Need help - venting a fish room

[FishNFun]

I'm building 120G in-wall with a fish room behind it in my basement. The fish room will have a small basement window due to where the room will be located. I was thinking about replacing the window with glass block and installing a 4" dryer vent in the center of the glass block. That way I could plumb an exhaust fan to the vent without having to put a hole in the side of my house. The fan would be on a humidistat to control the humidity in the room. Would that work OK? Would it be better to just have the exhaust fan on a timer or controller so that it would come on every so often or at a certain temperature? This is my first fish room so I need some advice. Thanks!

 

[pescadero]

i just run a dehumidifier. that way i'm not blowing heated air outside during the winter.

 

[FishNFun]

How often do you have to empty the dehumidifier? And what about heat build-up in the room? It's got to go somewhere other than heating the tank up.

 

[pescadero]

i don't empty the humidifier. it empties via a hose into a drain.

if you're building a fish room, you can put the intake of the humidifier in the fish room, and the outlet can vent either to the house (winter) or to the outdoors (summer).

 

[FishNFun]

Would having a dehumidifier in the same room as the tank increase the amount of evaporation on the tank? It's going to be an open top tank and I'll have fans blowing across the lights/tank for cooling.

 

[pescadero]

well, if your cooling paradigm is based on evaporative cooling, then you're going to have a very humid room. things in the room will start to condense moisture on them and some will rust unless you have a dehumidifier to pull out the moisture.

yes, you'll have more evaporative loss from your tanks if they're uncovered, especially if you've got fans exchanging the boundary layer of air over the tank. you're actually trying to facilitate evaporative heat loss with your design, so you should expect the side effects that go along with it. that's the price that you pay for not having to buy a chiller. there is no such thing as a free lunch.

my personal opinion is that if you're going to build an in-wall unit that features a small closet type service room, then evaporative chilling is not a viable option. evaporative cooling works when you've got a large volume of air to exchange with the tank, like in an open room setup. for an in-wall with a small service room behind it you'd probably be better off with a chiller.

 

[kevin gu3]

Re the exhaust vent, if you have radon the negative house pressure will raise your radon levels. Add a "return" vent.

 

[8BALL_99]

I use two inline Fantech fans in my fish room.. One works as an exhaust the other a intake. I run them in the winter time on a thermostat.. Room gets hot/humid they kick on exhaust the hot humid air and bring fresh cool air in.. Temp goes down to say 74 they cut off. In the summer I run a window ac in the room to control the temp and with the humidity.. But really I built my room to be pretty water proof and I kept it seperate from my homes central unit so the moisture isn't a problem for the rest of the house. IMO your better off keeping your equipment room seperate from the rest of the house as much as you can.

A dehumidifer works pretty good, But they use a ton of power and dump a ton of heat into the room. You can vent them outside but they still use alot of power.. If you already have a window in the room.. Id just run a window ac in the summer to control the temp and humidity. Then have exhaust/intake fans like mine for the winter.. My fans only pull like 80-100watts each and they dont run very much in the winter. A 8000BTU window ac only pulls around 300-500 watts thats better then most Dehumidifers and it will do the same job without adding heat to your room!

FWI I dont care for chillers.. If you need one fine but if you can get by with just cooling the room I think your better off.. My window ac was like 140. Much more cooling for less money then a chiller.. Plus the reason I went this way was I have more then one system so it cools them all. If your window ac breaks just run down to lowes, homedepot walmart pretty much anywhere and shell out a nother buck50.. If your chiller breaks your will have to probably order a new one online wait for it and shell out 400-800 bucks.

pics of my fans