water loss

[mountaindew]

is it normal to be adding about 5-10 gals of water a day for evaporation.my lights are on 4 hours here and 4 hours there.110 gal with sump and it seems every day the sump is below the pump and I have to add more water.any suggestions

 

[twilliard]

Sure its 5 gallons??

I have a 120 and it looses 1 gallon a day with 2 250MH and 3 110W VHO

 

[mountaindew]

I have a 5 gal container and it takes the whole thing.could it be I dont have my skimmer right?

 

[twilliard]

wow thats a lot of water going out :O

 

[NaH2O]

I agree that seems like a large volume of water. On my 120 with a large sump, I'm evaporating around 2 gallons and I have MHs, and my house is really dry right now with the heat kicked on. Are you collecting a ton of skimmate? It seems like a lot of evaporation, but also seems like if the water was going somewhere else, you'd notice it by now. Are you finding any saltcreep on the outside of the tank anywhere?

 

[Meche]

I have a 5 gal container and it takes the whole thing.could it be I dont have my skimmer right?

Are you talking about the white buckets? Because they are more like 4gal. They might fit 5gal if you filled it to the tippy-top, but then you wouldn't be carrying it to the sump, you would be spilling it to the sump. :lol:

Also, what kind of lights do you have? Do you have any fans running near the surface of the display or sump? What are you using for a sump?

Check for a leak like Nikki suggested, that would be my first instinct too. But, if you have fans on both the display and sump, and you have high temp. lights on both, and they both have open tops, and your sump has a lot of surface area, and its dry because of winter, and you are topping off with 4gal and not 5gal... then you could just be loosing that much water through evaporation.

edit:

PM Brenden, he has a much bigger tank, but I think he looses almost 10gal a day (if I remember correctly)

 

[returnofsid]

Even if it's only 4 gallons it's still a lot!! Have you checked for wet carpet or salt creep on the outsides of your sump or tank? Might be an indication of a leak. Check all your exterior hoses as well. If you were skimming REAL wet and it was your skimmer, wouldn't you still notice it as you'd be emptying your collection an awful lot. I suppose if you had VERY vigorous surface agitation, you could be evaporating that much. I've had to replace 1 1/2 gallon in my 46 bowtank before but that's not the norm.

 

[Meche]

I replace 1/2 gal on a standard 55 with; no sump, no fans, T-5s (they run cool), and extremely little surface agitation.

Even if it's only 4 gallons it's still a lot!!

I agree. I'm not saying 4gal is "usual", but each set up is unique and I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility.

 

[davidabrown66]

I agree too much, I evap about 2 gal/day with (2) 250 watt halides, (3) VHO's on a 150 gal. Must be fans blowing across the water somewhere if you haven't noticed the carpet wet yet, or you're getting 2 gallons of skimmate daily. I evap'd about twice what I do now before I bought a chiller.

 

[dnjan]

How is your salinity? If it is evaporation, your salinity will probably be a bit high before you add the water. If it is a loss some other way, your salinity will gradually be getting lower because you are losing saltwater and replacing it with (fresh) make-up water.

 

[burning2nd]

dido...

keep an eye on the salt level...

that will tell you very quickly if your loseign water, or just evap'n

 

[mountaindew]

I am getting hardly any skimmate in the cup,now the tank has only been started a shot time.I have 2 54 watt actinics and 2 off the other ones.also the moon lights

 

[burning2nd]

that will have nothing to do with your water loss...

your either leaking...

have moveing air (causeing excessive water evap)

or removeing water thur your skimmer...

(anyone know of anyother ways to lose water)

bubbles?

if you have a bubbleing part of the tank and your geting salt creep (light's, external pumps, lids) you could be loseing more then normal amounts of water

other wise you have a leak..

5 gal loss a day is crazy..

whats the room temp, tank temp, and room humidy?

 

[mountaindew]

tank temp 78.7,room temp 82 the tank is on or enclosed porch in florida,humidity not bad

 

[theJ]

my 58 w/sump is loosing about 1/2g per day so far, its been running 5 days. no lights, no fans, skimmer isnt even running yet, 78.9-80 degrees.

Have you checked for wet carpet or salt creep on the outsides of your sump or tank?

I have noticed my carpet is a bit wet/cold in front of my tank AND i have a little salt creep on my sump. I was running 2 maxi 12's with the venturi running, i figured this could cause the carpet to be a bit wet (not very noticeable, but i notice..)

When checking for leaks, if you have no external plumbing (aside from an in tank overflow's bulkheads) is it a good idea to check the tank seams? I mean, on good factory tanks, do seams really fail? After reading a few different threads on salinity dropping (mine seems to drop a bit every other day) i am starting to get really worried..

Sorry to bump in on your thread, but my q is kinda relevant as far as where to check for leaks with no external plumbing

 

[burning2nd]

well,

theres a diffrence..

example
Monday morning 8am Salinty (prior to adding top off) 1.025 after adding half a gal to your system salt reads, 1.023 1/2

monday night 8pm salinty (prior to adding top off) 1.025 then repeat to 1.023 1/2

now if come thursday, your salt morning and night then reads

1.024- 1.023 morning to night. after adding water morning and night

then your leaking..

I would think that if the capet is wet (unless a mad storm just came thur)

your leaking..

 

[mountaindew]

I found the leak.it was about 4inchs down in one of the corner seals.waiting for new sealer to dry .thanks for everyones advice

 

[Sherman]

Just a reminder, then, to check the salinity. It's probably very low.

Since everyone was talking numbers, my 38g evaporates about 1.5g/day, but I'm pushing that as hard as I can with fans on the water. A 250w heater can barely keep up. I do it for heavy gas exchange and increased kalkwasser dosing. A friend's 240g evaporates 12g/day in the summer!

 

[NaH2O]

I found the leak.it was about 4inchs down in one of the corner seals.waiting for new sealer to dry .thanks for everyones advice

Glad you were able to locate the problem. Keep us posted, and like Sherman posted, check your salinity. If its low, then bring it back up slowly.

 

[mountaindew]

still leaking.sealed all four corners about 4inches down,when I fill it back up the same thing happens.really frustrating