humidity problems

[mr_X]

as most of you know, i have a 300+ gallon total volume, topless system in my basement, with roughly 1800 watts of light over it.

we are beginning to notice signs of trouble. mold on ALL window sills, and actual puddles of water on window sills...and this is the stuff we notice easily. i'm afraid to take a look inside the heating/air conditioning ducts.

Diana and i have recently realized that we both have a cough, and some yucky, dark mucous as well, and don't have an explanation for it.
i'm going to make an appointment with an ENT doc to double check, but i think it's from the humidity/mold in the house.

now, my questions-
what do you see in your houses?
what ventilation have you implemented?

i was thinking of using an in-line bathroom fan on a timer, set to run when the lights come on and a little while after they go off, and pipe it with 4" duct outside, from the tank room. do you think a simple bathroom exhaust fan will be sufficient? how many cfm should i shoot for? the tank room is roughly 15x20, and also has the washer, dryer, hot water heater, and house heater in it.

i also thought about using something like this-
http://www.nehydro.com/store/index.php? ... 21711dd65f
to monitor humidity, but the sales department explained that a timer would be better, due to the fact that most of the evap takes place during the photo period.

any help would be appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

I wish I could help you there. When I did have my own reefs/tanks (I've kept lots of things) it was in Southern California where you don't really have the issues with winter air and warm water mixing. Plus, the air can get rather dry, even during winter months.

In my opinion, you're going to get humidity as long as the tank is warm, and that it has little to do with the lights being on. I would not only have the fan on when the lights are on, not at this point when the two of you are symptomatic and mold is already present.

CFMs are one issue, but what's going to be an even bigger issue is sones. I would pay more attention to sones than CFMs in this instance unless the tank is housed in such a way that you would never hear the fan. Then I would get a good quality bathroom fan (Broan makes good ones). Before I do that, I would check with my local building department to see what they recommend for bathrooms that have no windows (they might give a CFM recommendation, but could care less how much noise it makes). You give two of the three dimensions of the room, I think you need the third one to sort out CFMs properly. If it were me (again, had to do this two years ago when we were designing our kitchen) I would like to see something on the order of 3x room volume per hour as a minimum.

Your next problem is going to be addressing the mold that's already in the house, and hopefully the building department has some recommendations for that (assuming you haven't already sorted how to remove it).

I hope this helps! Oh, and if there's an odor you can't get rid of, I HIGHLY recommend Odorcide, properly diluted. It's spendy, but it WORKS.

 

[Anonymous]

>...but the sales department explained that a timer would be better, due to the fact that most of the evap takes place during the photo period.

Did you tell the saleman that it is a container of water with no plant above the water surface? He probably think that it is a regular hydro setup, and give you the misleading suggestion.

If you can do a 5X exchange per hour, that should cut the humidity down to outside value. Ask that same saleman about the exchage rate, and he should be able to give you more reasonable value than mine.

 

[mr_X]

thanks. i think simply drying out the house some will beat the mold.
my tank room is built in such a way that when the door is shut, you can't hear anything going on in there. i'm not so afraid of the noise, that i am overdoing the fan and running the heating bill up like crazy.

as far as being symptomatic, i'll have to get back to you on that. i'm far from an M.D., but i really would like to point my finger at the mold. it makes it simple :wink:

 

[mr_X]

>...but the sales department explained that a timer would be better, due to the fact that most of the evap takes place during the photo period.

Did you tell the saleman that it is a container of water with no plant above the water surface? He probably think that it is a regular hydro setup, and give you the misleading suggestion.

If you can do a 5X exchange per hour, that should cut the humidity down to outside value. Ask that same saleman about the exchage rate, and he should be able to give you more reasonable value than mine.

the salesman was aware that it's a reeftank, and not a hemp farm
5x exchange. thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Mold most certainly CAN be the root issue. The problem is, it may be difficult to determine. However, it's been rather cold in Pennsylvania, has it not? When you have cold air meeting warm, moist air, you're going to get condensation. So, I agree that it's probably linked to having a large vat of water sitting in the house.

Since noise isn't an issue, then I'd go with what's economical and will turn over the air volume. I think more is better, so if you can get 5x as Mr. Pea states, that's great. You should be able to find the information online. It's how I was able to find our kitchen hood (we have a 48" range, and had to get a hood that met code on several requirements) and get a GREAT price.

 

[mr_X]

yes, it's pretty cold, especially today. this basement has been humid even before the tank though. the dehumidifier would pull over a gallon of water a day before the tank. i gave up on running it once the tank was set up. i knew it wouldn't put a dent in the evap.

 

[Anonymous]

I think there are humidity controlled fans. ones that have the humidity control built in.

The box you linked would be good if you found out you needed a smaller or larger fan, or needed to add more fans to it.

Here's something to read. Most of it is common sense, but there are some good points.
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/current/B924.html

And take care of it soon. Mr.4000 had a 4000 gallon tank and it ruined his house. I think they even condemned it. He was one of the first people to have a huge tank in his house. There's a lot of information out there now from people who have made the same mistake, and fixed it.

B

 

[ChrisRD]

Look into an HRV unit. That's what Sanjay did for his large basement tank:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 75#1093475

 

[Anonymous]

>...the salesman was aware that it's a reeftank...

Evaporation has little to do with photo period, other than indirect result of extra heat that increase the rate of evaporation.

The 5X turn over rate is just a rough guessitamate. You need to verify that with a HVAC engineer or contractor that have working knowledge of the requirement.

 

[das75]

Up here where things can be colder HRV are the way to go. HD even carries units that can be installed by the home owner.

http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/new-homes/r-2000/standard/how-hrv-works.cfm?attr=4

 

[Verruckt]

What is the humidity in your house? I really don't think that 300gl of tank would create that much of an issue. I'd measure your humidity in the tank room, and in a general open area of your house. I'm sure you can google for an optimum range. Something a little below a humidor I'm thinking.

If it IS too high, and you think it's caused by your tank; maybe you could shut down the humidifier that is on your furnace and see what the level drops to then? Then again, maybe your furnace humidifier is malfuctioning and over humidifying your house? Just tossing out ideas. :?

 

[mr_X]

i ended up spending 70 bucks at home depot and throwing together a simple exhaust fan which pulls from just above the tank. it's a 250 cfm fan, and all the humidity problems are solved. sills are dry and the mold has not come back. i'm running it around the clock with no ill effects.

 

[Anonymous]

Not bad! Fan ususally don't use much electricity, so running it all the time should not be an issue. But when it start to affect your air inside the house, like when your AC is working in the summer, you may want to put a timer or controller on the fan.

 

[trido]

You could control the fan with a dehumidistat switch . The only problem is that the outside humididty affects it. I also have one fan controlled with a coolingstat. I couldnt tell you which I like best. I think the cooling stat.
Here is a link to both
http://www.iaqsource.com/product.php?product=110198

http://www.friesenelectric.com/Scripts/ ... roduct=342
Unfortunately I cant find a decent cooling stat on line. The one In my laundry room is rated for between 50 and 90 just like a regular houshold thermostat with comfort range and all. Just opposite.

 

[mr_X]

thanks. i have been running it 24/7 without adverse effects. it's been a tremendous help thus far.

 

[janzzdave]

bathroom fans is important for improving ... The best fans have sound ratings of 0.5 sones or less and consume about 20..


_________________
Bathroom fan

 

[Saltlick]

I had a similar situation but worse on my old 110 gallon reef. I had the tank and a big sump,
both coverless, AND a leak in the roof that let in water behind the walls and I can't tell you
here in the open forum about all the ills I had from that mold. I am not sure how much if
any the TANK had to do with it, but I would get headaches, diarhea, I never felt like eating.
I was wearing pants from high school. Other than the dainty wrists, I looked great, lol.
My nosy neighbor thought I had AIDS. She would never come out and say it, but she would
always get a real concerned sound in her voice and ask me if I was sure I was alright. As soon
as I got out of that house, I was fine. But I was renting it from a friend who lived out of town
and could not sell it, so I got alot of house for not too much money, and NO LANDLORD poking
around. And the black mold heebee-jeebies.