Noisy aquarium canopy

[Mjacoby6]

Hello!

I am new to the site and have enjoyed reading through the forum. I have a question that I was wondering if someone could help me with. I have a 125g marine aquarium. I upgraded the lights so I could add corals. I went with t5's. Total wattage is 640. It is a retrofit in my wooden aquarium canopy. When I first installed the lights, it got really hot and the lights cut off. I had two large computer fans installed one either end of the canopy and this has really helped maintain the temperature at a stable state. Water temperature so far has not peaked above 78. The only problem is that the fans are loud. I think what is happening is that the sound of the fans is reverberating througout the wood canopy. I was thinking maybe I could sound proof the inside but not sure what type of materials I should use. I have found some sites that sell soundproofing materials that are heat resistant, but not sure if that is the best way to go or not. I was wondering if anyone has ever dealt with this type of problem and what your solution was?

Thanks!

[TexasState]

Ooh, my hated subject, anything noisy.
There are several options, buy quieter fans, use rubber "washer" to dampen the vibration btwn the fans and the woods.

[jaded]

are the fans new or did you rescue them from an old computer or somthing? Are they mounted securely? are the fans oversized or anything out of the ordinary?

assuming that they are new, standard 12v fans that are mounted tightly to the canopy, you may just have a bad fan. An out of balance fan can make a ton of noice and will wear itself out pretty quickly. A properly working fan makes very little noice unless there is something wrong with the fan or the installation... in my experience

[jaded]

try stopping each fan seperately and listening... you may find one is making all the noice, if so then you have your culprit

[JimD]

When you mount a fan to an enclosure like an aquarium canopy, the canopy becomes a speaker cabinet of sort, any vibration will resinate throught the enclosure amplifying the signal. You'll never compleatly eliminate it. Although you can lessin it through "isolation" or "de-coupling". Mount the fans using only two screws instead of all four to minimize contact surface, drill the holes larger than the mounting screws so they dont come in contact with the enclosure, (de-coupling) use soft rubber grommets between the fan and the hood, (isolation). Try this and you'll be amazed at the results....
Good luck!

[Ram_Puppy]

youmight also look into getting icecap fans, the come with a thermister you put on the lights, the fans only come on when needed.

[Shark_Bait]

another thought after the rubbber wash deal go to a stero instalation shop, not circuit city and the like but a "real" car audio place and get some Dynamat. You probably can just a few pieces of the scraps but it won't be free but should be cheap for the scraps. It's designed for the big bass systems so the trunk doesn't rattle it somehow absorbs the vibration. Might actually want to use the mat as your washer.