How to stop evaporation

[sir_dudeguy]

Interesting that the evaporation cools the system.

Its pretty much the same concept as sweating... When its hot, you sweat, and when a breeze goes over your sweaty body, you feel that cooling sensation....same thing with tanks, which is why a plain old 6" fan blowing across the water is all you need sometimes to drop a few degrees. Increases evap rate which lowers temp. On an old 55 that i had, a 6" fan dropped my temp from 84 down to 78. I just had the fan blowing at an angle across the water.

 

[Jstdv8]

lots of evap usually means you have good amounts of air and water mixing either in a sump system or good surface aggitation or both.
Evap= solid PH= healthy

 

[Chiefsurfer]

Interesting that the evaporation cools the system. I moved my heater into the skimmer holding tank (outlet) to increased real estate inside my 55g. And a friend of mine had the same skimmer and that's what he did with his..

However, I'm having around 3 degree temperature swings. During the day (when I limit the heat in the room since no human sare home) the temp will drop down to 74. At night When we're home it jumps to between 77 and 78. So, could I keep the heat in the tank warmer and more constant if I had a glass cover over the tank at least?

I'm afraid that when I add fish that temp swing may be too much... In the summer, I expect the room will hit 80 at times. Though I do have central air and can control the room temp a little better than the electric baseboard heating temp.. The thermostat on the heater (brand new heater) is set to 80. It's a 250 watt marineland Pro stealth Shatterproof.

WHILE a lid MIGHT maintain a better temp for you, as others have stated, it may cause more problems than its worth. While 3-4 degrees is not bad, for it not to be bad, it has to be fairly regular, practicaly the same every day. To make this easier, get another heater, maybe like a 150 to add to it. If you do go with the 2nd heater, set one slightly lower(the lower power one). This way lets say that if you want your tank at 78, set one heater at 78, and the other at 77. This way, if one gets stuck on, it shouldn't boil it(as evidenced by it not being able to keep up with demand when heat is lowered), but your overall power can handle much more heating capacity, should it need it.

 

[cr500_af]

As stated, letting it go that long between topoffs is bad news. Either stay on top of your evap or get an ATO (preferably get an ATO). You can't stop it; you can only deal with it properly.

 

[NguntalKawat]

hello,
I'm planning on making an overhead sump for my cichlid tank (since I got no more space below), I've already got the underneath one for my saltwater, and evaporation does happen on the return chamber...

Question is, how's the evaporation works for an overhead sump?
is it occurs on the last compartment (the return down-flow to the main tank?), or the main tank itself? (since it's situated down below)

Anyone has ever tried this type of sump?
Thanks :reading:

 

[bundybear1981]

The evaporation always occurs across the entire system, its normally only noticed at the sump/return section as the main tank should always maintain a constant level, it has overflows/drains at a set level where the sump has the 'return' sections and pump. This means it is the only point it can drop the level.

How are you getting the water up to the sump? Is it being pumped up there? How is it being returned to the tank? By overflows? In this case your display tank will drop level as it doesn't have overflows but has pumps.

 

[colodano]

+100000000000


Seriously. I cannot imagine not having an ATO, and I can't believe I ran my tanks for so many years with out one.

Ditto. Just added an ATO last month, after 10-11 years without one, it is great!

 

[NguntalKawat]

The evaporation always occurs across the entire system, its normally only noticed at the sump/return section as the main tank should always maintain a constant level, it has overflows/drains at a set level where the sump has the 'return' sections and pump. This means it is the only point it can drop the level.

How are you getting the water up to the sump? Is it being pumped up there? How is it being returned to the tank? By overflows? In this case your display tank will drop level as it doesn't have overflows but has pumps.

Yes, I'm going to pump it up, and flow it down, based on your information, I'm going to use the normal (underneath main tank) sump instead. Thanks :smurf:

 

[Emma Thompsom]

I'm having the same issue. And I also quite baffling

 

[Jscwerve]

Ditto. Just added an ATO last month, after 10-11 years without one, it is great!

Holy cow!

I went my first month without an ATO and got sick of it. Now I'm going to try to double my capacity to 10 gallons of water for a reservoir.

I lose about two gallons a day in my 125gallon display system and about half a gallon in my little 30 gallon frag setup.

I use a home made ATO on the display (because I trust it more) and a Hydor ATO on my frag tank.