T5 cooling and power consumption questions...

[davidinga]

I added a LET T5 2 bulb 80w setup (hep ~ati ballast) to supplement my leds and plan to run them about 4 hours a day or so. Is it worth trying to cool the two bulbs somehow to extend life? If I did what's the best way to cool them? I have some cpu fans laying around and some old phone chargers to wire them up, but I'm not sure how to go about trying to cool them.

Here's how they are ghetto hung right now (the led will be between them; it wasn't hung in this pic tho)

alt="" />


I assume I don't want to mount fans on the underside of the bulb and blow air up because it would encourage rust from the salt rich air.

Mounting the fan on the top would just have the air flow detected by the back side of the reflectors and be worthless.... So I assume I would need to remove the moisture cap to be able to cool it properly, right?





Power question:

I'd like to add another 2 80w bulbs over my 210gal that currently has 3 led boxes and 2 80w bulbs, but I'm not certain I can squeeze in 2 more bulbs. If I were to only be able to add one more 80w bulb will the ballast still pull full power from the wall or half power? It would be another LET kit (hep ballasts) btw.



Thanks

 

[dball711]

Being very familiar with ATI fixtures, I think directing flow across the bulb, L to R or R to L would be best. ATI fixtures also actively cool the Ballasts. Hope that helps.

 

[genesis]

Very interested in this thread as I'm trying to do the same thing. I have 3 of the chinese 165W LED fixtures over my 140 and I purchased t'5s to supplement them. It will require some retro fitting. Where did you get the caps on the end and what are they called?
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>

>

class="gc-images" title="image54646.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:300px" /></a> </fieldset>

 

[davidinga]

Genesis;1032687 wrote: Very interested in this thread as I'm trying to do the same thing. I have 3 of the chinese 165W LED fixtures over my 140 and I purchased t'5s to supplement them. It will require some retro fitting. Where did you get the caps on the end and what are they called?

I bought this LET kit and it came with everything...

 

[davidinga]

dball711;1032685 wrote: Being very familiar with ATI fixtures, I think directing flow across the bulb, L to R or R to L would be best. ATI fixtures also actively cool the Ballasts. Hope that helps.

What about cooling the "cold spot"? Are my moisture caps going to hinder that?

Do I just mount a cpu fan behind the end caps blowing down along the tube then, or do I want to angle the fan or something?

 

[enderg60]

Ive never cooled T5 bulbs, no reason to unless you are over driving them. Cooling the bulbs can increase the life a bit, but if youre using them for supplemental lighing who cares?

 

[dball711]

DavidinGA;1032706 wrote: What about cooling the "cold spot"? Are my moisture caps going to hinder that?

Do I just mount a cpu fan behind the end caps blowing down along the tube then, or do I want to angle the fan or something?

I would do this..mount a cpu fan behind the end caps blowing down along the tube.

 

[davidinga]

Ok. Won't the end cap deflect most of that air flow though?