artarmon42 Posted March 20, 2005 Author Share Posted March 20, 2005 This morning, I took the hood apart and screwed everything down tighter. Pleased to report that the noise level has gone down significantly. I think the culprit was that I had not screwed the scroll fan onto the reflector tight enough. While I was at it, I decided to reconfigure the fans... Basically I now have both the scroll fans in the main lighting chamber exhausting out the side vents. I didn't have a spare low-profile fan, so I reused one of the stock JBJ oones (upper left in photo). Contrary my earlier assumption, it is rated for 12V. However it is clearly not as efficient as the new standard 60mm fan I bought. Judging airflow by putting my hand over it, it's about half the power of the new one I bought. For comparison purposes, the JBJ is at best one-quarter as powerful as a scroll fan. For convenience, because the fans were all going to run around the clock, I wired them all to one adapter. Because there are now 4 fans running connected in series, the adapter setting is now 9V. 45 minutes into this new 2 hour photo period, I notice that both exhausts are running hotter than before (when I had one exhaust), so there is probably less air flowing through than previously. My thermometers are still reporting rock solid temperatures, so I think this setup is sustainable. Link to comment
afiser Posted March 20, 2005 Share Posted March 20, 2005 change the bulb to 20K so you dont have to get any atinics for the tank and could you show a before and after of the STOCK vs. MH afiser Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 20, 2005 Author Share Posted March 20, 2005 That's a great idea! I ordered an AB 70W 20k bulb. Will post pics when I get it in. An update, at about 1.5 hours into the photo period I noticed that the water body temp had gone up (from 79) to 80. So I guess at 9V, it wasn't pushing enough air through the system. Unfortunately I had to go out, so I turned the lights off. When I came back, I up'd the adapter's voltage to the max 12V and started another photo period. I only kept it on for 30 minutes (to make up the full 2 hours), but noticed that the exhaust was relatively cooler now (probably the coolest it has every been). With everything tightly screwed in, there was an insignificant increase in noise. With 4 fans at 12V, the whole system is only slightly noisier than the stock JBJ setup. Link to comment
afiser Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 you should be the next chris Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 21, 2005 Author Share Posted March 21, 2005 You know they say "necessity is the mother of invention"... This project started because I wanted to keep my clam without losing the clean lines of the Nano Cube. If this experiment is of value to others, that's all the better Next project is to figure out how to get an Ice Probe chiller in there. Need to figure out how to do that before summer comes ??? Although with the MH reasonably stable, I'll probably be getting some SPS soon. And the need for a protien skimmer might take priority Link to comment
afiser Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 your skimmer solution right here Link to comment
tMoney Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 Hey artarmon42, I've noticed you want to try to put an ice probe on your cube. That would be great if you could find a way to do that, I have been trying to figure it out too. I have come to the conclusion that it's next near to impossible without cutting a hole in the back (which I'm not about to do), so I'm thinking about buying a Teclima Micro Chiller and adding that into the return pump somehow. I was thinking maybe drilling 2 small holes in the back of the hood then pumping the water out into the chiller with the filter pump (MJ606), then the chilled water comes in through the back of the hood then out the return nozzle into the display portion of the tank. If you find a way to attach an iceprobe that would be really helpful. Goodluck! -T Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 21, 2005 Author Share Posted March 21, 2005 No, I menat a protien skimmer (not surface skimmer). The kind that takes nutrients out of the water column. I had a skimmer on my 16Bow. Once you've seen the crap that thing pulls out of the water :x , you'll have a whole new appreciation of the value of a skimmer. Also, you might have noticed that my tank is bare bottom (black starboard). The crap that I vacuum up every week is crazy! Once you've seen the crap (literally and figuratively 8) ), you'll never be able to look at live sand in the same way ever again. Yes, this hobby has scared me horribly Link to comment
afiser Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 why cant they make chillers that look like heaters are Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 21, 2005 Author Share Posted March 21, 2005 tMoney, Yup, it'll be easy to introduce a skimmer and chiller if I run water out of the Nano Cube to an external sump. But that's cheating, because I want to do it all within the Nano Cube. I have ordered the Ice Probe which is on it's way to me. When I get it, I'll see what's possible. Besides "necessity", having already spent the money is another incentive for inventing things :*( So far, the biggest problem seems to be the whacking huge heat sink and fan at the top of the Ice Probe. Doubt if it would fit in the back chambers, and even if it did there would be no place to exhaust the hot air out of the tank. So far, I'm wondering if it's possible to break the Ice Probe into two, connected by a good thermal conductor (large gauge copper wire?) out to the heatsink/fan. The option might be the use the thermal conductor to channel the heat to the main lighting chamber reflector and let my scroll fans take care of dissipating the heat. A wire/cable would be best because it'd be flexible and may alleviate the need to drill the hood. I suspect that the heat may not conduct very far... that's where the experimentation would come in. Like I said, got some ideas Would love input from others... Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 21, 2005 Author Share Posted March 21, 2005 Just a quick update on Day 4. This morning I found that the JBJ stock fan had stopped working sometime overnight (but the others were still running). The connections all look good, so I guess the fan's electronics just died. I think the lessons here are: 1) Wire things up sequentially, so one failure won't take out everything. 2) Maybe the stock JBJ fans are in fact not rated for 12V. Looks like I'll have to go to Fry's and pick up another 60mm fan. Might get a scroll fan if they have anymore in stock. Link to comment
ClarkiiClown Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 And god said let there be light..... WOW that will be nice! Link to comment
mdt178 Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 I'd advice you to wire your fans into 2 adapters. You don't want the MH cooking your hood if your fans go out together because a failed adapter. When I fitted the aquabuys 70W kit on my 24 cube, I had a total of 9 small fans installed, including the stock ones. But I found that I only needed 5 of them to deal with the heat. I had the fans synchronizing with the stock PCs for 14 hrs and the MH 11 hours in between. But I also found out the hard way about warping, just as you did. So I cut out a small area underneath the UV glass. Haven't seen any sign of warping since. Link to comment
bbb1080 Posted March 21, 2005 Share Posted March 21, 2005 as far as anybody that wants to retro in a 70 watt halide, ebay has a good kit for under 100$ for the cube. also i just found iceprobe chillers for the nano-cube as well. Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 22, 2005 Author Share Posted March 22, 2005 mdt178: Do you have pictures of how you managed to fit 9 fans into the hood? I know it's a 24, but 9?! The dual adapters is a good idea. Redundancy would be key. Might do another re-wire over the weekend (just put the hood back after replacing that failed fan with another scroll fan). Link to comment
kappa Posted March 22, 2005 Share Posted March 22, 2005 I think I see one gfci on your electronics power stripe photo. Maybe you need another one on the other power strip, but one is good. Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 22, 2005 Author Share Posted March 22, 2005 Seeing the previous picture wasn't blurred, here's a better one of the scroll fan that I bought yesterday. While poking around at Fry's, I also picked up a faster RPM standard 60mm fan to replace the other low profile one I had. While replacing that bad fan, I decided to replace both fans in the back. I put the new scroll fan in the original spot (blowing air into the main chamber). I put the faster standard fan over the other air in-vent. Because the new fan is "thicker", my fuge light didn't fit (too high for splashguard to be screwed on). So I put the fuge light on top of the scroll fan and trust that there's enough circulation all through the hood to avoid any excessive heat. Contrary to popular opinion, even a 7W PC puts out enough heat to burn your fingers (if you touch it) and thus more than enough to melt some wire insulation (and exposed wire is never good ??? ). Here's a full tank shot from this morning. You'll notice that both clowns are now freely swimming. The color is a little yellow, but it's pretty close to reality. I hope it colors up over time (a little too yellow for my tastes) but the 20k bulb should be coming soon. Since putting in the MH, I've had pretty good growth with my GSP. The patch is perhaps 25% larger, and definitely all the heasds are fully extended now. Hope it doesn't overrun my tank My frogspawn is still looking bad. Is it (the right head) a goner? My coralline does not seem to be receding. In fact, the closest bits to the MH (my Hydor) seems to be accelerating (double'd in area in the past 4 days with it's minimized photo period). As it looks like the tank is adjusting well to the MH (plus my desire to burn in the bulb so that I can see the true color), today's photo period will be 4 hours. Link to comment
embryoguy Posted March 22, 2005 Share Posted March 22, 2005 artaman, great work . thanks for your idea with the fuge light. i went out and bought an aqua vase kit and took it apart. im using it for my 6 gallon nanocube. to help you with the risk of burning the wires from the bulb, i kept the reflector and cut it to fit into the compartment. this of course will also push more light onto the refugium area. keep up the great work. thanks again for your advice! Link to comment
mdt178 Posted March 22, 2005 Share Posted March 22, 2005 Originally posted by artarmon42 mdt178: Do you have pictures of how you managed to fit 9 fans into the hood? I know it's a 24, but 9?! The dual adapters is a good idea. Redundancy would be key. Might do another re-wire over the weekend (just put the hood back after replacing that failed fan with another scroll fan). Bad pic below. There are 2 HD heat sinks, each has 2 fans. And I put in 3 more small (40mm) fans behind the stock PCs, they're not seen very clearly in the pic. My goal was to spread smaller fans. Together with the stock fans, that's a total of 9. Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 23, 2005 Author Share Posted March 23, 2005 Yesterday, when I wired up the new fan configuration, I forgot to mention that I had wired everything to a new variable voltage adapter. The previous adapter was rated at 500ma and was running hot so I upgraded to an 800ma one. When I left for work (after this morning's post) I felt the heat coming out of the side vents and it seemed like the right temperature. I didn't open the hood to look at the splashguard. When I came home tonight, I found that the splashguard had melted further . The splashguard is still in tact, but the area of distortion had extended to about 4 inches and the bump is now much more pronounced. I'll take a picture and post later. Turns out that when I was playing around with the new adapter, I had left the setting at 5V. I have now up'd it to 9V, which should hopefully avoid further warping (assuming the structural integrity is still there). Link to comment
Ed-N Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 artarmon42, Sorry to chime in late, but I once put a 70W in a 16 inch AGA canopy over a 7G Minibow. That made me nervous about meltdown. Anyways... Perhaps if the splashguard is warped enough that you wouldn't mind a little more DIY, could you consider dremeling out a square section of the splashguard perhaps an inch or so from the edge and replace it with glass from a cheap picture frame (you don't need a UV shield since you have it already) and superglue/silicone it in? Ed Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 23, 2005 Author Share Posted March 23, 2005 Unfortunately I get alot of condensation on the splashguard. I'm worried that cutting it will result in moisture/water inside the splashguard and screwing with the wires. I'm going to call JBJ tomorrow and see if I can buy a new splashguard... Link to comment
afiser Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 did you talk to chris im sure he could get you one with quick shipping to Link to comment
ccjung Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Let me know, maybe i can send it with your T5s. Chris Link to comment
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