Dehumidifier or exhaust fan?

[steve the plumb]

Its a wise idea to buy some kind of controller for the temp.I never had noe but I am thinking of getting one for lights,temp,ph,maybe ozone.You are better off planning then buying than building and finding out later that you need a chiller or timers or whatever.Ivesting thousands in your system and having it crash like mine did(kalk disaster) isn't the best way to go.If you want them to be 24 inches high you may want to go with 400 watts.Its the bulbs that give off the heat.You can burn your hand if you touch them.You can feel the heat they give off.Its a good idea to have fans in a canopy.You may want to try the new led lights but they are very expensive.

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah Joe, I am not sure. Obviously we don't have quite the level of heat. I had to disable my humidistat on my exhaust fan because it was cycling on and off all night. The reason is that it would come on to clear out the room, but the incoming make-up air was high in humidity too. It was driving me nuts. So now I just control the exhaust based on room temp.

 

[JCTewks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9413307#post9413307 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by steve the plumb
Its a wise idea to buy some kind of controller for the temp.I never had noe but I am thinking of getting one for lights,temp,ph,maybe ozone.You are better off planning then buying than building and finding out later that you need a chiller or timers or whatever.Ivesting thousands in your system and having it crash like mine did(kalk disaster) isn't the best way to go.If you want them to be 24 inches high you may want to go with 400 watts.Its the bulbs that give off the heat.You can burn your hand if you touch them.You can feel the heat they give off.Its a good idea to have fans in a canopy.You may want to try the new led lights but they are very expensive.

I def don't have the cash for LED's. I was thinking that 400 watt or even 1000 watt would be better for the raceway. so you are saying that at 24"from the surface, they aren't going to contribute directly to the temp of the water??

Jeff

 

[steve the plumb]

I had them 8 to 10 inches at the top of the water you could feel some heat but not alot of heat.at 24 inches you are giving yourself a good amount of distance from the top of the tank.You will have enough room to get a nice air flow across the tank plus with some kind of exaust fan you can pull the heat out away from the tank.The overall problem will be removing humidity from the room to keep the room cool enough to control the heat.Keep the ballast away from the canopy aswell they do get warm.Mine had fans in them.I never used 400 watt lights so I don't know how hot they get but 2 feet above the tank gives you room to play plus you should get a good spread of light.I don't know if you want to buy a track.I have seen some people here buy them from e bay.You could use less lights this way.Cheaper for you in the long run.The track is $100.Plus you could get away with 2 mh lights instead of 3 to 5 lights.If you do a search in reef central you should be able to see what the track looks like.Its not a bad investment.I can't remember wich thread I have seen them on but I know I have seen them on several differant threads.You can maybe post a question on this forum or the equipement forum.

 

[JB NY]

I would recommend if you are going to put 400 watt MH 24" above a tank you reconsider using a different lighting scheme. You loose so much intensity by putting them that high. You could get much more light with way less heat and electricity by using T5 and going closer to the water.

 

[jnarowe]

Jeff,

IMO, 24" off the water will require 1000W MH lamps and a tight reflector. I use three 1000W MH 20K Ushio lamps to light my 8' x 5' display, but they are only about 12" off the water. Tank depth is 35".

I also have movers on the two end lamps that move them front to back. The middle lamp is in a dish. The advantages I get are better PAR at a deeper depth, and less overall wattage for a tank this size. I DO NOT use any other lighting for the day period. And the corals seem to love these lamps!

 

[steve the plumb]

20 k ushio are the best lamp.There are others I have seen that use only 20 k 400 watts( ususally placed 8-12 inches above tank) and they have great succses

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah and the tank does NOT look too blue, which I was worried about. It's now time to start swapping them out and I need to get another ballast runing so I can burn them prior to putting them over the display.

 

[steve the plumb]

Only problem with 20 k is they lose there par faster.Its good to get a par meter to know when to switch them out

 

[JCTewks]

Thanks for all of the great info guys!! the tank I am wanting to put lights high above is a propagating raceway that will only be about 14" deep, 14 feet long and 3 feet wide. Also in that room will be an 9'x3'x3' sump with a 3.5' cryptic fuge, a 3.5' algea fuge, and 2' for pump return. the room is 16'x10' with concrete ceiling and floors with block walls. there are windows but they are glass block, they do have little vents in them. I was wondering if the vents would be enough to keep the humidity down? they are about 4"x14" and there are 4 of them. I am jus trying to come up with the best and most cost effective(initial cost and cost of operation) way to manage temp and humidity. I would like to not have to run chillers in the summer. do you all think that if I am running sealed tops and Halides in the displays( 1- 400 gal and 1 - 150 gal)on the first floor, that I could manage the heat in the room described above that is in the basement? (the tanks will all be tied together, sharing common everything. I am hoping to not get excess Humidity in the living areas by keeping those tanks covered. thanks again for everyones help so far.

Jeff

 

[jnarowe]

I would guess that if you were using the vents to resupply air into the room, they would be big enough. Just passive maybe not.

 

[JCTewks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9423090#post9423090 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
I would guess that if you were using the vents to resupply air into the room, they would be big enough. Just passive maybe not.

Do you think that with an exhaust fan and those vents, i might be able to get by without a dehumidifier??

Jeff