Aquarium Cabinet Ventilation Please Help

[Innocent_romeo]

I had this exact problem. It's not so much about evaporation as it is the temp issue that's causing condensation and a lack of dry air circulating into the cabinet.

What I did to fix this issue... First, I left a small bottle propping each cabinet door to allow better air flow. Second, I used multiple clip-on fans and cliped them to the back undersides of the stand. Don't aim them towards the sump water because you'll encourage more evaporation. Aim them to bounce off the side walls of the cabinet, across the tip of the skimmer (because moisture comes out of the holes) and try to get the air inside the cabinet to flow out the crack in the doors.

Just pushing air around inside the closed cabinet doesn't work. Plus, aiming it at the cabinet walls and such will keep those areas dry.

The fans I used weren't powerful. They used a micro usb cable for power. Just enough to get the air out of the cabinet.

can you post a picture please

 

[Mfreddy]

Hi all.
I have a 200g tank with about a 40-50g sump. I have a small fan blowing across the surface of the sump water to keep the temp below 80. [we keep the AC a little warmer than most because it costs so much to cool it.) The problem that I'm seeing is a lot of condensation /moisture in the enclosed stand. The inside of the stand near the sump is often coated with moisture,everything is wet floor,walls,uv,sump pvc fittings and even the fan. I'm guessing this is because the fan is increasing evaporation of the sump water, and it has to go somewhere also my stand is enclosed so there is heck no way for ventilation except doors and i dont wanna make holes and damaged my stand to put that small cpu fans.one of my friend told me that if you coverup your sump completely that way you can getrid of this moisture problem so still confused because its hard to cover with all pvc fitting skimmer etc etc.its a major problem for me because i can see the walls of my stand is wet thats way too much moisture.

Note:Top is open with egg crates
I would appreciate any help you have. Thanks.

I go open back and have never had an issue

 

[RussC]

I had the same issue trying to manage temp. Added a fan and now keep my doors open a couple inches. Worked like a charm. Easily lowered my tank temp a good two degrees and spent a whopping $6 on a small fan from Walmart. Got it hooked up through the apex. Keep your doors open. Worked well for me.

 

[Javier Leon]

Check It Out.take a look on rear wall & bottom.
Water temp is 75

Are you sure that you don’t have a leak back there, cause is a lot of humidity on that wood or could be splashing but seems to be a lot, be careful and keep an eye on the wood stand it may give up in future

 

[P-Dub]

i have open top canopy so i dont thinknso i need this

Um, you were inquiring about your stand having issues with condensation, were you not? I was not suggesting you use these for your canopy but you can if you have an enclosed canopy which you don't. This method that I used for the canopy will work just as well for your stand enclosure. This was my point...

 

[PhreeByrd]

Assuming that there really is no leaking or splashing , then the problem is both condensation and evaporation. Putting a fan inside an enclosed cabinet only makes things worse and does little for cooling except for cooling due to condensation (and we know where that has gotten us).

It is absolutely false that evaporation is required for cooling. It is not. The sump could be totally sealed to prevent evaporation, and blowing cooler room air over it would still cool it by convection. I use this method with small hospital and quarantine tanks all the time. The problem is internally generated heat radiates into the water and stays there. One way to remove that heat from the water is to open the top of the tank and allow evaporation. That works. The other way is to leave the tank covered and remove heat directly by blowing cooler air over it. This also works just fine. But either way, the heat needs to go somewhere. You can't just keep it in an enclosed box and expect it to disappear.

My question for the OP is this:
How were you keeping the tank at 75 degrees when your indoor ambient temperature was 80 degrees?

I saw no mention of a chiller, so this would be a pretty good trick.

Beyond all of that, I agree that having the tank temperature below the room temperature can be a big problem for condensation. Conversely, having the tank temperature too far above the room temperature can be a problem with evaporation (and therefore room humidity).

There is more to Air Conditioning than just cooling the air. An equally important goal of A/C is the removal of moisture (and latent heat) from the air. But this requires controlled condensation. Fortunately, a forced air residential or commercial HVAC system is designed to do this, so take advantage of it. I understand the desire to economize and conserve energy, but in the OP's case, avoiding running the home's A/C system is the worst possible choice.

 

[Bfoot]

My

Hi all.
I have a 200g tank with about a 40-50g sump. I have a small fan blowing across the surface of the sump water to keep the temp below 80. [we keep the AC a little warmer than most because it costs so much to cool it.) The problem that I'm seeing is a lot of condensation /moisture in the enclosed stand. The inside of the stand near the sump is often coated with moisture,everything is wet floor,walls,uv,sump pvc fittings and even the fan. I'm guessing this is because the fan is increasing evaporation of the sump water, and it has to go somewhere also my stand is enclosed so there is heck no way for ventilation except doors and i dont wanna make holes and damaged my stand to put that small cpu fans.one of my friend told me that if you coverup your sump completely that way you can getrid of this moisture problem so still confused because its hard to cover with all pvc fitting skimmer etc etc.its a major problem for me because i can see the walls of my stand is wet thats way too much moisture.

Note:Top is open with egg crates
I would appreciate any help you have. Thanks.

 

[Bfoot]

My tank and canopy are open and I was really surprised how much a small fan blowing across top of tank cooled the water temp

 

[Brew12]

My tank and canopy are open and I was really surprised how much a small fan blowing across top of tank cooled the water temp

Enthalpy is an amazing thing! It isn't logical that water can be cooled to a temperature lower than the air around it by blowing that air over it, but it works. Latent heat of vaporization. Fascinating stuff.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I use fans on both ends of canopy

 

[Forsaken77]

can you post a picture please

I no longer have that tank setup. I'm using a 93 cube temporarily while I'm gathering everything for my new 180 build. Just had surgery so things are on hold.

But these are the fans I used to give you an idea... They were $15 each.

At the time I used 4 of them, which you may need with that amount of moisture. I was concerned about the woods integrity.

My stand is open in the back, so I clipped the fans upside down onto the bottom part of the top back panel of the stand.

I faced the 2 outer ones at the inside walls of the cabinet to keep the wood dry. I faced one over the top of the skimmer because moisture comes out of the holes on the cup, and the last one I faced toward a cracked-open door to vent the air out. The side facing fans also blew air out of the doors after bouncing off the side panels.

I would use a small bottle of Seachem Prime on the floor (for example) to keep the doors from shutting completely, slightly cracked open.

I also had pieces of black shelving blocking the side-views of behind the stand (like an extended part of the cabinet because it matched the stand) to keep animal hair out from the dogs and from seeing the cords. It went from the back of the stand to the wall. After I removed the shelves, it allowed much more air circulation for the fans.

Just buy cheap, clip-on fans because they won't cause too much evaporation and are enough to circulate air and keep the area dry. Not having the tank right up against the wall helps as well, but it's probably to late for that.

My fans were crap and needed constant cleaning and tightening of the blade. It was listed as rechargeable, but the battery only lasted 2 hours so I left them plugged in on a 4-way power strip by themselves. So I could just flip the strip on and all the fans would pop on. They were very low voltage fans and got the job done.

I still use one on my 93 cube now, but I never face them directly towards the sump. It's to get that humid air out the front and new air in the back. You don't want the same air circulating inside a closed cabinet because it defeats the purpose. That's why you need the doors cracked open. Then in the winter you can easily remove the fans. Nothing permanent and didn't have to modify the stand.

 

[sawdonkey]

I'd recommend some sort of external ventilation.

https://www.acinfinity.com/quiet-cabinet-fans/

I use these too. They crap out after a year or two, but @ $21 ea, not a big deal. They look sleek too.

 

[sundog101]

I have a this in my stand. No more issues!

 

[Shaun Sweeney]

Ok, here's the crazy idea for the day. I did it, and it helped. Use an old car radiator to take the heat off. Build a heat exchange unit for your system and put it in the sump. I made mine out of PVC but of course that won't exchange heat as well as titanium tubing. Place the radiator in the coolest place you can find and put a fan in front of it. Include a circulating pump in the circuit. When you want to take heat off, turn the pump on. Voila! You have a cooling system that won't increase evaporation.

 

[kchristensen8064]

Seams like a leak(s). Check for leaks throughly

I agree. If it was condensation there wouldn't be salt creep in the corner. I think it's a leak of some sort for that reason.

 

[sundog101]

Ok, here's the crazy idea for the day. I did it, and it helped. Use an old car radiator to take the heat off. Build a heat exchange unit for your system and put it in the sump. I made mine out of PVC but of course that won't exchange heat as well as titanium tubing. Place the radiator in the coolest place you can find and put a fan in front of it. Include a circulating pump in the circuit. When you want to take heat off, turn the pump on. Voila! You have a cooling system that won't increase evaporation.

That’s great!

 

[Innocent_romeo]

Still facing issues also just notices there are 3 big holes on a back of stand bit still when i see today its all wet very badly.

 

[sawdonkey]

Here’s what mine look like in my canopy. The side pushed air in and the top pushes air out.