PFO Ballast Mod - Active Cooling

[jostafew]

Hey everyone, I picked up a 250w PFO HQI ballast and intended to mount it inside my cabinet upside down but I felt that cooling would be an issue. Solution: active cooling! Punched out some new stainless panels and installed a cooling fan. I also relocated the starter to the side panel and installed a heat shield to protect it from any radiant heat off the transformer. Now it runs nice and cool and the ballast actually has some flanges for mounting! Thought I'd share incase anyone else is in a similar situation. Enjoy!

Couple photos:

[Lampshade]

Wow, great idea. Mine scares me sitting on a wood shelf it gets so hot. I"ll be doing something like this shortly.

[Aquatek]

Wow! Looks awesome. Where did you do the stainless covers?

[mark]

nice, plastic pieces weren't brittle?

[lastlight]

Very nice! How much for a retrofit kit?

[Delphinus]

Haha no kidding. I'd buy two! (Seriously!!)

[pirate]

I'm gonna have to do this as well. Thanks for the good idea.

[jostafew]

Thanks for the interest guys, I appreciate the positive feedback! Actually there's not much to it when you have access to CNC punching and bending equipment (perks of working for a sheet metal mfg. company ) Honestly for the amount of work that it took I'd be happy to bang a few copies out for a couple bucks but the agreement is that I can only use the company equipment for personal stuff (no side businesses hehehe).

This was a quick one-evening project, have a look at the light fixture I did: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1918397
A sharp eye will also notice the SS perf panels in the cabinet doors complete with mounting for my RKL controller!

That one took a little more time to design and build The tank looks WAY better than it did in those shots, that was pretty early on and I had a wicked case of brown algae.

[lastlight]

good lord that's incredible work!

[jostafew]

Hey Mark, which plasic pieces are you referring to?