted November 7, 2003 adinsxq, Yeah, I know about the direct cooling drawbacks with MH. I think I'm gonna just have to eat that one. Ed Link to comment
movingshadow Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 The LEDs wouldn't blind the fish if you install them horizontally instead of shining straight down -but then again I don't have fish in my tank at the moment anyway And if you limit the output you can achieve some nice lighting effects... mine came in the mail today... Link to comment
Ed-N Posted February 4, 2004 Author Share Posted February 4, 2004 On the 70W MH everything is going great. No problems with heat. The clam is loving it! Ed Link to comment
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