DIY cooling fan

[kenneth_kpe]

well i need to set up a cooling fan for my tank asap, temps here are reaching 35 deg celcius and my fish arent doing well... is there a way i can hook up a pc fan into the wires of my lighting so that everytime they are on, the fan will also stay on ??? tips please

 

[Katchan]

I've never hooked up a PC fan direct to a 240 Volt (australian mains)lighting b4, only pc powerpack and car trailer connection (didnt have a test light and it worked just as well ) If it didnt burn out hyper quick it should work. What you could do is wire in a could to an old trasformer plug and just plug it in when you turn your lights on. I'd suggest either using 2 heavy duty fans cpu fans or large case fans (1 as in intake at one end and the other as a exhaust fan at the other) also try your local electronics shop or a carmart type store for good cooling fans.

katchan

 

[simonbrown403]

if your lights are on a timer, just wire the lights and fan into same plug, or break, that will do what u want it to

 

[simonbrown403]

if its on a trancsformer just make a short exstenton plug you tranie in and wire to the light plug.

 

[daza]

bare in mind that a PC fan is about 12 volt DC though, not mains voltage. Maybe you could hook one up to a seperate power supply.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

yeah thats what im gonna do, im gonna use one of my old transformers for my discman that you can set to ouput roughly 12V, the question however is this, is it safe to plug two fans into the same transformer ?

 

[Tolak]

Fans don't draw a lot of amps, just chect the transformer to see that it doesn't get too hot with your ambient temp being so high.

Tolak

 

[kenneth_kpe]

oki il try and get the stuff tom its too hot, its 12MN here, the lights have been out for 5 hours already and still the water is 31 deg ! whoo

 

[garbodude]

dont bother with 12 volts as i tryed . just go to ahn electronics store and buy a 240 volt or 220 or what ever it is in america ball bearing cooling fan (quieter) and wire onto the fluro terminals before the balast. then when the timer turns the lights on the fan will come on thats what i have done cheers

 

[Dorkhedeos]

drop a few cubes of ice in there

 

[kenneth_kpe]

ic, i think that is a better idea, getting fans that are rated for normal outlet electricity ic ic, yup im icing the water now with bottles of ice, keeping the temp down to 29 deg but i have to change bottles a lot !

 

[Silly me]

we also have hot summer here in South Africa.. and I have had some of my tank with water over 35deg for weeks and my plant stops growing and turn brown looonng before any of the fish show signs of the heat.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

really ? do you have corys cats and ottos ? well i really dunno but thats the only reason i could attribute to the sudden deaths, i lowered my temp for the past week using ice bottles and my cory cats are eating again, but i already lost 3

 

[Yenko]

You non-Canadians make me sick; worrying about it being too hot and stuff.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

im not canadian, i worry about my water temp dropping