HID Lighting (Cool Tube) - A quick question

Alright, I'd love to move from CFL to HID lighting. The only problem that's holding me back is the heat. I know HID lights put off some mad heat, but that's just from reading. I'm looking for someone with experience to give me some guidance.

I've looked at some 400W MH/HPS (Switchable) Cool Tube setups, but they all have 6" fan hookups. Could I get away with a 6" to 4" adapter running to my 4" exaust fan? Or is the heat too much for my fan to move? (a pretty high CFM fan, sorry I can't think of the specs)

Now I have one more question for you. What kind of headroom would I need (how close to the ceiling can I have it) for a 400w cool tube? With it being a cool tube, it seems like most of the heat would pass right through the exaust, so I wouldn't need much headroom. But that's why I'm here, I just don't know this information.

Thanks for the info.

(If you know a thread that addresses this, I'd appreciate that as well.)

second link in my sig...

I have a 400w hps with a cooltube, tube fan and carbon filter, with both 10cm and 12.5cm tubing. You will see in my log that I changed the setup many times until I finally have it right this time. Temps are 26-28 C...

I actually have my thermometer sitting on top of the cooltube. If you have the proper reflectors for the top of the cooltube, it will stay nice and cool up there:thumbsup:

Headroom is not really a prob with cooltubes but you would most likely want to run 2 seperate fans, 1 for exhaust and 1 for cooltube and yes the 6" to 4" works cause thats what I run in 2 seperate cabinets.

I use the same set up as well. When you use adapters to convert for a 4" fan and filter, you add more than 10" for each one. That makes for a light unit just over 4 ft long. Way big and bulky for me! I felt it was a must to use a smaller cfm(210) fan because the 6" is WAAAY too much for a cabinet so a McGyver session was in order. I used some EPMD rubber seal from Lowes and a set of tool box latches to attatch the filter to the tube. The fan is alot more challenging because there are no flat surfaces for the latches so I just put the gasket on the fan, put a hose clamp on the tube to attatch S hooks to and used a stout wire to cinch the fan to the S hooks. This works well for now until I finish this run and come up with a feasable solution. I leave the whole unit mounted almost to the ceiling and just stack buckets on other buckets to bring plants to the light. This also makes for easy inspection of plant undersides and any other accessability issues. The pics are not the best but...

Wow, thanks for all the info guys! It won't be long now.