My 748 Gal A.G.E. Aquaillumination SOL lit Texas Dream Tank Build!

[AJT]

Thanks everyone. I really love it in the room, I watch it alot more than when the 200 was in the living room.

I am having some heat issues. I never thought with all the leds & all external pumps that I would have heat issues in the winter. I have to figure out where the heat is coming from before we get to the hot Houston winter.

I am ordering a heavy duty inline fan to vent the canopy to see if I can get more heat out. I have 4 small inline fans but they are not moving much air.

All pumps are external & the room is between 70 & 74 degrees. The tank is at 78.2 this morning. I have the chiller coming on at 78.5.

The only 2 places I see heat are the leds & the hammerhead. Not sure if the hammerhead is transfering the heat or something else.

 

[AJT]

I just reset chiller to come on at 78 & off at 77.8. It took less than 25 minutes to drop from 78.2 to 77.9 so I think the chiller is working fine. I think this points to canopy heat since the hammerhead is running continously & I was able to drop temp so quick & LEDs are just ramping up.

Any ideas are welcome.

I have a laser temp gun & will be taking led & canopy heat readings today to try to figure this out.

looking at this fan to install to suck heat out.

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-Act...14F8/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1325949303&sr=8-8

 

[Scej12]

FWIW - I do have a hamerhead on a 600g freshwater system... The HH is largely responsible for heating this volume of water up to 86 F in the Summer months. We actually have to leave the cabinet open to allow some of the heat out. I would guess that your HH is a large contributor.

Regards,

Sheldon

 

[AJT]

What is the outside temp when the HH is running & gets pond to 86?

 

[Scej12]

Not my house but it's in a basement; so I'm guessing the ambient temp would be around 75ish. i think the biggest factor is that the pump is heating up the entire cabinet which is very well insulated for sound control. However, when the doors are open, I think we only gain a couple of degrees - say around 84.

Sheldon

 

[attaboy]

tank

tank

Where do you get the gray PVC (I'm guessing it's sch 80)? MY HD doesn't carry it.

Also, what made you choose the AI over the Radeon?

Thanks!

 

[AJT]

Where do you get the gray PVC (I'm guessing it's sch 80)? MY HD doesn't carry it.

Also, what made you choose the AI over the Radeon?

Thanks!

Sch 80 is available at a plumbing supply store. HD does not carry & lowes carries a small amt of it. Be prepared, it is very expensive. I probably have over 1K in plumbing not counting ball valves & unions.

I had 6 AI's for about 8 months on my 200 & really liked the construction & results I was getting from them. Radeon was not available when I bought the first 6.

I did not want to me a "tester" for anyones new product, so I went with what I knew was a good product.

 

[AJT]

A couple short videos.


How do you post the you tube video in the post instead of a link?

http://youtu.be/_F0Z1O-KomI

 

[mcarroll]

How do you post the you tube video in the post instead of a link?

(E.g.)

• Follow your video linked above, click the SHARE button. (This will reveal some hidden options.)
• Click EMBED and you'll get more hidden options, including some code:
  

  <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_F0Z1O-KomI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Whether that can be acceptably/successfully posted here is another question entirely.

Anyone?

-Matt

 

[david00061]

looks real good.... That thing is going to look super when all those sps grow along with all the other coral

 

[mcarroll]

I think this points to canopy heat since the hammerhead is running continously[....]

Certainly take a poke around for anything going wrong, but those pumps (big externals) are built with fans attached to their rear-ends for a reason. They generate a lot of heat! Most people are over-sold on the "cooling" aspect of plumbing with external pumps.

Sealing it in a cabinet (especially if it's under the tank) is 9/10 as good as just using a submersible pump (or two) in the first place. That hammerhead is chewing up somewhere in the 300 watts range I'm guessing (get a Kill-a-Watt meter and stop guessing at home ) and only a percentage of that is transmitted as rotational force, the remainder in friction and motor heat. I think there's a measure for this....(motor slip?)....but I've not seen it come up in context. That may be contained within the "Power Factor" rating. If you can discern which Baldor motor your Hammerhead is running, Baldor has specs for all their motors online like this. (My impression is that Hammerheads run with a fairly low....bad....power factor. Let us know if you find out otherwise.)

For the Lights
It's good to know that 100% of all current supplied to a light fixture ends up as heat - even the light energy it produces. So, 400 watts of halogen = 400 watts of LEDs = ...

Cumulatively (i.e. if the cabinet is close to air-tight) the heat will add up to too much. If there is already a decent amount of air circulation and air exchange up here, you may want to do the thermometer test below before worrying about the canopy.

So, in short, vent the upper and lower cabinet spaces. A regular indoor thermometer placed in each space will tell you which one is carrying the most heat if you need one place to start. (In fact, if there is significant heat under the tank, eliminating that will reduce the heat load radiated through the top of the tank too.)

Good luck!

-Matt

P.S. One good, concise link on motor slip.

 

[AJT]

Thanks Matt.

I added a water tight external fan outside sucking 264 CFM. Although it is 6" & I had to reduce it to 4", it is still sucking alot of heat out. Think I will add one more this weekend.

You can see the aluminum 90's at the top of the canopy.


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a53uLvl8OxY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[mcarroll]

I didn't see that hammerhead, but I did see at least two other external pumps down underneath. That makes three significant contributors to heat.

Off the cuff, your fleet of AIs could be putting off no more than 280 watts of heat - subject to your dimmer settings.

You could have close to 700 watts running underneath - 24/7.

Don't suppose you could creatively tie the base cabinet into that same duct fan?

-Matt

 

[unhandleable]

And I used to think my old 150 gallon tank was big!

 

[AJT]

I didn't see that hammerhead, but I did see at least two other external pumps down underneath. That makes three significant contributors to heat.

Off the cuff, your fleet of AIs could be putting off no more than 280 watts of heat - subject to your dimmer settings.

You could have close to 700 watts running underneath - 24/7.

Don't suppose you could creatively tie the base cabinet into that same duct fan?

-Matt

I am adding another external (outside) fan next weekend & will add a "Y" connection that will suck air out of the stand also.

264 CFM per fan X 2.

 

[baggedtb]

I might be thinking about this wrong but as an IT professional its similar to a server room with a lot of servers putting off heat. I do not think just sucking warm air out from the canopy and stand will solve the issue as all of that equipment is using the hot air around each piece of equipment instead of having a good stream of fresh cooler air from the room pulling through the canopy and stand and having an exhaust fan to pull out the hot air getting some circulation inside.

Maybe figure a way to modify one of the panels to have a fan attached and pull air in. I am visioning a panel with a hole cut in it covered it a mesh that air can pass through to cover up the hole nicely and conceal the fan a bit.

 

[AJT]

There are 4 4" holes in the back of the canopy. I have 1 fan pulling air out & venting thru the window & will hook up second one this weekend.

I used a fantech 6" 264 cfm weatherproof fan. I did reduce the input from 6" to 4" to match the vent line. How bad of an idea was it to reduce?

I have 2 smaller fans that will blow room air into back of canopy. You can already hear air flowing into the canopy b/c of the one fan pulling air out.

 

[AJT]

I might be thinking about this wrong but as an IT professional its similar to a server room with a lot of servers putting off heat. I do not think just sucking warm air out from the canopy and stand will solve the issue as all of that equipment is using the hot air around each piece of equipment instead of having a good stream of fresh cooler air from the room pulling through the canopy and stand and having an exhaust fan to pull out the hot air getting some circulation inside.

Maybe figure a way to modify one of the panels to have a fan attached and pull air in. I am visioning a panel with a hole cut in it covered it a mesh that air can pass through to cover up the hole nicely and conceal the fan a bit.

Check out the second video, you can see the 4 holes & the aluminum ducting inside the canopy that points toward the top to suck the higher warm air.

 

[hatfielj]

The size of this tank is insane, especially since you had AGE make it. I know for a fact how expensive they are so you must have put down some serious change for this beast. Wow

Anyway, it looks great. Just wondering how you are planning on accomplishing water changes? Do you have mixing tanks?

Keep up the good work. I can't believe it is in your bedroom!

 

[dahenley]

AJT, do you have any holes in your stand? if so, you might run 1 of the 2 fantechs on the stand.

Next, what are you using for the window? acrylic, or glass? if acrylic, then, why dont you open up the holes a little? (a router and a wood template would make some quick work of it)


also, if you have small fans pusing air into the canopy and the large one sucking out, then the little fans could be creating back pressure and hendering the flow more then helping.
(i saw where you are pulling air from the top of the canopy, but can you put some kind of piping from the intake fans pointing down to the water? that way you get more of a turbine/swirling flow. (pushing cold air up and hot air out))

if the stand had holes, you might swap the fan to see what kind of difference it makes sucking the hot air out of the stand? (since the leds arnt putting out as much as the under stand equipment)
or, open the stand doors and see if it makes a big difference. that would give you a hint on what a difference it would make.