Canopy ventilation

[Prince_Tony]

Hi Guys & Gals,

I just installed my canooy over my 180 Gallon reef tank. I'm stuck at where to place ventilation. I know hot air rises but I have seen people place ventilation on both sides and too of canopy. Is their a reason for this? My plans were only to vent top if canopy. I'm planning on using 4 165w LED Fixtures. Very low heat. Alone with HO T5s very hot. Could someone please help me decide. Pic is attached. Please note the design of canopy is not don completely so be nice and don't judge. Serious answers only.

 

[jsker]

What you are looking to do with ventilation is to move air, and the ideal situation is moving are in a circular pattern. Also introducing fresh air and exhausting old air. On the thought I would place a computer fan on the back side pushing air in and another computer fan on the top to take out the hot air on the other end.

 

[Downbeach]

I was only using LED's, and mounted them in the canopy cover. So, using the fans in the LED fixtures, and an opening along the back of the canopy, I had enough air movement. I did however add some window air conditioner filter material and black egg crate to the openings.

 

[Prince_Tony]

Thanks guys

 

[redfishbluefish]

I left the whole top of my canopy open. With the fans on top of the LED fixtures, and those fixtures up at the top of the canopy, they vent directly out. No one is going to see up there, unless you're about seven feet tall.

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I also have a hole in the side of the canopy that use to have a "Walmart" desk fan...back when I had T5's.

It's now just covered with the grated fan cover.....passive air movement....and the grate keeps the fish from jumping out.

 

[AZDesertRat]

I mounted a 120mm computer fan in each end, both blowing in with equal sized holes in the roof of the canopy for the hot moist air to excape. Several years ago I did a write up for my local reef club forum on the complete build which detailed different fan placements and how well or poorly they performed. The club folded and I lost the write up but that placement was by far the most efficient in my testing which included one fan in one fan out, fans on top, AC fans, DC fans, multiple smaller fans, and many more.

The advantages of this layout is you are drawing cooler, dryer air in so the fans do not gum up reducing efficiency and with the holes in the top you even get cooling by natural convection alone even when the fans are not running. You can place your hand above the tank and feel the heat rising and drawing in air from the sides.

I used Vantec Stealth fans but this was built 13 years ago and there are probably better fans today. The Vantecs are still totally silent since they are low speed and they do not have bearing issues like some of the others I used in my testing. I have not replaced the fans in the 13+ years they have been in use. They are powered by DC variable voltage "wall wart" type power supplies which can be adjusted from 3v to 12v by turning a little dial and most of the time ran on either 9 or 10.5 volts DC depending on the seasons and cooling needs and was perfect.