fans: pushing or pulling air?

[Darby]

My tank has a fully enclosed canopy with a hinge top lid, as well as front access doors. There are several holes cut in the back for various things, such as cords and hang-on returns. There are also cuts about 3" wide and 2" tall in each side. I plan on putting a small fan or two at the cut on one side.

My question is: is it better/more efficient for the fan to be blowing air into the canopy, or pulling it through the canopy?

I figure that perhaps blowing in would be better, as it would push (hopefully) cooler air into the space, while pulling air from the other side might be more sluggish. In either case, I do worry about dust and whatnot getting in there...

 

[bimmerzs]

@Darby wrote:

Hi,

Folks do it either way but I prefer to have the fan's blowing in. This not only brings in cooler air and forces out the warmer air, it also more efficient since it's also blowing air across the surface of the water(from top down or across from the side's). You can install the foam filter's for fan's, to decrease the chance of drawing in dust etc., but you will have to clean them from time to time. Everyone seems to have their own way but you can always experiment and find out what works best with your setup.

Cheers,

 

[MBZ]

I tried my fans both ways in my canopy. My tank stayed cooler with both fans blowing down on the water. I leave my canopy doors open all the time. I've also seen set ups with a fan blowing in from one side and and another fan drawing the hot air out.

Mark

 

[Steven]

You really just have to experiment. I found that when I turned one of my fans around I got 1 more degree of cooling.

 

[DaveJ]

If you can have one side blowing in and the other blowing out, or if you only blow in, have the doors open as mentioned above. Blowing cool air in isn't as efficient as blowing in and sucking out since it just blows the warm air onto the water surface. Water is a great conductor and pulls the heat into it, thus warming up the water. The purpose of fans is two fold, to increase evaporation, thats done by air movement across the water surface and the to export the warm/moist air out of the canopy keeping it cooler and reducing condensation.

 

[Matthew_sample]

IMHO

Pish

I had a set and I pulled air and found it also pulled salt...

I have another set and I push now and I do not have the same issue.

 

[T8T]

@DaveJ wrote:

This is how I have just set mine up. Two blowing in over the T5 end caps and two in the middle blowing out.

 

[DaveJ]

@T8T wrote:

This is how I have just set mine up. Two blowing in over the T5 end caps and two in the middle blowing out."]

Excellent choice