120 gallon journal - picture Feb 27

[kwirky]

I'm from calgary, and I'd rip out the trickle portion of the sump, and maybe put in a bubble trap, leaving space for a protein skimmer, and a way to hook up a calcium reactor down the road.

I just need to know if the 400 watts would be too hot. I don't want to spend money on 400W bulbs, then find I have to take them out and redo the ballasts and all because it's too hot, and too muggy in the basement. I'd have to check on the electrical. I know when we used the two 800 watt base heaters in the basement, the breaker would go whenever the vacuum or a curling iron was used. not as much draw as the tanks, but I'd like to be safe.

[psuedo]

once you goto a tank of that size you are gonna want to start off with 2 400 watt MH, as anything else you buy you will end up selling to get enough money to buy the MH when you want to upgrade. All the corals that you will eventually want will require these lights, so save yourself the hassle and get the lights.
You might want to get another breaker installed just for your aquarium if power overload is a problem in the basement, as the last thing you will want will be the heater in winter failing and killing all your corals or your tank overheating in summer and killing all th ecorals all because your power to the fans went off.

If you build yourself a self contained hood and install 2- 4inch fans on them this will dissipate most of the heat generated by the lights. Then all you would need to do would be paint the hood the same color as the stand to make your tank look nice.

[Ruth]

400W lights are hot - there is just no way around it. I run 3X400W lights on 2 of my tanks and am always battleing heat. I am going to put a chiller on my 190g next summer as this tank is acrylic and no matter what I do it get's too hot. If you basement is already hot and muggy what you may want to do is to figure out some kind of ventilation or you will probably be dealing with mould at some point in the future.
On my 230g tank that is glass I can control the heat with fans blowing across the sump but it is just not enought on the acrylic tank.

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by Psuedo

If you build yourself a self contained hood and install 2- 4inch fans on them this will dissipate most of the heat generated by the lights.

yeah, I'll try that for the winter coming up and if it's getting too hot in the summer, I'll have cash then to get the chiller.

Originally Posted by Ruth

If you basement is already hot and muggy what you may want to do is to figure out some kind of ventilation or you will probably be dealing with mould at some point in the future.

The basement's not already muggy and hot. I meant when the 120 gallon tank I have was being run with a completely open top, THEN it was muggy in the basement. the basement's actually quite cool and dry normally. I WAS thinking of a way to vent air from the hood straight to the furnace room on the other side of the wall and tapped into the chimney piping. It would be hot air, so it should rise, right? Anyone think this would be a problem?

Originally Posted by Psuedo

You might want to get another breaker installed just for your aquarium if power overload is a problem in the basement

An electrician was by a few months ago to fix some of the "do it yourself" wiring the previous owners did, and installed another breaker. We stopped using the base heaters before then, so I don't know . Maybe I should get out a couple blow dryers, and turn on two irons to test the maximum capacity?

[danny zubot]

I just need to know if the 400 watts would be too hot.

I run a single 400 watt on my 65 gallon tank and it heats up pretty good in the summer, due to ambient room temp. If your basement is cool though, I'd go for it. 2 400 watters should do fine, with fans of course.

I haven't read the whole thread so sorry if this was brought up already. Your nano tank would make a really nice refugium or frag tank, why don't you plumb it in?

[Ruth]

The other thing to consider is that you said you basement was muggy until you covered your tank. The thing with putting the 400W bulbs over your tank is that the covered top is going to contribute further to heat in the tank. I know that I run both my large systems with open tops and as I said still have heat issues in my 190g even with the top open and fans blowing accross both the sump and the tank. I can't even imagine how hot this tank would get if I put the cover on.

[AJ_77]

you'll need some venting in that room, even though it is in the basement - dual 400's can be pretty hot yes, but people have gotten around that problem. I think Brad runs 400 Radiums on m59's, and over a 75 gallon.

you could also suspend the canopy for a bit of help with airflow:



that's 2 - 400W over a 110, with a stand fan on "low" blowing across the tank top. it stayed pretty cool, in the basement.