Canopy Ventilation

[Aquattro]

My canopy is fully enclosed and essentially an oven sitting on top of the tank. Before I add fans as I usually do, I thought I'd see if anyone else was doing anything different, or what type of fan config you've found successful. I'm trying to minimize chiller use, and would like to even remove it if possible.
So how are you cooling your canopy enclosed tank? I'm running 3 x 400w, so need lots of cooling :)

[Skimmerking]

Brad why not have the fan suck in Air and vent it outside.

[Aquattro]

Brad why not have the fan suck in Air and vent it outside.

Not close enough to a wall to vent outside without severely annoying the GF.
Ideas I had were a grill on toop for heat to rise up through, fans on each side, pushing and/or pulling. Fans on sump can be used as well, although I have some Zoomed 4 fan block on there now, and I might as well blow on the sump when I walk by...

[Dez]

I couldn't vent it directly outside so I have it
Vented to my sump pump room in the basement which is controlled by a dehumidistat. This might not be possible for you. With fans, you are pumping more humidity into the house.

[Aquattro]

Dez, your build gave me the idea of using fans only. Is your tank top fully enclosed?
I don't mind the extra humidity, my daughter has airway issues and needs extra moisture in the air (I've built a Biocube in her room just for that :))

Do you use fans on sump and tank, or just one place? I suppose I could vent the stand outside along the floor if I had to, but not sure it's an issue. My house is pretty old, so it will likely fall down long before the moisture gets it -lol

Also, what fans do you use?

[Lance]

When I used to have the canopy on the tank I had a fan at one end of the canopy blowing on the length of the water surface and a fan on the other end of the canopy (at the back) sucking the air out. Worked well. Also kept a fan blowing on the sump as well.

[lastlight]

Oh Des I thought you were pushing that air outside. Any reason you don't have another fan in the sump room that then pushes all that air outside? With the dehumidifier I'd have thought the sump room would get crazy hot. Do you at least vent the hot air from the unit outside?

I was planning to copy you but it seems I didn't fully understand what you were doing.

[Dez]

Dez, your build gave me the idea of using fans only. Is your tank top fully enclosed?
I don't mind the extra humidity, my daughter has airway issues and needs extra moisture in the air (I've built a Biocube in her room just for that :))

Do you use fans on sump and tank, or just one place? I suppose I could vent the stand outside along the floor if I had to, but not sure it's an issue. My house is pretty old, so it will likely fall down long before the moisture gets it -lol

Also, what fans do you use?

Hey Brad,

My Canopy is quite airtight except for one fan drawing air from the office into the canopy. Then I have a 4" dryer vent pipe going from the other side of the canopy all the way into the basement, at the basement end there is an inline fan on that dryer vent sucking air into the basement. I have a bathroom fan hooked to a dehumidistat to vent the humid air directly outside. Then fans only on the sump in that same room in the basement. With my last house, the humidity rotted the house away, this is why I made my canopy air tight. Hope this helps.

[lastlight]

Oh I got it. dehumidistat not dehumidifier. So I did understand!

How are you allowing makeup air to enter the house Des? I'm concerned about that negative pressure and the furnace etc. I was going to run another 4" duct from the same window that is essentially just an open pipe leading into the fish room.

Also where should inlet air and outlet be positioned? I think humid air sinks so shouldn't the new air vent be up top and the outlet on the bathroom fan be near the floor?

[Aquattro]

Dez, how many degrees will your fans pull? Right now, without fans or venting in the canopy, I can raise the temp from 77 to 84 in less than 6 hours. I'm wondering if fans will lower that enough without the chiller...

[Dez]

Oh I got it. dehumidistat not dehumidifier. So I did understand!

How are you allowing makeup air to enter the house Des? I'm concerned about that negative pressure and the furnace etc. I was going to run another 4" duct from the same window that is essentially just an open pipe leading into the fish room.

Also where should inlet air and outlet be positioned? I think humid air sinks so shouldn't the new air vent be up top and the outlet on the bathroom fan be near the floor?

Hey Brett, I never thought about make up air....does it wreck my furnace? I guess my house is a big vacuum then. I guess I could run another 4" duct, but then rodents will get into my house....wouldn't want that.

As long as I don't die as a result of negative air pressure I guess I'm okay...it's been a little over a year like that. I think normal bathroom fans in houses are hooked to the furnace fan to have it kick on when the bathroom fan is on I think.

[Dez]

Dez, how many degrees will your fans pull? Right now, without fans or venting in the canopy, I can raise the temp from 77 to 84 in less than 6 hours. I'm wondering if fans will lower that enough without the chiller...

In the winter my temp stays within a degree morning to night, in the summer I have a variant from 79.5 - 82 with just fans. I've never checked without fans but I'm sure it'd be at the 86 degree mark with 428 watts of T5's and 750 watts of halides in a tight canopy. So I'd say the fans are gold.

[lastlight]

Des the negative pressure somehow affects your furnace and the risk is related to carbon monoxide poisoning I believe. From what I've read it's quite serious which is why high cfm fans for microwaves etc require hrv installed. I guess the hrv allows extra fresh air into the house. The one for our furnaces must only be rated for whatever the furnace is capable of pushing.

My condo is old and there are air leaks all over. Might be more of an issue for you.

At least swap your detector in the basement for a dual fire/carbon monoxide one. We just put one in.

As for rodents I'm going to just put a really fine metal mesh at the mouth of the intake. Both ducts will have to be retro fitted to my window somehow.

[PoonTang]

Brad I think if i were going to have a hood with fans on it and over a 6 foot tank i would go with 1 on each end blowing inwards across the water and then 3 or 4 on the top blowing outwards to vent the hot humid air (assuming you cant run ducts). You could incorporate them into a controller as i do or just run them during the day on a timer with the lights or whatever.

[2pts]

I have a 3' square tank with canopy. I run 2 150w mh, 2 double strip T5's.

I struggled with my temp for a bit.

Out of the top I cut a 20" by 10" rectangle, covered it with that black gutter guard mesh. I also cut in a 4" square fan which blows air up and out of the canopy, it runs 24hrs although now I'm thinking I should turn it off at night.

I have 2 - 6" clip on plastic blade fans mounted inside the canopy, 1 directed at the water surface. They are timed to come on when my 1st T5 comes on, and off when my last light turns off.

I recently accidently turned off the square fan for 2 days, my temp went upto 82 degrees.

Otherwise my temp drops to 77.1 at night, and maxxes out at 78.6 in the afternoon.

[Aquattro]

I think the upward vents are a good idea, although not sure if I need to fan air out, or let convection carry the heat. At least 2 in the sides to blow across, and I'm trying to figure out venting.
I've been looking everywhere for some small clip on fans, but it's not fan season around here I guess. Hydroponics shop had one, but almost 50 bucks.
I'm really close to a Profilux to manage all this stuff now, and I hope to run without a chiller as it's pretty loud. Volume on the TV is way up with that thing running, and I'll be more popular around the house without it.

[ElGuappo]

i run a cpu cooling system... full pics in my bowfront build... 4 12cm fans at 12000 rpm and a controller to tell me the air temp...two fans blow inward at the bottom of the canopy and 2 blowing out at the top... i am running 2x 250 in an enclosed canopy... between that and the clip on fran in the sump my heater comes on in the summer it does such a good job cooling...

alos got a great little clip on fan at wally world for 10 bucks...
better pics in my threadhttp://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq145/ElGuappo78/Multifancontroler.jpg

[Lampshade]

+1 on the CPU fans, get a 12V adapter and get a 6" CPU fan. Works great, lots of air movement, low noise, and best of all, cheap. If you're venting outside try a used building material place for an old bathroom fan and get a wall mount dehumidistat. I've been looking at doing this because if i have my fishroom window closed for a few days i get condensation on all windows in my house, and having the window open on some of these cold nights is probably costing a lot.