MH Lighting Follow up

[iaJim]

You might have read my post about getting new MH lights. Here's how I ended up.

I ended up with two Lumen Max reflectors, two Blue Line ballasts, and two XM 400 watt bulbs. The tank is just beautiful. I don't know why I didn't start with that from the beginning. What a lot of money I've wasted in the years of finding the right VHOs and PCs.

Thanks JJ for all of the help. The two fixtures mounted inside my hood with no problem. I put in an additional mounting board and put in some hooks and I was in business. VERY happy with the result.

 

[phishcrazee]

No pictures?!

 

[iaJim]

Hmmmm. Remember, it's a tank that has not had MH light. Give me a couple of days and then I'll post. I think I want to get rid of some live rock and get a more open look.

 

[iaJim]

OK, what the heck. Here's a picture. I have lots of things to change now that I have light! The tank is MUCH lighter than this picture would indicate. The dark holes are caves. Lots of caves.

 

[Double-J]

Looks great!

 

[brtfreud]

Are those mushrooms stuck to the back of the tank?

Looks good. You know need to hit JJ up for some deals on rare sps.

 

[iaJim]

Yup, big hairy mushrooms. They migrated there, and actually, are sort of interesting there.

 

[iaJim]

Oh oh, now my tank temp is running at 83. It would appear that my chiller either isn't able to keep up, or just isn't working. It's running and putting off a lot of heat, so I don't know what's up there. I did turn it down, but don't want to get it so cold that it will be making it cold after the lights go out. I'm going to rig a fan tomorrow. It did get warm in the house today with the sun, but that shouldn't make a HUGE difference, should it? The hood is closed on three sides but completely open on the back. The chiller was sitting a little close to the edge of a cabinet, but the cabinet has an air filter on the side, so it is mostly open. I had initially thought that I could close the doors on the cabinet the chiller's in, but I quickly realized that was never going to happen. SO, I'm now worried about the temp. Yesterday it didn't get this warm, and my leathers were happy. Today they are closed up tight.

 

[slovan]

You should have a controller running your chiller. If you don't, you might want to invest in one. What size and brand of chiller do you have? What's the ambient air temperature in the room?

If your chiller is undersized and cannot keep up, you might try running a fan over your sump and in your canopy. I have also seen others house chillers outside. There's a lot of solutions to your problem.

 

[iaJim]

I just took the back off of the chiller to check the coils. They were a little dusty, but not horrible. What worries me is that the coils on the back of the chiller, the side the air is being brought in through were hot. Is this right? I wonder if it is heating the water rather than chilling it. It is a Universal Marine chiller. I've had it for at least 15 years. Anyone know if this is the way is should be working? Lights are off, and the aquarium is down in temp now. Crap! Do I need a new chiller? Can these be recharged?

 

[cagri]

How far off the water are your new lights jim??? My chiller was able to keep up with my 2 250watt halides 6 inches off the water surface but you got 400 watts, there isa big difference in heat output, if possible I would try to at least blow some air over those bulbs to push hot air out of the canopy.

 

[iaJim]

They are almost 6 inches off the water. When I put in the new mounting board, I lowered them 3/4 inch. I could go between the existing boards by making some rabbets in that board. I could get about half an inch that way I think.

I'm going to work on getting the fans mounted inside the hood tomorrow.

 

[cagri]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13587040#post13587040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iaJim
They are almost 6 inches off the water. When I put in the new mounting board, I lowered them 3/4 inch. I could go between the existing boards by making some rabbets in that board. I could get about half an inch that way I think.

I'm going to work on getting the fans mounted inside the hood tomorrow.

Jim if the fans and chiller are not enough, I know it is a pain but, you may think about raising the canopy/lights another 2 inches or so.

 

[iaJim]

I've put in a little dual fan that is blowing up at both lights. I've also cleaned the cooling coil on the cooler. In addition, I took Cagri's advice and raised the hood, but only could raise it 3/4 inch. This weekend, I can raise it another 3/4 inch without doing a lot of modification.

Good news is that the high temp today was 79.8. I also wonder about how fast I have the water going through the chiller. I have my main tank return pump doing that work. The water comes out of the tank, falls into the basement in the hose, goes into the pump (mag4) and then is pumped through the chiller and back into the tank. This is my only water circulation/filtration. Of course, I have the skimmer in the sump and two powerheads in the tank. Thinking about adding another in tank pump for more flow.

Should I change the chiller set up?

 

[iaJim]

I ordered the Aquacontroller Jr. today. Hopefully, this will help me to control all of the things that relate to heating and cooling. The price tag is starting to approach $1,000 for all of this. Now my fear is that the chiller will be a difficulty. It is in my basement, and the controller is going to be upstairs. It's only right above it, but I will have to get a cord from the controller down to the chiller some how. I have sealed up the wall where the tubing runs down, but I suppose I will have to cut through the wall again. It's always something. For the moment, I'm going to try to control things with fans and light control. If it gets too hot, I can just have the lights turn off.