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Fan in Canopy

I want to build a canopy for my 75gal but I'm concerned with heat. I was thinking about incorporating a fan on one side. Maybe the size of a computer fan. How would I go about tieing that into the light wiring. Would I have to put a fuse or resistor inbetween the fan and the power? I don't want to burn the fan out in a month or start any fires. Any suggestions would be great.
 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
To answer your question about a computer fan, they are all 12 volt. So you will need a 12VDC (or less) power source that is rated to the amps (or more) of the fan. So if your fan is 0.3 amps, the power supply has to be 0.3 amps or more.

I originally had a five computer fan setup on my tank. Over the next year or so, fans started to crap out, until only one was running. I pitched this fan unit and now use a 110 v inexpensive fan that I picked up from Walmart….less than ten bucks.

Computer Fan Unit:

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Current Fan From Walmart:

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These were $4 from Target. I have one on each side of the canopy and two in the sump. They are those little office desk fans. I was going to go the PC fan way till I realized that it would need a power supply. These just plug into my Apex and I have them set that way. I figure if I need to spend $12 a year on new fans then I am doing good!
 
I bought a inverter online that was able to run around 6 PC fans and wired them up for my canopy. They work really well and the ones with sealed bearings hold up well in the salt environment. I find the walmart and kmart deskfans start getting all super rusty after a few months. But that's probably because I like to put them in the tank and pretend im a motorboat.
 
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