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questions on (lack of) airflow, cooling fans and other related matters

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L/B Block

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In the pic included in the sea of blue (I promise @Darkxerox I will get a filter) you see the top upper portion of the cabinet where the lights are. The issue at large is the lack of airflow. For the last couple years it has gotten hotter and our house insulation now is really effective at trapping heat. So the current method of cooling down the tank is sticking a big fan in front of the tank and opening the cabinet door below. It is effective but long term this is not a sustainable solution.

One solution is chiller. We are not crazy about this given that we would prob have to either spend a lot of money to get one that we can vent out to a pipe or have to run it from outside the house and drill through walls to run tubing.

2nd choice is cutting an opening in the top of the cabinet, adding some sort of register (mainly to stop things from falling in by accident) and use of a cooling and/or exhaust fan.
The enclosure is 36" long approximate by 21-22 inch wide.

I am thinking maybe a 30x4 inch opening up top to allow air in? Too much? Too little?
Also curious to what people use as cooling fans as well as exhaust fans.

All you engineers out there, pipe up please!
Any suggestions much appreciated!
cab2.jpg
 
If anything you would want to control humidity right by having good ventilation right? Like how Ben was talking about that nightmare tank he worked on that had zero hood ventilation and had lots of corrosion and wood breakdown. This will increase your evap so keep that in mind. Probably will help keep the food in your Plank from getting clumpy or moldy too.

I forgot what @Thales mentioned in that episode, but I think you want to blow less humid air in from the room into the canopy to make the fan last longer.
 
There are some really nice exhaust fans that have dynamic power, faster when hotter kinds of things. Also, you ok with venting that heat into the room?
 
Darkxerox said:
If anything you would want to control humidity right by having good ventilation right? Like how Ben was talking about that nightmare tank he worked on that had zero hood ventilation and had lots of corrosion and wood breakdown. This will increase your evap so keep that in mind. Probably will help keep the food in your Plank from getting clumpy or moldy too.

I forgot what @Thales mentioned in that episode, but I think you want to blow less humid air in from the room into the canopy to make the fan last longer.
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I recall that episode and it def came to mind. Need to check humidity though as so far it doesn’t seem that bad. Food in plank gets fried as it’s right under the light. Unfortunately a design flaw.
 
I could be wrong but the aquarium chillers I have seen don’t require ventilation to the outside. Regardless of whether you get a chiller or not it seems like a bad idea to have a hood without a vent.
 
Slingfox said:
I could be wrong but the aquarium chillers I have seen don’t require ventilation to the outside. Regardless of whether you get a chiller or not it seems like a bad idea to have a hood without a vent.
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Depends on how much ventilation you have and how hard you run your AC. Everything is a thermodynamic system, and the heat has to go somewhere.

Get a fan, you need some air circulation. Lots of options out there.

On my big system, I have one "Vornado" fan pointed at my sump to create evaporation there. Then I constantly have another Vornado fan pointed into my office to circulate air from in there to the rest of the house.
 
Slingfox said:
I could be wrong but the aquarium chillers I have seen don’t require ventilation to the outside. Regardless of whether you get a chiller or not it seems like a bad idea to have a hood without a vent.
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Most chillers do not require ventilation but having one turn our laundry room into a mini hot zone may create other issues.

There are some, albeit very expensive, I believe you can attach some sort of hose and vent out.

As to ventilation -it was actually ok for the first couple years -but it def trapping heat now.
 
H2OPlayar said:
Depends on how much ventilation you have and how hard you run your AC. Everything is a thermodynamic system, and the heat has to go somewhere.

Get a fan, you need some air circulation. Lots of options out there.

On my big system, I have one "Vornado" fan pointed at my sump to create evaporation there. Then I constantly have another Vornado fan pointed into my office to circulate air from in there to the rest of the house.
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I have a fan inside but when it’s enclosed -def doesn’t do anything on its own. The need to open a hole in the cabinet and circulate air is clear..
 
L/B Block said:
I have a fan inside but when it’s enclosed -def doesn’t do anything on its own. The need to open a hole in the cabinet and circulate air is clear..
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Air, like all fluids, likes and inlet and an outlet on opposite ends of your box to maximize your flow in the box, and needs something to drive the flow. Cold air is more dense than warm air and easier for the fan blades to grab, so think about an inlet vs an outlet fan, (unless there is some reason to do it the other way I don't know about).
 
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