Halides With No Cooler

[Aquascaper]

Not personally but I know a few people who've had tanks wiped out and all the other assorted problems of anenomes walking around the tank, trashing corals and wrecking equipment.

Plus, on a personal note, I think it's wrong to keep an animal that would otherwise live for anything upto 100 years in the wild, in an aquarium where it is destined to die within 3

 

[andyk]

sounds like far to much ahr dwork and agro.

just looking at some of the clams and the maxima's have some awsome colours...
do you think t5's would be ok for these to grow or am i going to have to face the expence that comed with getting halides?
andy

 

[superman]

Halides can be kept easily without a "cooler" (is that what you guys call a chiller?) If you want to have a metal halide over a tank without a chiller you have to take a couple of things into account.

Size of tank
Hood or no hood?
sump?
wattage of metal halide
distance of metal halide over water

Before getting into a long winded explanation of things, I will simply ask...what size tank are we talking about?

 

[Mr Miagi]

There is no way you could retro-fit a Halide into a standard tank hood as there just isn't room.

Never say no way. This hood still isnt a "normal" standard size, but "JimmyA" from here in SA has still installed his metal Hallides. There is circulation via air slits in either end. The light units are not air cooled themselves, and they are just normal shoplighters.

 

[andyk]

what temp does the tank run at ?

 

[superman]

I got your pm andy, what is the conversion from UK gallons to US gallons?

 

[Opcn]

1.1 US to 1 UK or something like that. If you want halides and no cooler you have to build a massive fuge and not have halides on it, or anything else thats hot, that leaves you with little more than standard flourescent bulbs and/or natural lighting. and when I say massive I mean massive, Like a 300 gallon rubber made stock tank massive.

 

[superman]

1.1 US to 1 UK or something like that. If you want halides and no cooler you have to build a massive fuge and not have halides on it, or anything else thats hot, that leaves you with little more than standard flourescent bulbs and/or natural lighting. and when I say massive I mean massive, Like a 300 gallon rubber made stock tank massive.

No

Andy has a tank that is 160 us gallons. You could honestly put three 250 watt halides over that tank without a chiller. Cooling fans will need to be placed in the hood blowing the length of the tank between the lights and the water. The larger the sump the better, but you don't need a "300 gallon" size sump. A 55 us gallon sump would do fine. You will probably need to use a cooling fan on the sump, a simple desk fan mounted to the side of the stand, aimed at the sump's water surface, and within about 5 inches of the water surface. Using evaporative cooling will EASILY cool a tank of this size, with this size sump, with three 250 watt metal halides, with a room temperature in the 80-90 degree range, with a relative humidity as high as 60% and at least 10x turnover in the sump. I am speaking from personal experience.

 

[andywg]

One of the biggest heat problems for MH is the ballast. If you don't buy the ridiculously overpriced aquarium units but buy cheaper industrial ones you can have a remote ballast and locate it below the tank taking a lot of the heat away.

 

[Aquascaper]

Evaporative cooling is all well and good till your wallpaper starts peeling off and your front door swells and won't open without barging into it

It's the biggest pain in the ass of keeping a SW tank with Halides IMO

Hey Ho! The things we do to keep rock alive