canopy cooling help

TNTREEF

New member
I have an AGA 120 canopy with two 250 watt reefstars mounted in side with 216 watts of t-5(4 bulbs). The back is open with two 4" fans blowing in. The house temp is 73F and the tank reaches 82+. I don't want to run my chiller if I don't have to. So do you think I should cut holes in the sides and make it a flow through or what. Any suggestions will help .

Thanks,
 
When directing the fans, make the most use out of blowing the water across the longest surface axis (left to right) with not only to help with evaporative cooling, but pushing out the heat. Though your current design may be unobtrusive, it may not be as effective as a cross cooled design.
Think of it like a power head, if you hit the wall, some velocity is lost.....you want to not only be using evaporative cooling, but pulling in cool air while pushing out the hot. If you can get rid of the heat before it sinks into the low energy resevior (water), then your job is half done.

If you have a sump, double up there with the fans.....remember the water is what is hot and that is throughout the entire system, lowering it in another, possibly more efficent area of the tank, is just as effective if not greater.

Try running your lights during the day when the house is the coolest and shortening the time your lights are on if that is possible, this way you have more of a low temp resevior that can absorb the heat from the lights. (run them in the morning or late at night, avoiding the mid day when it is warmest or in the early evening while cooking)

If you can, increase the surface area of the water exposed to the air, but that would take a sump redesign and isn't the easiest.

If you are using your chiller, make sure the flow is matched for the system.....Even though my chiller is rated for my tank, I try not to forget cleaning the pump to ensure the proper flow.

If you can, raise your canopy an inch or so when you aren't trying to show it off and make the tank look presentable.....sometimes function wins out over form......

Use frozen bottles of ice to pull out the energy of the water.

How many pumps are you running? Are they all needed, can you set your controller if you have one to shut down a few pumps at a certain temp? I just bought a Vortech and by removing 2 Seios lowered my temp by 1 degree F, but $400 buys a lot of chiller run time.

Are you trying to keep it too cool in the first place? It has been shown that the reefs in the summertime, when the corals grow the fastest the temperature can be upwards of 81. Personally, I don't like to push that due to the accuracy of hardware and not giving one some "buffer" for clamity, but if you are confident of your temp readings, there should be no reason not to approach that number.

If your dead set against buying or using a chiller, I suppose one could load an icechest (large one) full of ice and run a lot of vinyl hose coiled through it. This trick is used in drag racing as a "cool can" to chill the fuel entering the carburator to make the charge denser and avoid vapor locking. The increased volume in addition to the ice chest full of ice could be quite effective and last a decient amount of time.
 
Last edited:
I would experiment with different ways before cutting, sometimes there is just too much heat for the little CPU fans to disapate and even though a cross flow design may be better, the results may be negligable and it will be all for not. The reason my sump looks like a 3rd grader put it together and my wiring is a mess, is that I mock everything up and play with it, before commiting to it. I hate being locked into a design because I didn't realize something at the time.

You could consider something like this:

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/fan_tray.html

or

something like the Geismann clip on gang fans in 3x or 5x

Design and mock up twice, cut once I guess one could say
 
i have 2 in the rear like you and two in each side. working great for me; however, i have 442 w total (250w MH).
 
the fans I have are 60cfm coralife fans. they blow pretty good. I'm going to seal the back also to make it a true flow thru.
 
I actually made my canopy with only three sides so that the back is completely exposed and the fan that I have pushes out the air from there. My tank stays pretty much at 78 degrees at all times. I'm running a 400W MH
 
Don't fill the back, that would be counter productive.

Compared to glass, air is the lesser insulator. By blowing across the longer axis you are increasing the productivity of the higher velocity air across a greater surface area and increasing the efficiency of evaporative cooling at the same time pushing out the hot air and pulling in cooler air. The main point is to get the hot air out. By having the fans in the back pointing them forward the air bounces off the canopy and swirls around loosing its velocity. Which is why I brought up the Powerheads.

Try this: Pretend the current is air flow, and imagine your tank is the canopy area and the water represents the air that you can now see. Mount a powerhead on the back and point it towards the glass, watch the velocity of the water slow down as it hits the glass. Now point it across the tank and watch the velocity. While doing this watch a particle in the water, notice the particle (which represents our heat we want to evacuate), watch how it swirls in the same location, whereas when it is across we actually displace the heat from one place to another.

There is a whole lot more going on thermodynamically than this, but it kinda illustrates that we are trying to "displace" the heat before it finds its way into the water, as well as cool the tank through evaporative cooling which is more effecient in that direction.

But again, I stress.......moving your fans isn't going to lower your temp 2 degrees, your temp is caused by a number of factors. Just like limiting algae by limiting its source as well as its removal is what will lead you to the best results.

In other words, moving them most likely will be more effecient, how much may be negligible and you need to way the pros and cons of form and function, while trying other avenues before cutting up your canopy.

FWIW, I hate canopy for this reason and as well make access to the tank a PITA, especially on tall stands.

Look into your pumps, I have had older pumps heating up the water like mad.......there is more to it than just the canopy, glass isn't that insulating after all.
 
when the lights go out tank drops to 78f. when the halides have been on the tank rises to 82+. they are 7in from the water. therefore my assumption is on the canopy.
 
Troy- That is the problem I have with my AGA canopy as well. I have one fan in my canopy and one in my sump area. I am pushing 80.5 during this time of year. My chiller comes on at 81.

I leave my front flipped open during the peak of the day. I am sure a 2nd fan would help. I do plan on having 2 fans in my new canopy.
 
Back
Top