Lets talk humidity

[Sisterlimonpot]

Hello RC,

I'm getting my feet wet again with a 300g in wall build. I'm at the beginning stages of the project.

I need to get hear from the large tank community in regards to humidity in the fish room and how you go about mitigating it.

one of the walls to my soon to be fish room will be an outside wall in which I plan to install a bathroom exhaust fan, right now my plan is to get a humidity switch that will activate the fan when it reaches a certain threshold and turn off when it drops below said threshold.

My question is, what is the preferred method in which to do this? and are their products out there that work better in an environment such as a fish room?

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

[JaySchulz]

IMO opinion this question is really dependent on where you live. If you live in an area with high humidity like me that won’t work. You’re in Arizona so I’m assuming your relative humidity is very low. A bathroom and humidistat will work great for you. Also remember that when you suck air out of the house you create a negative pressure situation which in turn sucks hot outside air into your house. A dehumidifier would also work great. Possibly even an air exchanger.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

great point abour sucking warm air back into the house, I was thinking along those lines but I wasn't looking big picture, I was thinking only about sucking cooler air from the main house into the fish room thus cooling it down (this would only be a problem in the summer time when the temp is above 100's)

 

[David MC Lee]

I ran my 800G tank in a room that was 9'x12' for several years with zero mold growth in the room. The tank was 5' x 10' so I had 50 square feet of open water in the room. I never used a dehumidifier. I live in Illinois and the humidity can be very bad outside. The fish room was more or less sealed off from the rest of the house. I painted the room white so I could easily detect any mold growth. In the summer months I ran a window AC unit that would help to cool the tank but also pulled out humidity. The house had a vented crawl space and I ran a duct from the room floor to a fan tech blower fan. This would pull air out down into the crawl space and then through a vent opening to the outside. I had another hole in the floor that would allow crawl space air to come into the room. The fan is not like a bathroom fan. It is like a 10X Bathroom fan. It was on a temperature controller. Anytime the room was over about 80 degrees would kick on full. When the temperature was good the fan would switch to a low speed. THE FAN ALWAYS RAN. I also typically ran a small cheap Walmart fan to just blow air around the room and would replace it every 6 to 9 months due to rust from salty air. I believe the key here is constant air circulation. Also note the air exit vent pulled from on top on the tank through a duct to the floor.

 

[Dmorty217]

I have about 1000g of water in my fish room and the humidity is controlled by a dehumidifier. Has worked great for the last 2.5 years, my furnace is in the same room as the water so that helps too

 

[gargoylenest]

same here, even though tank is not as big. Using a dehumidifier and its working with no issue. Always keep a hygrometer just in case, but never had issue. Anyway, all gypse boards are mold resistant, and paint over it too.

 

[jgal912]

Dehumidifiers work great, but I use bathroom fan in my fishroom and it works great

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'm still leaning towards an exhaust fan hooked to a humidity switch. I have been looking at dehumidifiers... but if I were to go that route I would just add an air conditioning unit and get the best of both worlds. If that were the case, I have 2 portable units that we bought years ago when we lived in base housing.

 

[JonMc]

i am curious, if a person used a dehumidifier in the room can you use the water collected from it to fill the tank system?

 

[David MC Lee]

No it may have copper in it from the coils.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

i am curious, if a person used a dehumidifier in the room can you use the water collected from it to fill the tank system?

No, there's so many impurities in that collected water. If you were to use it, I would use it to water plants

 

[Michael Hoaster]

It shouldn't be an issue in Arizona. Basically, your tank becomes a helpful humidifier for the rest of your house. If you worry about it getting too high in your fish room, just vent it to your house.

It sounds like a great project! Got a link for the build thread?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Yep, right here

 

[icerain29]

I’m from Canada, a fish tank helps a lot during the winter

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'm from Canada, a fish tank helps a lot during the winter

My chief concern wasn't so much comfortability of the house as it was to remove conditions that would promote the growth of mold in the equipment room.

Although after running for a few short months through the summer, according to our nest thermostat, I was able to see that the overall humidity downstairs has been higher this year than last by an average of 12% and upstairs about 5%.