Aquarium Cabinet Ventilation Please Help

Skep18 · Jun 11, 2018

Insulate the walls in the stand

Innocent_romeo · Jun 11, 2018

how can i because its really hard to access back wall

14 foot reef · Jun 11, 2018

Try this and get a second one as a push pull design. I have these on my elaborite AV rack and they keep that monster at a cool 89 degrees. They are thermostatically controlled, the warmer it gets, the faster the fans run to cool.
They are very very quiet too.
https://www.acinfinity.com/quiet-ca...6vkU3TsOgRsT2AnuuPioNai-kvHua7WYaAvWYEALw_wcB

Brew12 · Jun 11, 2018

Innocent_romeo said:
my house temp is 78 now without ac

Ok... I'd set the temperature to 78 degrees and make sure the fan in your sump isn't blowing at the water. The tank shouldn't need the heaters once it is up to temp until your house starts cooling at night.

78F is a much healthier temp for a reef tank than 75F imo.

Innocent_romeo · Jun 11, 2018

Brew12 said:
Ok... I'd set the temperature to 78 degrees and make sure the fan in your sump isn't blowing at the water. The tank shouldn't need the heaters once it is up to temp until your house starts cooling at night.

78F is a much healthier temp for a reef tank than 75F imo.

yeah hopefull it will fix my problem and for the fan did you see pictures its facing top of the sump.do you want me to move so that way it can blow air over the top

Innocent_romeo · Jun 11, 2018

My Reef Beauty

Dom · Jun 11, 2018

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

I have to say... now that I've seen these pictures on my computer (and not my phone), that looks like a leak. I know the leak theory was suggested somewhere else in this thread, and I agree.

In my estimation, it looks as though the sump is leaking... the bottom of the cabinet is getting wet and the side walls of the cabinet are acting like a wick, drawing moisture up the sides.

Innocent_romeo · Jun 11, 2018

Dom said:
I have to say... now that I've seen these pictures on my computer (and not my phone), that looks like a leak. I know the leak theory was suggested somewhere else in this thread, and I agree.

In my estimation, it looks as though the sump is leaking... the bottom of the cabinet is getting wet and the side walls of the cabinet are acting like a wick, drawing moisture up the sides.

ill take a look one more time but sump is not leaked .

redfishbluefish · Jun 11, 2018

14 foot reef said:
Try this and get a second one as a push pull design......

Push /Pull doesn't accomplish anything more than Push / Ventilate. If you wish to run two fans, run both as Push with the stand ventilated. I'd suggest you do this with your AV rack....you'll get twice the cooling.

Brew12 · Jun 11, 2018

Innocent_romeo said:
yeah hopefull it will fix my problem and for the fan did you see pictures its facing top of the sump.do you want me to move so that way it can blow air over the top

I think I would either turn the fan off for now, or point it at the back wall.

Brew12 · Jun 11, 2018

Innocent_romeo said:
My Reef Beauty

Very nice!

Dom · Jun 11, 2018

Skep18 said:
Insulate the walls in the stand

How would this help? Mind you I am not suggesting that it is a bad idea, I'm just asking you to expand with an explanation.

Innocent_romeo · Jun 11, 2018

Brew12 said:
Very nice!

thanks

P-Dub · Jun 11, 2018

As others have suggested, and what I did for my canopy is the AC Infinity cabinet fans. They look great, cool the water and vent the canopy and are inexpensive.
I have two double fans. You can have one pulling air in and the other blowing it out.

Skep18 · Jun 11, 2018

Dom said:
How would this help? Mind you I am not suggesting that it is a bad idea, I'm just asking you to expand with an explanation.

The same concept as having a can of soda sweat in a room. Hot air with moisture in it condenses on relatively cooler walls. Cabinet walls are exposed to room temperature. If your room is cooler than the fish tank, which I assume it is, the hot cabinet air will sweat on the cabinet walls. Only problem is insulation isn't perfect and will cool still to the outside room but presumably much slower and sweat much less.

Also if you're cabinet inner walls aren't painted with a water proof coating, the wood grain will want to soak up the moisture in the air. Pink foam board will also be more waterproof and won't want to soak in the moisture.

A this said since you still have an endless supply of hot water inside, the effects of this will be limited. I would suspect it's better than none but not perfect.

Bmezz · Jun 11, 2018

I have a 180 with a 50 gallon sump. When my stand was made I had holes routered on both sides like this picture.
Then inside the stand on both sides I have 2 icecap 4" fans blowing out.
I have a chiller in there as well and no heat issues

Bmezz · Jun 11, 2018

Bmezz said:
I have a 180 with a 50 gallon sump. When my stand was made I had holes routered on both sides like this picture.
Then inside the stand on both sides I have 2 icecap 4" fans blowing out.
I have a chiller in there as well and no heat issues

if u want pictures from the inside I can take tonight let me know

Yellowsound · Jun 11, 2018

Hey guys- I see a few of you have recommended blowing the fan in. I have 2 CPU fans installed in my cabinet that are blowing out.
I set mine up this way after a fair bit of research here and on other sites... the logic being, the fans push the humid air out, and there is clean, dry air pulled into the cabinet through other vent holes. I ran my tank this way for 4 years and it never got humid in my sump cabinet (that is, until my tank sprung a leak!) Are there other considerations that I'm missing? The fans still run fine - just waiting for my new tank! (The CPU fans outlasted the tank. Ouch.)

Forsaken77 · Jun 11, 2018

Innocent_romeo said:
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 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.

Innocent_romeo · Jun 11, 2018

P-Dub said:
As others have suggested, and what I did for my canopy is the AC Infinity cabinet fans. They look great, cool the water and vent the canopy and are inexpensive.
I have two double fans. You can have one pulling air in and the other blowing it out.

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