MH too hot for me?

I have an 80 gal bowfront containing soft corals. It's about 4 ft wide, but 3ft deep. I want to change to MH from PC because I love the way the light looks. Can this be done without using chillers? The tank currently runs 79-80F in summertime. Can anyone recommend a lighting system? The tank is in my living room and visible from the street so asthetics are kind of important. Thanks.

 

I run a clip-on fan over my sump, and 2 80mm PC fans in the canopy to keep my system around 80F in the summer. You can get by without a chiller by using evaporative cooling in this fashion, just remember that the water must be replaced.

As for a lighting system, do you have a canopy over your tank? If so, how tall is it? There are a lot of options on this one...

 

I run a 400 Watt MH over my 60 Gal and my temp stays at 78-79.

I gave about 17-18" between the bulb and the water surface and had adecuate vents cut into the canopy (left the back open, and cut 2 large vents on the sides). No fans. No chillers. No Problems. And I'm in FL where it's hotter than ...well, it's hotter than almost anywhere.

 

i have 3 250w mh only 4 inches or so from the water and i have some heat problems but nothing a couple of fans dont take care of. if you get mh's and it gets hot just keep adding fans and ventilation until you get it like you want it. jmo

 

Wow billy31422! 4" is awfully close to the water. Are you running single or double ended bulbs? Do you have any kind of splash shield in place? I would worry about the bulbs getting splashed and breaking.

 

Fans will keep the heat down...and I would keep the light around 10-12 inches above the surface. The only downside to cooling with fans is you will evaporate alot more...however, a good top off device like a float switch or a dosing pump will eliminate manual top-off everyday. Its a good thing if you are using kalk as you can dose that with your top-off.

billpa

 

Wow, 4 feet by 3 feet? If I'm not mistaken, that would make it only about 10-12" deep to keep it an 80 gallon. That seems, well ... unlikely. The reason I ask is the depth of the tank (water depth, not front to back) is the most important measure of whether MH are really needed. For a 36" deep tank, I wouldn't consider anything else; regardless of heat.

 

Oops

You're right. The water's more like two feet deep. The depth (front to back) is about 12inches on the sides and 18 in the middle of the bow. I guess having my arm down up to my armpits when I'm scraping the coralline makes it seem a lot deeper.

I love the look of MH, and because it is a deep tank, I think they'd work well. My main concern is temperature. Both of the tank water, and of the room itself. Will the MH be like having a fire burning all the time? What wattages would you recommend? I was thinking of a 4ft fixture hanging from the ceiling that had MH and some actinic to balance out the color?

Also, I was reading somewhere else on the forum that people only keep MH on about 5 hours/day. Is that right? Do I have my PC on too long (11h)? Thanks for your replies

 

it does cause a splash problem occassionally i splash a lil on a bulb. well more like drip off my hand or something. but so far it hasnt been a problem. but i do have heat problems. fans take care of it though. i have a lot of evaporation because of the fans but whatever works. the tank is doing great

 

I run my MH for for 7 hours....3 175w 14k bulbs....also running 2 40w actinics and 1 40w 50/50 to simulate dawn dusk i also have 2 cooling fans in my hood to keep the air moving....and my temp 79 at night and 81 during the day
all my lights are 5" from the top of the water