I build a MH hood

starting from a kit (ballast, socket, bulb, aluminum
sheet) which has been running a couple of months quite happily. The bulb
is about 3.5" in diameter and 8" long, but the socket is another 1.5" or
so. I originally was going to use a small fan, but it's too noisy for my
living room. The hood itself is mahogony which obviously can't take the
heat of the lamp (they get HOT). My solution was to line the interior
of the hood with aluminum sheet, both the polished sheet from the kit and
somewhat dull aluminum flashing from a hardware store. I spaced it about
1/4" off the wood using metal spacers and screws, leaving a complete air
gap all the way around. I left two holes 2"x3" in the back top, and a
3/4"x12" slot at the front bottom to get convectional cooling across the
bulb. This all seems fine, the exterior of the wood (3/8" thick) is warm to
the touch, not at all hot.

The Coralife bulb I got has a glass envelope that sheilds UV, however I
didn't like the idea of a very hot piece of glass 8" above sea water, so I
covered the bottom except for the cooling slot with 1/4" plexi, also spaced
1/4" down so there's an air opening around the bottom. The plexi overlaps the
sides, so there's no direct path for a splash to hit the bulb. I haven't
blown up any yet :^)

If you build such a system be sure to stick around for several hours
when you first use it, these bulbs really are hot. I could easily
imagine them causing a fire if the cooling and/or insulation weren't
adequate, burning down your house would ruin your whole day. Perhaps
people should make sure that even if one fan went out in a hood that
the resulting heat wouldn't be excessive. http://danceshoes.hyperphp.com/ http://bariatric.atwebpages.com/Alarm Car System Vehicle
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