How to reduce humidity?

[JeffreyRichard]

What dou you fishroom owners do to limit humidity? I am running a air exchanger with limited success ... moves air but there is still humidity.

[Upper Canada]

If there are areas around filters and water inlet pipes which your lids do not adequetly seal you can get sheets of thin corrugated plastic from your local HD and with siscors and silicone cover the gaps by attaching to the existing lids.

After minimizing the evaporation areas from tanks, barrels and sumps you have a few options. In my case during the warm weather I leave one or two windows open during the day and a little at night.In cold weather I use a dehumidifier, and console myself regarding the electrical cost with the thought the byproduct of heat from running one serves to heat the fishroom.

I do know of a man who has lots of tanks in his basement and has had success by running, 24 / 7 a small fan mounted in an outside wall which exhausts the air outside.

Hope this helps,

Bob,

Upper Canada Discus

[ronrca]

I run a dehumidifer in my fishroom for over a year. So far it has no problem keeping the humidity under 50%. Bob mentioned very good points on minimizing evaporation which is essential. Opening windows/exhaust fan is also very good and when all are used together, it is very effective. I actually like the dehum as it does heat up the room to just a couple of degrees from the tank temp. While the dehumid takes power, the heaters dont have to use as much to keep the tank temp up.

[JimmyL]

The most effecient ways is to to eliminate from the source. Bob gave you the best solution to seal the lid.
Relative Humidity that cause condensation if super satuarated. It is more important than just humidity alone. To reduce the relative humidity is either increase your room temperature or lower your water temperature. Both is even better. Try keep your water temp at 82-84 degree and match your room temperature the same if tolerable will cause no condendsation and super saturated humidity doesn't exist. de-humidifier is only masking the problem and is a constant problem. Once the machine stops and the problem comes back again. That's what I call a masking tape solution. A fan or open window is only a temperary solution. When the window is close or the fan stops. Same problems again. Mould will grow behind the dry wall and floor bed turning black. The best solution is to eliminate the source by separate the water/air interface, covering up all tank tops. Investing a glass cutter and check the back of a glass shop for throw away windows and glasses.HTH
In addition of glass top. Glass is better than any other materials as a good conductor of room temperature. Try using the thinnest glass as possible. The reason for that is to increase temperature gradients which can cause condensation inside the tank on the glasstop to minimize humdity escape from openings of the tank tops. reduced water level can also help eliminate humidity escape to the room. I have wall to wall tanks and not a single mould can be found in my fishroom. I don't use a de-huidifier neither. Just well covered tank tops.
Jimmy

[ronrca]

Sweet Jimmy! Thanks. Now with winter coming, I see on the outside windows condensation forming. Not good as it runs down the window into the window frame with turns to mold, etc, etc. With the tank covers, how do you compensate for pipes, heater cords, etc.

[JimmyL]

You've just explained why using a thinner glass as tank top by using outside window as an example. Double plain glass window is needed in the great white north where temp. can easily drop to 30 below. The contrary is true in the fish tank. Let the condensation drop inside the tank and not outside by covering the tank top. As for wire cord and pipes. Just do your best to close it as much as possible. It's impossible to seal 100% of it esp. if hang-on filter like Aquarclear is used. Any huumidity escape outside the tank can be compensated by balance the room temperature to cut down the relative humidity. If temperature is at an unbearable level. Then a de-humidifier can be used. That will take care of it most of the time. In fact, I recommanded to all my patient suffering from itchy skin in winter dryness to have a tank of discus????? or tropical fish that needs higher temperature to increase humditiy in the room.
The other way to eliminate the humidity if fish room is located in the basement or close to your central heating system. Try divert the intake of your central heating to the fish room to draw the air from the fish room. It serves 2 purposes. To increase relative humidity of the room outside the fish room and decrease the HR. in the fish room to balance the RH of the whole house. The central heating system usually draw air from the hallway of the main floor or upper levels can be converted to basement by opening the intake valve. Don't forget to close it in the summer when air conditioning is used. Otherwise the upper floor never get cool.
Jimmy

[Mughal]

Wow, i never knew humidity can cause people so many problems! I live in Utah which is the 2nd dryest state in the US, so I don't really deal with that at all...there's never enough water in the air to fog a mirror!

[Upper Canada]

Any contact between air and water results in evaporation regardless of temperature ( within the conditions we are referring to. ) My fishroom is heated by the tanks only, and I have condensation if the room air is not exchanged with the outside air ( which basically divides the room's air volume of moist air with dry air, ) or using a dehumidifier to reduce the moisture content of the air.

Depending on the number of tanks in question I would hesitate to have your fish room air with its humidity etc circulated within your house by your furnace. Since you have a humidity problem despite your air exchanger you would then be adding an uncontrolable degree of humidity to your house, unlike a furnace humidifier which you can easily adjust.

I moved my tanks to a new fishroom ( 16 X 28 ) in my attached garage because of the mold risk in the house. You can have your dehumidifier drain to your drain system, the only time it will stop is when you have company and want the silence.

Jimmy, it is much easier to cut shapes with plastic and sicsors than with a glass cutter and glass, at least in my experience.

Bob,

Upper Canada Discus

[Greg Richardson]

Bob. I have tried plexi glass in the past for tank tops. I find they bend due to heat and weight of strip light. Maybe I could find some thicker material?

Anyways I went to using thin glass for tops I buy from Home Depot.

If you have measurements with you HD will cut out for you any HOB or airline notches you need. I have found this to be cheap way of doing tank lids.

Works great for me and I'm not dealing with the cutting.

My hands thanks me!

[Mr. Limpet]

I am looking at using one of these.

http://www.lifebreath.com/life.htm

I did not like the energy consumption
of a dehumidifier, but you guys make a good
point that at least it is heating the room.

Still thinking about it. There is a local dealer,
I should talk with them.

Good info,
Paul.

[Upper Canada]

A note regarding my fishroom referred to above, I am posting some pictures in an accompanying thread.

Bob,

Upper Canada Discus

[QiKsilver]

I might be a noob but wouldn't sealing the tanks close to 100% would be bad for the fish? Gaz are released from the tank into the air, by sealing the tanks the gaz cannot disperse and I would fear the tank would become polluted. Or then again you gotta open the top everyday or so so it's not really THAT big a problem? I was thining of sealing my aged water bucket but then again chlore and CO2 has to be released somewhere so I was hesitating....

[ronrca]

I think the intend isnt to seal off everything 100% tight. Depending on how your setup is, its almost impossible to 100% seal it. There are cords, pipes, filters, etc, etc. The main thing is too limit the evaporation into the room however and even if you manage to seal 90%, that will be much better than 50%. Good point though.

[Resinman]

One design that I use in my fish room is to put 2 tank adapters in every tank. Everyone drills for the drain... But if you drill for the inlet the lid is able to close completely. Something else I developed about 16 years ago was to put an outlet in the bio towers I made and blled the excess air into the bottom of the tower and then put an outlet in the top and vent it out side. You see the bio towers main function is to help degass the water. If it was air tight it wouldn't allow the ammonia and the CO2 to go anywhere. So why not vent it outside. The other nice feature of doing it this way is that it helps stabilize the ph of the system. When I first did this was in Bob Wilsons hatchery (NADS PRES) we reduced the humidity by about 30 percent.

Brent

[Jason]

having a tight fitting lid on your tanks Is the way to do it, I just dont have the time to physicly lift cover glasses off tanks, feed fish, do some maintenance etc, then replace the lids 4-5 times a day (I'm using 2 hands for something else) among all the other time consuming things, summer time I vent drectly outside 24-7, wintertime like Jimmy said I keep the air temp warmer than the water temp and run the biggest HRV I could find.