How to control humidity in fish tank room

[crypteria]

I run a dehumidifier without problems and would have mold in my house if I didn't run one... It is true that the relatively hot exhaust will raise the room's ambient temperature, though it is inconsequential in my case. Good luck! By the way I have 2 Tunze ATOs and am about to buy a 3rd- they are great.

Austin

 

[slief]

Exhaust vent would be my suggestion. I run a very large Rotron high CFM industrial 12" fan that is attached to the soffet above my tank. My tank is completely drywalled in both above and below the tank. It has ducting attached to the exhaust side and that goes directly to the outside of the house. It pulls air from above the tank but there are also channels in the curtain wall it's attached to that allow it to pull air from below the tank as well. The curtain wall separates the side of the tank from a closet that borders the outside wall. Even with 600 gallons of water volume and 5 gallons of evaporation a day, I have absolutely no humidity issues. That said, my sump and fuge are covered which helps a bit.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Regarding dehumidifiers & heat:

A dehumidifier is, in some ways, a "broken" air conditioner in that both the condensation and evaporation coils are in the same unit. The room air flows past the evaporation coils first, which are operating at about 42 deg F, the room air is either lowered to its dewpoint or down to about 52 deg F, water condenses and is drained away, then this same air blows past the condenser, which is typically operating at about 110 - 120 deg F.

The net result coming out of the unit is considerably less water in the air at a higher temperature in the room.

Since the maximum efficiency of any compressed gas heat engine is about 50% (see Carnot Cycle on Wikipedia if you want the thermodynamic explanation), and a real-world heat engine is considerably less efficient than the theoretical efficiency, you can expect that about 30% of the electricity is converted to condensed water, and about 70% is converted to heat.

In other words, you can actual calculate how much heat will be added to your room while the dehumidifier is running by multiplying its energy consumption by 70%. For example, this dehumidifier:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AU7GZXE

Uses 745 watts while in operation. About 520 watts of that is exhausted back to the room (that's about what a hair dryer puts out on the "low" setting).

So obviously, if you want to dehumidify and cool the room, you're better off with an air conditioner that will vent the heat to the outside.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Exhaust vent would be my suggestion. I run a very large Rotron high CFM industrial 12" fan that is attached to the soffet above my tank. My tank is completely drywalled in both above and below the tank. It has ducting attached to the exhaust side and that goes directly to the outside of the house. It pulls air from above the tank but there are also channels in the curtain wall it's attached to that allow it to pull air from below the tank as well. The curtain wall separates the side of the tank from a closet that borders the outside wall. Even with 600 gallons of water volume and 5 gallons of evaporation a day, I have absolutely no humidity issues. That said, my sump and fuge are covered which helps a bit.

That would work absolutely perfectly in Simi Valley, and not at all in the East - the ambient outdoor humidity is way too high, and that outdoor air will be pulled into the house at the rate that such an exhaust fan blows air outside.

But I envy you greatly - if our environment was that dry during the summer, my house would be cooled almost entirely by a "swamp cooler".

 

[jaynie1028]

Ugh I’m fitting a big humility problem in my half in half of the ground finished basement. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly helpful. I live on Long Island.

 

[Silly clownfish]

This might seem obvious, but a glass canopy is a low cost, low tech, easy way to reduce evaporation.i have heard people worry about O2 exchange, but as long as you have a skimmer, this is not an issue.