Metal halides constantly turning on and off.

[yellowtruck75]

I have my AQ Jr setup so that at 83.5 degrees one of my MHs turns off and at 84 degrees another and at 84.5 they are all off. I have notcied that the temp fluctates during the day so the first lights goes on and off several times. Is this harmful to the MH bulb or ballast? Does anyone else experience this?

I also have a fan come on at 83 degree

[hawkeye31657]

I would have fan on at 80 and turn off the MH at 81 and also I have two small fans that come on when the MH light come on they make a lot of heat and as for your temp I never let my go past 81 as reef start dying at that temp to hot

[yellowtruck75]

The problem is that my tank runs pretty warm and I don't know if it would be possible to run it at 80. Hopefully with the winter weather the tank will run colder around 80-81

[LOTUS50GOD]

I would look into getting a chiller or as previously suggested get a fan. I have a chiller on mine, and when the temperature creeps up due to AZ summers, I have a fan turn on at 80 degrees, then I turn my MH off at 82.5 and send me an email. I also use the MAX command to make sure the halides have time to cool off before restarting.

[yellowtruck75]

Well the chiller is out of the question at this time. I already use enough of my parents electricity. I already have a fan that turns on at 81 degrees so I know that helps a bit.

[dougchambers]

Like lotus mentioned, put a max change command in your control string to give the ballasts time to recover. IMHO, 83.5° is pushing it on the high end of the temp range...

[hawkeye31657]

I would change the setting for the fan to come on at like 78 so it has a better chance at keeping the tank cool

[yellowtruck75]

So you guys think that turning the fan on at 78 would hopefully keep it from not spiking over 81?

[dougchambers]

Depends on a number of things, but what do you have to loose. Try turning the fan on earlier and see if it helps.

-Doug