Fishroom Humidity

[stpauli914]

Hello fellow reefers!

I have a newly built fishroom in my garage that measures aprox. 10' X 12'. It has my large sump, a 75 gallon liverock vat, and a pair of 60 gallon frag tanks. Needless to say there is a lot of humidity. The room has a small A/C unit and when that is running humidity is decreased. My question is, what should I do to reduce humidity when the A/C is not running? Without the A/C running the humidity builds up to around 90%.

I have thought of a large dehumidifier or a bathroom style exhaust fan in the ceiling vented outside.

Has anyone else been in this situation and come up with a unique solution?
Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron

 

[mcgyvr]

A dehumidifier is typically used in your situation..

 

[earwicker7]

I put an exhaust fan in the ceiling.

 

[Dmorty217]

A dehumidifier is typically used in your situation..

+1 I have around 1000g of water in my basement total and use a dehumidifier. Works great

 

[nereefpat]

What about a humidity triggered vent fan? Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Delta-GBR80H...pID=51NJy84SaJL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[Finland]

I run an exhaust fan to the outside. Works wonders to get rid of humidity.

 

[WVfishguy]

Many years ago when I first built my basement fish room, I didn't realize how much humidity all those tanks would produce.

I had around 40+ aquariums. There was a large exhaust fan in the basement, but in the winter it could not be used.

I actually had a stainless steel gun rust.

The humidity was so high, nails in the attic would bleed red rust down the ceiling and wall.

On cold winter days, when you opened the front door, clouds of fog would roll out - it looked like the house was on fire. :mixed:

I'd highly recommend a dehumidifier with the overflow connected to a drain. Just using the drip pan will result in water overflowing on the floor.

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

Aerosolized salt spray rusts everything. How long do dehumidifiers last?

It has to be cheaper kwh wise to use an exhaust fan instead of a dehumidifier... install both and use the fan in the warmer months?

 

[mcgyvr]

Aerosolized salt spray rusts everything. How long do dehumidifiers last?

It has to be cheaper kwh wise to use an exhaust fan instead of a dehumidifier... install both and use the fan in the warmer months?

The salt does not evaporate to any real degree here.. Hence why an ATO system should be fresh water and not salt water..
Salt spray isn't the problem.. humidity from fresh water is..

So humidifiers last a LONG time..

 

[stpauli914]

SO I've decided on a vent fan in the ceiling vented to the outside. How many CFM should I go with? Room is 10' x 12' with 8' high ceilings.

Thanks everyone!

 

[WVfishguy]

CFM info is best left to contractors, not other aquarists. But you need to consider the fishroom to be like a huge hot-shower room, not just another room in the home. Fishroom humidity rivals a rainforest.

 

[BrettDS]

SO I've decided on a vent fan in the ceiling vented to the outside. How many CFM should I go with? Room is 10' x 12' with 8' high ceilings.



Thanks everyone!

Keep in mind that if you vent the air to the outside, then new air will need to come in and replace it. You need to figure out where that new air is going to be coming from. If the room is connected to your existing HVAC system, then it will be pulling conditioned air from the rest of your house and then outside air will be pulled in through any gaps in windows and doors and such, which could affect the temp and humidity in the rest of your house.

If the room is not connected to your HVAC system then it will probably just be pulling in outside air, but here in florida the outside air may not be significantly less humid than the air in your fish room to start with, so you may not really get much of a benefit.

I suspect that you might be better off with a dehumidifier to actually pull the humidity from the air.

 

[ramseynb]

The salt does not evaporate to any real degree here.. Hence why an ATO system should be fresh water and not salt water..
Salt spray isn't the problem.. humidity from fresh water is..

So humidifiers last a LONG time..

It does actually. I ran a sump in my garage and everything in my garage rusted. Maybe it doesn't evaporate out of our tank enough for us to notice, but it certainly does. Keep in mind, I live in Texas where it's already humid as hell in the summer. I never had issues with rust until I added the sump. I'm not talking about a little bit of rust either. Also, this is why people's cars rust so fast in coastal areas. Anytime I go down to the coast, even if I don't take my truck down to the water, it gets a good wash when I get home. Heck, I even had a vintage Gillette razor get some rust and a lot of tarnish after spending the weekend at the coast.

 

[WVfishguy]

If the room is not connected to your HVAC system then it will probably just be pulling in outside air, but here in florida the outside air may not be significantly less humid than the air in your fish room to start with, so you may not really get much of a benefit.

I suspect that you might be better off with a dehumidifier to actually pull the humidity from the air.

There's no way to dispute this logic - Brett is correct. Sucking in hot, humid air will not help the problem - a dehumidifier is needed.

 

[Subsea]

Your city seems like a lovely location on the sea with mild winters and temperate summers.

Depending on outside temperature and desired temperature of water in system is one engineering parameter. Both A.C. & dehumidifier remove moisture from the air. In air conditioning terminology, this moisture is called latent heat and accounts for > 80% of central air conditioning heat load. Remember, I am talking about comfort level of room air for people. Water temperature cooling is most effected by evaporation, then depending on container, heat transfer with surrounding air.

Thermodynamics101: When 1 pound of water evaporates, 1000 BTU of cooling take place: some in the air and some in the water. One gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs. when one gallon evaporates,
8340 BTU of cooling take place.
Here in Austin, a mid size oak at 16” diameter will evaporate 100 GPD or 834,000 BTU of cooling per day. It happens in 12 hours, so one tree evaporating 100 gallons per 12 hours is 69,500 BTU/Hr or about 5.5 tons of cooling from one tree. Save the trees and the prairie grasses.

So, if you don’t mind the moisture in the air, leave the refrigeration compressors off. Use resistive heaters to maintain water temperature only. When you are in fish room, depending on your confront level use A.C. or dehumidifier.

If your system water temperature is high, run air conditioner to remove humidity. This will promote more effective evaporation rates from system water to dryer air. Also, to maximize evaporation of water create aggressive turbulence at water surface. Blow air perpendicular to water surface. This will create chaotic turbulence providing more dynamic evaporation and gas exchange. Use water returns to splash water, this will also help with gas exchange of other important parameters, most importantly is carbon dioxide.

Feed your system carbon using inorganic carbon dioxide from the athmosphere to combine to form carbonate & bicarbonate alkalinity that when coupled with photosynthesis produces glucose. Carbon to feed the reef comes from carbon dioxide in the athmosphere. Organic carbon like vinegar feeds bacteria.

I just found this article. I like Dana Riddle’s lead in sentence, “Photosynthesis is the connection between the inorganic and the organic world”.

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2016/9/aafeature