Can it rain in my fish room

[Anonymous]

I have an unusual new problem where my fish room is damp in the morning. Looks like little tiny drops of water here and there. After carefully inspecting every piece of equipment that I thought could spray water, I have come to the conclusion that it is raining in my fish room at night. I even found water spots on my Lumenarc III's. That is when I decided it can't possibly be a piece of equipment. My 75G aquarium stand is still wet every morning even though I emptied it two nights ago. I think humidty migrates towards things that are damp to start with. But that stand is just as wet as it was when I suspected a leak (it did in fact have a small leak at one of the bulkheads).

Every evening the whole fish room is dry. The halides warm the room, the window AC cools and dehumidifies. At night, and especially now that we are having cooler weather, the AC compressor doesn't run much if any. This allows the humidity to climb all the way into the mid 80's. The humidity in the evening in the fish room is normally in the mid to upper 60's.

The humidity in my family room right now is 74%. If I took my temperature/humidity sensor outside right now it could probably be the same. I have checked it before and indoors is normally about the same as outdoors. Yes, it is humid in Florida.

Am I crazy, or is it actually raining in my fish room?

What should I do to make it stop?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Get a dehumidifier

Wow, that was an easy answer.....

 

[Anonymous]

Or, you could get some indians and have them do you a rain dance -- in reverse.....

 

[Anonymous]

By the way, a customer of mine recently put a dehumidifier on a boat we were working on (the boat is normally kept under a covered dock which we don't have) and it broke. Apparently they aren't allowed to freeze, so don't let it get too cold in that fish room this winter Louey :wink:

 

[GSchiemer]

I would first recommend venting to the outside, but that won't help you because of the high humidity outdoors. The next option is to purchase a dehumidfier and run it at night. Alternatively, and a better option, IME, is to run the A/C at night. You can probably set the thermostat a little higher at night because you're not competing with the lights. Humidity is a killer; address it now before it destroys the room and everything in it.

Greg

 

[Anonymous]

I do run the AC at night, but since it is set at 72, it doesn't have to run hear as much, if at all, like it does in the day time when the halides are on.

This is a new problem too. It started right when the weather changed and we started getting some lows in the 50 - 60's.

I guess I should get one of those portable dehumidifiers at HD. Hopefully I can install a drain line through the wall so that I don't have to empty it all the time.

One other item of note is that the tank isn't really evaporating any more water than in the summer. Perhaps even less, yet I get this humidty, condensation, raining problem. It's weird.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I do run the AC at night, but since it is set at 72, it doesn't have to run hear as much, if at all, like it does in the day time when the halides are on.

This is a new problem too. It started right when the weather changed and we started getting some lows in the 50 - 60's.

I guess I should get one of those portable dehumidifiers at HD. Hopefully I can install a drain line through the wall so that I don't have to empty it all the time.

One other item of note is that the tank isn't really evaporating any more water than in the summer. Perhaps even less, yet I get this humidty, condensation, raining problem. It's weird.

Louey

Its a function of temperature verses humidity. That is why you wouldn't notice it when its really hot out. Its one of the reasons you get up some mornings and your car is covered with dew and other mornings its dry...

I would get the dehumidifier, you can leave it on all the time, or some of them even have sensors in them so you can set it for a certain humidity.

Make sure you get one that can be hooked up to a drain line, They do sell those too. Buying one that is already plumbed for that is way easier than installing a drain fitting in the collection cup of one that isin't plumbed for it.

The one the boat owner bought he got at wallmart for 60$ and it seemed to do a great job for the week or so before the temps got down below freezing and broke it....


Oh, and Gscheimer is definetly right, excess humidity is Bad bad bad. I seem to remember someone who had a very large VERY large tank and it ruined part of his house and he had to tear it all down. Something about the water gettin up under the eaves and rotting out the roof joists or something....

 

[Anonymous]

Mr. 4000 had to break down his tank because it was ruining his house.

I'll pick up a dehumidifier today. This must end now.

Louey

 

[vair]

If you want to spend some money have you looked at air exchangers/HEAT RECOVERY VENTILATOR's? It acts like a dehumidifier with tons of other very positive benifits. I have one it's great.

http://www.lifebreath.com/life.htm

Dave

 

[jent46bow]

you could cover your tank with glass at night

 

[Anonymous]

the "raining" is coming from the humidity, I know if I keep my window closed in my fish room there is a nasty humidity in the morning, the floor feels wet, everything has "dew" on it.. not good considering some of that stuff is electrical

 

[Anonymous]

This is a big issue with a lot of chameleon keepers. They mist gallons of water into the air every day and then wonder why their walls are getting mildewy. :lol:

I would try using the AC as well and see how it works before shelling out for a dehumidifier.

Sorry that you're having all these issues with the new tank Louey. Whatever happened with those isopods?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm certain my Lagoon would be a problem if I didn't vent it to the outside. I have a thin plastic "canopy" as a vapor barrier and a small fan to suck humid air outside. The basement stays nice & dry except when I screw up the water changes

 

[Anonymous]

Matt wrote:

I would try using the AC as well and see how it works before shelling out for a dehumidifier.

I have a window AC unit. It won't run in cooler weather. I already have it set for 72, and that is cold to me.

I picked up a dehumidifier at HD. We'll see how it works. I'm not worried about this little bit of extra cost at this point. It's really quite trivial considering how much I have already spent on this tank.

Whatever happened with those isopods?

They are still in the system. They are what forced my hand in getting away from my Beckett skimmer. The needlewheel in my Bubble King skimmer eats them up. So the pods are no longer a problem.


Vair wrote:

If you want to spend some money have you looked at air exchangers/HEAT RECOVERY VENTILATOR's? It acts like a dehumidifier with tons of other very positive benifits. I have one it's great.

http://www.lifebreath.com/life.htm

Too late. I'll keep this in mind if the dehumidifier doesn't work.

Guy wrote:

I'm certain my Lagoon would be a problem if I didn't vent it to the outside. I have a thin plastic "canopy" as a vapor barrier and a small fan to suck humid air outside. The basement stays nice & dry except when I screw up the water changes

My Lumenarc III's are ducted together and the heat is exhausted to the outside through a vent I installed in the wall.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Matt Wandell wrote:

Sorry that you're having all these issues with the new tank Louey.

That's okay Matt. I knew there would be issues and that I wouldn't truley be complete with this tank until all four seasons have past. I have read about reefers with humidity problems and had nothing in place to deal with it. That wasn't really something I could plan for until I had the tank up and running. Hopefully, this issue is now resolved.

As for the marine pods, that really pisses me off. I do love my Bubble King though.

Apparently, I have now broken down my 75G fuge thinking it was leaking from a seam. I suspect that is not the case now. At least I was able to move the 75G out from the wall so that I could change the switch out to one of those remote control, wall mounted fan/light controllers. Now I can leave the fan running on low all the time and not have to mess with the pull chain to turn the light on. So you see, there is a silver lining in everything

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

:lol:

My silver lining would have something to do with seeing more pics.....

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, Bryan. Pictures below just for you.

There is two picture of the stand for my 75G fuge. One is what I was waking up to every day before I got the dehumidifier (since the weather change to cooler weather). The other is this morning. The stand is bone dry

The other picture is of the dehumidifier itself. I set it at 40% and it only took it down to 55%. That's probably as low as it can take it considering that is less than the relative humidity in the house and outside.

Problem solved

I am going to water test the 75G tank today and hopefully not have to re-do the silicone. I think a small leak in one of the bulkheads is what caused the stand to get wet in the first place.

Thanks for the tips, guys!

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent!

Hey, that looks like a nice dehumidifier....



My house actually needs several humidifiers, its so dry in here that I can't leave a guitar out of its case without damage occurring....

 

[Anonymous]

It's an LG. That's the brand that HD carries. It's a 45 pint unit.

I got to go to HD again and get fitting to take the drain out through the wall.

The picture below shows how much water it collected last night. And I emptied the bucket before I went to bed.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Aren't those things really expensive to run?