Im looking for some heat proof pipe/tube.

Im going to be running metal halide lights in my tanks and want to harness the heat the generate. Im thinking of running some tube around them that water flows from my filter around the light and back into my tank. Im not sure how hot they get but it does melt plastic

Any suggestions?

Stainless steel would be my first pick.

how will you control the heat from getting really really really hot in summer?

EDIT: trust me, you will harness the heat from the metal halides if they are less than 1m the tank

Stainless steel would be my first pick.

stainless steel does not heat evenly but may work for wat you intend it.

for heat distribution I'd lean towards copper or brass (they heat up fairly quickly). but the fact they're copper or have copper in them would be the reason i'd veer away from them too. brass will take longer to heat up but should hold the heat for longer then straight copper.

Should be right running tubing around them provided the tubing doesn't melt from the heat generated (thats if you're planning on using plastic, and if it should get that high).

Anyone know if titanium leeches anything into the water? that would be the next option I'd pick but thats pretty pricey . can just run the water thru the pipe, under the light, then back to the tank if it doesn't leech.

I may get some stainless tubes made up to go around the lights but really am looking for a cheap diy solution. Even heat dist wouldnt matter as its going to be high flow

Heat isnt a problem here in summer.

If you're passing water from the tank through the tube, I would be reluctant to use copper or brass. Fish don't tend to like copper.

I think you'd be fine with some thinwalled hose if you just wrap it all over the light. As long as water's flowing through the hose it won't melt. But if you can get aluminum pipe, I don't know how easy that is to find, it should absorb heat almost as good as copper and not leach copper into your water. It wouldn't be enough to hurt fish anyway, might kill any snails though.

Sounds like alot of trouble for wot its worth to me but anyway, (not knowing wot sorta tank/setup you have) Just an idea if your that worried about wasted energy :lol: the simple way would be make a cabinet if your fish tank doesnt have 1 already & maybe insulate the bottom (prob not needed) cabinet and stick ballast in tht, then just have the halide in top which id imagine would be more than enough heat so you may have to wire in a small fan on a thermostat up top incase it gets too hot. (you could have the fan connected to abit of down pipe or something and send the hot air down to the bottom but imo halides aint tht expensive to run & you can always sell a few cuttings to cover costs easy enough!

Try Ellis sheet metals in Miro Street Gary is a nice guy.