Evaporation vs leaks

[ReefinItReal88]

Good evening guys, I have had a reef for awhile but recently I've been noticing water loss from my tank more often in my new place.

40g frag tank. 1/8" to 1/6" of an inch of drop in water line every 12-18 hours

I can't find any water or Salt creep anywhere.

 

[Idoc]

Evaporation more than likely dinne you aren't noticing and water outside the tank. My 75g evaporates off around 1 to 1.5 gallons per day depending on the time of year.

 

[kintle]

If it helps my 28 gallon goes through about 4 gallons every week. I dont have a hood or covers though. While my house vents dont point straight at it they are close to pointing at my tank so I'm sure more airflow is directed there then I'd like. I've accepted this and decided this is motivation enough to get a rodi unit so I dont need to go to the lfs as often for rodi water which leads to me getting g more corrals that I dont have space for.

 

[ReefinItReal88]

Mine is open top, single heater, set to 76F, two powerheads, not running my sump, overflow, or reactors yet. Just set it back up

 

[ihavecrabs]

Evaporation changes depending on the time of year, relative humidity of the air, if you run a furnace/AC or not, etc. It is likely evaporation, especially if you don't see any puddles

 

[ReefinItReal88]

My new house is forced steam radiator heat. So dry air and it's winter

 

[vetteguy53081]

Evaporation is a normal yet nerve-racking characteristic of a reef aquarium. My 360g is 2 gals per day. Even my 45g drop off is about a gallon every 4 days.

 

[jda]

I am about 25 gallons a week here in the super-dry Colorado climate on my 240 (320g) system. This is a good thing. You need good surface agitation to exchange gasses, but this also evaporates stuff.

 

[andrewkw]

Unless you can't check all around your pipes and the tank there is no way this is a leak. Do you have a humidity reading for the tank room?
If you are still worried try putting paper towels or tissues all around the tank and pipes and if they are dry the next morning you 100% don't have a leak.

 

[garbled]

Watch your salinity. If you add top off water to makeup the difference, and the salinity goes down over time, it's a leak. If it stays relatively the same, it's evaporation. (I mean, aside from the obvious looking for salt stalactites on pvc fittings)

 

[Saveafish]

Good evening guys, I have had a reef for awhile but recently I've been noticing water loss from my tank more often in my new place.

40g frag tank. 1/8" to 1/6" of an inch of drop in water line every 12-18 hours

I can't find any water or Salt creep anywhere.

If you have gas heat, I'll drop your level fast. Gas heat is uber bad on sucking water out of the air.

 

[ReefinItReal88]

I have steam heat (through old school radiators), and I only lose between 1/8"-1/4" daily max, no salt creep, and no water anywhere (not even residue droplets). I don't have pipes to check because I haven't installed my overflow and sump yet.

I didn't think it was a leak; I just wanted to be sure. I just didn't have evaporation at this speed before except out of my sump

 

[ca1ore]

Evaporation occurs from all parts of a system. An oveflow in the main tank will maintain a constant level there so the sump reflects all the water loss.

 

[Jon McCutcheon]

i got a boiler system in my house also and go thru about 2 gal a week in my 30g salt tank that is open top, the cast iron radiators really dry out the air so the humidity in your house is probably real low so more evaporation will occur

 

[saltyhog]

Depending on where you live, humidity levels indoors during the winter can be very low. Our indoor humidity even with about 250 gallons of aquariums is in the 35% range. In summer it's closer to 60%. Not surprisingly evaporation from the tanks is much more during the winter.