Way too much humidity. Need advice.

[King_Neptune]

My aquarium room is having an obscene amount of moisture.
In one year, I went from fresh paint, and newly remodeled...
To mold and damp insulation/Sheetrock.

I only see three real options...
1. De-humidifier
2. Heater going 24/7
3. Ventilation fan

The room is 10x28 so I don't think a de-humidifier would be to much of an expense. I saw them at FRY's the other day for about $300 bucks. Are they worth it? What are your opinions?

 

[Coral Frenzy]

A dehumidifier is a great thing. I would recommend if you get one to get one that has a drain tube and run it to the drain in the floor if you have one. Most of the larger ones have float switches that will turn off if you forget to dump out the water. I know a couple of people who run them to a seperate tank and they water their houseplants with the water they get.

Fans will make a big difference. I have a friend who has a massive system in his basement and he has 4 or 5 fans and the humidity isn't too bad.

 

[returnofsid]

I think option 2 is out. A heater isn't going to cut down on humidity, it'll just make it warmer humidity.

Option 3 would work, IF you have a way to vent the fan to either outside or another area of the home. A ventilation fan, similar to what's in a bathroom, is definitely an option, but may require some remodeling and electrical "know how." You'd have to mount it in the ceiling or wall, wire it up and plumb the vent.

Option 1 seems like it may be the way to go, especially if your aquarium room has a floor drain.

 

[jrgilles]

Would a dehumidifier make your rate of evaporation go crazy?

 

[BackwerdsMan]

Would a dehumidifier make your rate of evaporation go crazy?

A dehumidifier(dry air) should increase the rate of evaporation.

A circulation fan that helps the humid air escape the room would surely help.

I would say your best option is to cover your tank. I had a piece of acryllic covering 75% of my tank, and when I got rid of it, my evaporation rate tripled. Even a partial lid will give the vapor a place to condense and drip back into the tank.

 

[Krish]

A dehumidifier(dry air) should increase the rate of evaporation.

A circulation fan that helps the humid air escape the room would surely help.

I would say your best option is to cover your tank. I had a piece of acryllic covering 75% of my tank, and when I got rid of it, my evaporation rate tripled. Even a partial lid will give the vapor a place to condense and drip back into the tank.

I guess the only thing you'd have to consider with a tank lid is less gas exchange taking place so it is something to keep in mind as well.

BTW, Welcome to RF if I haven't welcomed you already

 

[King_Neptune]

Hmmm. I like the idea of the humidifier draining into a separate container.
I wonder if that would be good RO recycling
Im not really fond of option 3 anyways, since that just runs up an electric bill.
I thin Ill pick up one at FRY's this afternoon.

 

[returnofsid]

Hmmm. I like the idea of the humidifier draining into a separate container.
I wonder if that would be good RO recycling
Im not really fond of option 3 anyways, since that just runs up an electric bill.
I thin Ill pick up one at FRY's this afternoon.

Actually, I'd imagine a ventilation fan will use less electricity than a dehumidifier, though may be less effective

 

[King_Neptune]

Ya, initially but there is one other thing to consider....
the main problem with the ventilation fan is it is going to be drawing air from somewhere.Its basically a garage that's been converted. Concrete floor, single pane windows ect. A vent fan is easy enough to install, but pushing the air out one end is simply going to pull it in the other. That is going to have an affect on keeping the tank warm, and re-heating the buildings air supply.

The more I think about it, the more I like the de-humidifier. I can get a smaller unit, and keep it on a timer or something and tweak till I get the right amount of "On-Time"
Who knows, maybe an hour burst 2x a day will be all it takes.

 

[FreakinReefin]

Okay, have A LOT of experience with this exact subject and I can tell you that a dehumidifier is definitely not the way to go UNLESS you have no other option. I have four tanks that run in my fish room and I literally had water on the floor/walls/everything else 100% of the time. I went out and bought a highly recommended dehumidifier(50 pints per day) and within a year it was not working correctly. I called customer service and they stated that the break down has a lot to do with how much the dehumidifier works and with what(saltwater). The machine is not meant to be working in a salt environment and the corrosion will run rampant...problem #1. BIG problem with a dehumidifier is also that is puts out a tremendous amount of heat. This was a big problem with my situation...problem #2. Also the rate of evaporation quadrupled and the customer service guy pointed out that, given the use, the machine would almost never turn off simply because the whole point is to extract water from the surrounding environment, which means it will be constantly pulling water out of our tanks/sumps/anything with open exposure to air...problem #3. I took care of all this by simply putting a larger (box) fan in the window pointing out. This actually lowered the humidity even lower than the dehumidifier could...without heat and with not even close to as much evaporation. So...dehumidifier = bad choice IF you have a window nearby and a fan.

 

[King_Neptune]

So it sounds like Ill have to bit the bullet and Place a vent blowing outside.
Any thoughts on a timer? Or do you have yours running 24/7?

 

[Jesse_emel]

I had a 335 gallon system in a room that was 10' x 18' and used a simple 100 cfm bathroom fan running 24/7 to clear the room worked great and was cheap to install and cheap to run. Wired it to an outlet through a switch on the wall for easy on/off and vented it over the foundation wall out the side of the house via a dryer flapper vent.

 

[FreakinReefin]

So it sounds like Ill have to bit the bullet and Place a vent blowing outside.
Any thoughts on a timer? Or do you have yours running 24/7?

I just keep mine running. I suppose you could put it on a timer but then you are going to have to try to measure what your humidity is at a certain time of day to guage when the fan turns on...or you could just set it to run at random intervals. Either way I don't think it matters. I was SHOCKED to see how easy it was to keep the humidity down though and I think you will see this too.

It was really rediculous and I thought the problem was never going to go away...wet feel to the carpet even a couple rooms over. I had to continually adjust the dehumidifier to around 50-65% humidity in order to juggle the humidity vs the amount of time the machine spent while on. If I adjusted the settings for around 50 or less, it would never turn off and the whole downstairs would heat up to 80 degrees with the amount of heat the machine put out. The fan keeps the humidity at 40%...rock on.

 

[mojoreef]

I use a frigidaire 100 dollar model and just leave it running, It has a number of settings and so on to adjust for how much you want to dry things. and it has a 1 gallon container built in that shuts the unit off when its full. I got it at Lowes, works like a charm

Mojo

 

[King_Neptune]

Well its settled. Ill get the fan installed later this afternoon.
I did find a 50 pint unit on craigs list for $100 just now. I might pick it up.
Just for the sake of clearing out the room faster. I literally have condensation dripping off the walls and the carpet is wet. Im bleaching the wall, and painting with Killz2, and then re-doing the whole room with a fresh coat of paint. The damaged insulation and sheet rock are coming out as well.

Man, this could have been avoided with just a simple $10 fan.

 

[Jesse_emel]

Well its settled. Ill get the fan installed later this afternoon.
I did find a 50 pint unit on craigs list for $100 just now. I might pick it up.
Just for the sake of clearing out the room faster. I literally have condensation dripping off the walls and the carpet is wet. Im bleaching the wall, and painting with Killz2, and then re-doing the whole room with a fresh coat of paint. The damaged insulation and sheet rock are coming out as well.

Man, this could have been avoided with just a simple $10 fan.

Yeah it's amazing the lessons you learn as a reefer. Some by making mistakes and some by simply forgetting stuff or not realizing you neglected a certain aspect of the build.

Good luck with the install and don't forget to shut off the power to the room or outlet your working with (!!test the plug before wiring!!). Learned that lesson the hard way. thought i tripped the right breaker but was surprisingly wrong

 

[NWDiver]

Rather than a timer, is there a humidity sensor that anyone is aware of which could be connected to a relay to turn on the fan? I would like to go that route for sure.

 

[mfinn]

I've been using the same Sears dehumidifer for 6-7 years and it just keeps working fine.
I usually only use it in the winter when the house stays closed up.

 

[tgfrench]

For me It was a no brainer, In North Carolina the outside humidity in the summer runs around 80+ humidity. Pulling in outside air wasn't an option. Putting a lid on my tanks only resulted in increasing my tank temps. De-humidifier was the way to go. It has a humidity sensor built in so that "If and When" it gets too low it turns off. My cheap kenmore unit is able to keep the humidity down to 65% which is below mold growth limit. Less humidity=more evaporation=lower tank temps

 

[King_Neptune]

Just an update:
Last week I cleaned all the walls, and I installed a small 4w (5 inch)high speed fan that pulls out a little over 400 cubic feet per minute.I picked it up at a grow shop for 30 bucks. Came with a wall socket plug in. Since its so low in power consumption, I dont mind it being on 24/7.

Usually within a couple days of cleaning the walls the mold would be back. But its been a week and nothing. Not even condensation dripping off the doors and windows. I think I got the solution. Thanks everyone.