1st post in new MH forum

If you can do any cutting on the reflectors you could basically weld the two together, connect with a 6" HVAC ductwork and position a 6" can fan to blow to hot hair out. It will push all hot air out of your light system before it has a chance to heat anything up!
I have 2x250 watt MH 16,000 running on my tank now and with a fan running all day and the light 8" over my tank it heats up +4 during the day.

4

(info from previous hobby)
I had a 1,000 watt MH running with a 12" can fan to cool the bulb, it worked wonders and could keep the light running 4" from the canopy. The unit looks like a turbo booster.

 

I really wanna see this over your tank with photos of before and after.... Assuming you have 2. Nice lookin reflector

 

That's quite fascinating Steve. You should start a thread about the hobby in China


I agree with others, can't wait to see how your tank responds to the change!

 

Very cool. Like the design

 

Thank you Trent

That is not a bad idea Luke , thank you

Pictures at the weekend hopefully - Sunday

another one?

Thank you Jeremy

Update

after web searching for ideas on mounting these reflectors, I checked out melevs reef for a frame design he used on one of his set ups
a few sketches, and a trip to one of my local metal work shops
and tomorrow evening I should be collecting a stainless steel angle iron frame 1.5 m x 50 cm x 25 cm tall

the angles will be downwards at the base so should slide over my plastic tank frame
and they will be angled upwards at the top in order that the reflectors sit inside and cannot move forward or backwards
I have left the ability to move them side ways if required, so they can go closer together or further apart, in order to have flexibility on light spread

it also means I can slide them both to either end during tank maintenance / water changes etc

if all goes well, and it fits OK frame will be in place for lights on Sunday

Steve

 

tomorrow is the big day

Stainless steel angle bar support frame , collected



and the reflectors fit perfect

Steve

 

Hi, Steve if you never had halides you will like them, i tried the fan over the top with my set up 3-400w w/2-160 attinic 1/2 hp chiller the heat was very high in the room where the tank was, the chiller ran 6 to 8 hours per day so i put a fan over the top on the lamps this worked but, in the long run the fan blowed dust on the water i don't know if it hurts or not. i ended up cutting and air hole on one end of my stand and mounted the fan and used an ac filter to filter incoming air this worked even better, it also keeps the ballast cooler.

 

Where did you find that support frame Steve? Looks good.
How do you plan on acclimating your corals to the new sun?

 

Thank you proreefer, that sounds like a good solution to me

Thanks Matt

the frame was made by a small company that's 5 minutes walk from my home
I sketched it up, along with measurements and 24 hours later it was ready for collection

it puts the lamps 12 inches of the top of the water, maybe that is to high
but if so, no problem, an angle grinder and 6 new welds can sort that out

Light acclimatisation
working from home, means I can consider doing as follows

slide the T5 canopy into the frame, plug that in and run it from 9 am to midday, slide it out and run MH for 2 hours, turn them off and slide the T5 back in for another 6 hours

and basically do that each week, increasing the time the MH are on each week 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours etc etc and in 8 weeks time , just MH,

Steve

 

now thats lookin good. love the frame.