melting hood

[bunkerboy]

If the fan in my aquapod 12 dies when am not home, would it trip the circuit breaker or would it melt the hood and cause a fire? Should i install another fan on the other side of the hood, and if so, do i need to solder it in place? Bunker

[DarthFred6996]

It would cause a nuclear disaster that would end the world as we know it :D

Really though, I doubt it would melt your hood if it did not trip your breaker. It would cause the temp in your tank to go up though.

[safemode]

there's no way it would trip a circuit breaker. the light isn't going to short circuit. The fan is there to cool down stuff from melting and/or overheating the water. The only way it would trip the breaker is if the light melted itself off the hood and fell into the water. If that happened, I dont think you'll have to worry about your tank anymore.

Now paranoia aside, abs plastic begins to deflect from heat at around 220 degrees. That means it just starts to bend at that heat, not melt. It takes a mean fluorescent to get that hot with so much humidity around it evaporating and pulling that heat away. Besides an expensive temperature controlled switch, to turn everything off at high heat, the only option you have is to stick a low current breaker/fuse on the tank. This way, if the light ever did fall into the tank, it wouldn't cause a fire from burning electrical cords. Saving your tank's inhabitants is iffy at best, the heat will hurt them, the electrical shock will likely hurt them too. Temp switch is the only way to prevent that, and unless you wire it only for the light, the pump will also turn off, which could hurt them.

They make small PC style fan's with thermistors in them too, so that they dont wear themselves out prematurely, they will stop / slow when it's cool, go full speed when hot. But i think you're overworrying, fans dont normally die out of no where unless they're really cheap. If that's the case, you should be fine with a simple replacement with a quality fan.

[bunkerboy]

Thanks for your responses. The manufacturer is sending a replacement fan, does it plug in or do i need to solder it in? PS i have never soldered before. Thanks. Bunker

[shouldabenacowboy]

There should be a 2-pin plug. You may have to cut some silicone type material off the old one to remove it, but it is a pinned plug.

SBC

[bunkerboy]

Oh thank you, that is a relief. Should i buy a second fan to put on the other side, and if so, is there a place to plug that in also? Bunker