6 Fans enough to cool tank?

[verseoneverse]

I'm going to make a DIY Fan hood cooler system out of Compute case fans. I'm going to use it on my 20gallon long tank that is housing well over 400 + different grade Crystal Red Shrimps. It's very heavily planted. Also injecting co2 at 4 bubbles per minute. I'm from California so it gets hot here.

I'm going to be using 6 Computer Case Fans. Going to wire it all up to run on a Computer External Fan switch so I can slow down the speed of the fan or raise it up to go faster. Each fan puts out 150 CFM and 22dBA of noise. Which is super silent. So in perspective, that's going to be 900 CFM of air blowing downward onto the water surface of the tank.

My questions are..

Does the amount of level of the CFM air matters in cooling the tank?
Would I be better off just using 1 Computer Case Fans instead of 6?

[seetharam]

Hey

I have only one cooling fan on a 14 Gallon Tanks and i am able to maintain temp at 22-23 C on cool days when room temp is around 26 C and 25-26 C on warmer days when room temp is around 32 C. I think 2 Fans should be enough for your 20 G setup. I dont think adding more fans improves the cooling. The cooling fan method works on the principle of surface water evaporation and this is directly co related to how much humidity is in the air. If the humidity is high , water evaporation is less and hence cooling also is less, If humidity is low, water evaporation is high , hence cooling also improves.

Do you live in a coastal area? If yes, then for sure the humidity will be high.

[verseoneverse]

Great, I'll just go ahead and wire 2 fans then. I live in Sacramento, which is the Capital of California, USA. Its gets hot in the summer, not much this year though, seen it goes up to 102 was probably highest hottest days this year. It's getting cold soon, but it doesn't snow here. I just wanted to make sure the shrimps don't get too hot. I have shrimps racks by a nearby window, and in the winter time the cold weather makes it great.

Thanks for the quick reply.

[dannyfish]

Hey

I have only one cooling fan on a 14 Gallon Tanks and i am able to maintain temp at 22-23 C on cool days when room temp is around 26 C and 25-26 C on warmer days when room temp is around 32 C. I think 2 Fans should be enough for your 20 G setup. I dont think adding more fans improves the cooling. The cooling fan method works on the principle of surface water evaporation and this is directly co related to how much humidity is in the air. If the humidity is high , water evaporation is less and hence cooling also is less, If humidity is low, water evaporation is high , hence cooling also improves.

Do you live in a coastal area? If yes, then for sure the humidity will be high.

hello sir

are you able to take a photo on the fan position at your tank?
surprised that you are able to lower to 25-26 deg amazing.

[Shrimpnairf]

Hello,
I was reading your thread here and couldnt help but wonder. See i once had a dream of keeping a cold water tank for some brooke trout as i live high in the mountains of colorado. My main concern was keeping the water cold enough, since i live up here i was just going to run some wirsbo tubing in my ground about 3 to six feet down, at least 50 to 100 feet i would say, they pipe into a exchanger that has water from the tank. effectivly letting the ground outside and six feet down cool your tank , only you need a pump and some glycol. any way just an idea i never ran with.

[seetharam]

Hi Danny

Sure, Here is the way i have fixed the cooling fan. It is at a 90 Degree angle to the water surface. I came across an article a long time ago where fans were used to cool soups by placing it at this particular position, the reasoning was that this effectively moves the warm air over the water surface faster and hence the cooling is more faster and better.

http://i555.photobucket.com/albums/jj454/seetharam/New%20CRS%20Setup/CoolingFan.jpg

[luckyboi]

Do we have a step by step guide on making cooling fans?

[verseoneverse]

Sure, I have taken down my 6 fan and now it's only 2 fans with a speed controller from a computer.

When you buy computer fans, they come in 12volts and 110-120volts, might come in different volts depending on orgin of country you're living at.

But USA stand is 110-120volts AC and 12volts DC. The 110-120volts computer fan seems to make much more noise than the DC12volts.

12volts DC fans ranges from different color and sizes from $3.99 to $30.99 and upward.

After you taken your computer fan out of the box, it should have 2 connectors that came with it if it computer fans.

Just plug in play, it only goes in one way. Here's photo illustration of mines.

STEPS. (My Fan comes with lights, you have the option to buy it with lights or not)
- Plug #1 connectors on 1st Fan into +12V DC power souce that goes into your power oulet.
- Plug #2 connector to 2nd Fan #3 connector to transfer power to the fan.
- Plug #4 connector is for you to hook up additional fans and repeat process until you have as many fan as you want.

Photos below.

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/jdmdb2/Fan1.jpg

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/jdmdb2/Fan2.jpg

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/jdmdb2/Fan3.jpg

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/jdmdb2/Fan4.jpg

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/jdmdb2/Fan5.jpg

Hope that helps.

[luckyboi]

Thanks Bigtime! I'll start on my own DIY Fan...