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Samw
08-26-2003, 04:41 AM
I've been cooling my tank this summer with a clip-on fan blowing slightly at or below my MH pendant. I've been reading that MH bulbs need to be at about 100C - 180C to be efficient. What do you guys think? Do you guys have fans blowing at the bulb?

http://www.tridonicatco.com.au/produkt/BALLASTSHID.ASP

"Metal halide lamps are temperature sensitive and operate optimal at 100°C to 180°C ambient temperature and luminaires should be designed to provide suitable conditions"

StirCrazy
08-26-2003, 04:45 AM
I cool the tank with out blowing air at my MH bulbs. Next year I will have a chiller so i will not be using fans to evaporate water at all.

Steve

Just2Bad
08-26-2003, 03:57 PM
I use fan in the hood that blow the heat out of it and one big fan blowing over my sump for cooling the tank.....

robbyville
08-26-2003, 07:09 PM
Well I'm not too sure about the temps of the bulbs. What I can tell you is that prior to building my canopy I asked asimilar question on RC. I was told by pretty much everyone that the best thing to do was blow air below the bulbs. That the bulbs would be fine but you really want to cool the air below to control heat in the aquarium. I mounted my fans slightly lower that center of the side panel and I have kept my tank at 78deg even throughout the hot summer.

I guess the question comes back to you...Are you asking about this to cool the aquarium or to optimise the life of your bulbs?

Best,

Rob

Samw
08-26-2003, 07:22 PM
I want to keep the tank cool without too much evaporation. I also want as much light coming out of the bulb as possible. So, I'm wondering if having the fan where it is right now has any effect on the light at all. Since the bulb is in an enclosed pendant, maybe it has little or no effect.

Jason McK
08-26-2003, 08:22 PM
I'm not sure if blowing air on the lamps will cool them significanly enough to change the output. But I have two built in fans in the hood. This doesn't cool the tank enough so I added a fan in the sump to blow directly at the water and over the sump. This seems to have helped quite a bit and have not had an over heat problem all summer


J