Metal Halide and no Chiller?

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by X-Treme

I have a 40 gallon with a 250MH over it on the second floor of my house. This summer I was going from 78 to 86 or more almost every day. Bought one of those cheapy clip on fans and put it on the same timer as the MH. Tank DOES NOT move from 78 all day now. Cheapest chiller I have EVER seen.

That's what I did and it works great!

[PoonTang]

I was hoping i could run 2 x 250 MH on my tank with no chiller. Figured if i had to lay out the money for the lights AND a chiller then would just say the heck with it and spend the money on a solaris led unit. Think now i may give the MH and fans a try if i can find a good used setup for the right price now and get the LED in a couple of years when the prices drop.

[briansmyth]

400 watt halides on 90 gallon tank in my basement- ran fan on high just above the sump - had to replace evaporated water every day - also had to be careful to have blinds drawn on the basement windows on the really hot days - still got temperature swings of 3 degrees on the really hot days.

Have run with Solaris PFO LED lights for almost a year... no chiller required, temperature fluctuation of 1 degree at most.

[Reefer Rob]

You could always run T5s. Much less heat, and not a expensive as Solaris. When I ran them I had to dial back the fan that blew across the top of my tank or my heater would come on in the middle of the day.

Sick of the MH heat thing really... but they do supply most of the heat for my house in winter. I might yet go back to T5s, Hmmm... but I'd loose the ripple effect *sigh*

[PoonTang]

Originally Posted by briansmyth

400 watt halides on 90 gallon tank in my basement- ran fan on high just above the sump - had to replace evaporated water every day - also had to be careful to have blinds drawn on the basement windows on the really hot days - still got temperature swings of 3 degrees on the really hot days.

Have run with Solaris PFO LED lights for almost a year... no chiller required, temperature fluctuation of 1 degree at most.

Which solaris unit are you running? and how do you find the colour and brightness compares to your MH setup?

[Murminator]

Originally Posted by PoonTang

What kind of a temperature swing are you getting? I am currently running a 90g at 78F in a room with a winter temp of 70F. I have AC in the room for the summer temps. Are you running cooling fans on the water etc. ?

That would insinuate that I put batteries in my thermometer and check the temp when I did look it would go from about 72 to 88-89 in the heat of summer with no problems it is in the basement with dual 250 and T5 actinics, but this is Alberta can temp can go fron -10 to + 20 in a day