How do you guys deal with humidity?

[keithw283]

I have been in the hobby for about 10 years now. Never had a lid on any of my tanks until now. I always had smaller tanks where humidity wasn't really any issue until my 180G collapsed my ceiling in my living room over the tank. So now I put a lid on my 55 but I feel the lid is blocking a good bit of light from reaching the bottom of the tank. Would a higher quality lid help? The one I got was pretty cheap as all I wanted it to do was keep the moisture from getting to the ceiling. Maybe a canopy with the light underneath it? Just wondering how you guys deal with it.

 

[DE FISH]

Get yourself a dehumidifier our tank is in our bedroom open top no lid our dehumidifier is set to 50% humidity. Keeps the damp away. Also opening windows will help but that’s dependant on outside humidity.

 

[olonmv]

Have you tried directing air mass from over your tank towards your air-return?

 

[KonradTO]

I built a DIY lid with an acrylic pane, but my tank is a quite small (32g) in comparison.
With the lid I have almost no evaporation, and I have no problems with salt spray on the lid. Obviously you will loose some PAR (hard to say how much, probably around 20%) but I suppose it does not really matter with the lights used for reef tanks. There is no other way to reduce evaporation from your tank unless you are happy with some AC/dehumidifier working 24/7 or keeping your windows open. I live in Germany so in both cases its not an option.

 

[Doctorgori]

I have both a hybrid water heater and dehumidifier

 

[Idech]

In winter it’s so dry in my house I have to use a humidifier. In summer I use A/C so I’ve never had that problem.

If you can run A/C it would help. They’re almost silent whereas dehumidifiers are noisy.

 

[keithw283]

Get yourself a dehumidifier our tank is in our bedroom open top no lid our dehumidifier is set to 50% humidity. Keeps the damp away. Also opening windows will help but that’s dependant on outside humidity.

I'll look into that. Any suggestions on a good one?

 

[keithw283]

In winter it’s so dry in my house I have to use a humidifier. In summer I use A/C so I’ve never had that problem.

If you can run A/C it would help. They’re almost silent whereas dehumidifiers are noisy.

I do have central air but in the winter It is way too cold to run that. Maybe it won't be a problem with the dry air in the winter though.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Get yourself a dehumidifier our tank is in our bedroom open top no lid our dehumidifier is set to 50% humidity. Keeps the damp away. Also opening windows will help but that’s dependant on outside humidity.

Seems like an easy solution but it adds heat to the room that may not be desired.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I do have central air but in the winter It is way too cold to run that. Maybe it won't be a problem with the dry air in the winter though.

I'm in the north-east and winters are non-problematic.

Even with increased evaporation air is bone dry.

 

[DE FISH]

Seems like an easy solution but it adds heat to the room that may not be desired.

This is true but dependant on the room size this could be a very small increase

 

[KonradTO]

I would consider dealing with the problem at the root: evaporation-->reduce evaporation.
Decreasing water content in the room air will increase even more evaporation, basically you will consume electricity to suck the water out of the tank. If you can find some thick acryrlic at reasonable prices then a lid can prevent evaporation and avoid jumpers from surf the carpet at the same time..

 

[keithw283]

I would consider dealing with the problem at the root: evaporation-->reduce evaporation.
Decreasing water content in the room air will increase even more evaporation, basically you will consume electricity to suck the water out of the tank. If you can find some thick acryrlic at reasonable prices then a lid can prevent evaporation and avoid jumpers from surf the carpet at the same time..

I have a lid now. Evaporation is not a problem currently but the lid is definitely blocking a lot of the light. Even with cleaning it twice weekly that isn't doing much to help at all. My zoas were stretching quite a bit and I took the lid off one day just for a couple hours and they went back to normal.

 

[Utubereefer]

I have a 4” inline exhaust fan that runs 24/7 cycling the air out of my fish room. Helps with humidity and ph in my opinion.

 

[BZOFIQ]

This is true but dependant on the room size this could be a very small increase

To be honest with you, that just hasn't been my experience - regardless of room size.

Then again, I like it on the cooler side so somebody else might not be bothered by it and see it as a benefit.

 

[KonradTO]

I have a lid now. Evaporation is not a problem currently but the lid is definitely blocking a lot of the light. Even with cleaning it twice weekly that isn't doing much to help at all. My zoas were stretching quite a bit and I took the lid off one day just for a couple hours and they went back to normal.

What material is the lid made of? How far is the water from the lid? also do you have some water "splashing" on the surface? I had that problem when I raised the water level too much. Usually I keep 5-10 cm between the water and the lid and I experienced no "fog" or dirt on it until now. Acrylic is very good from the optical point of view as almost no light gets filtered through. Can you decrease the distance between the light and the lid?

 

[keithw283]

it's made out of glass. I'd estimate that it's about 6-8 cm off the water. there is some surface agitation but I wouldn't say it's splashing. With the fixtures I have, I can't lower the lights unfortunately.

 

[keithw283]

I have a 4” inline exhaust fan that runs 24/7 cycling the air out of my fish room. Helps with humidity and ph in my opinion.

That would be the ideal scenario and in the future is my plan but currently that is not a solution for me

 

[Porpoise Hork]

In the 30 years I have kept aquariums, not once have I had an issue like this. Now I do live in Houston so we run the AC 11.5 months out of the year so that may attribute to not having an issue. As for ways to counter this in the future, you could put a couple coats of paint down that is designed for bathrooms where the moisture content in the air can reach near 100%. Then go back over that with your regular paint if you don't want the glossy finish on the walls/ceiling. Doing this or something similar would add a moisture barrier preventing humidity from soaking into the sheetrock.

If the tank is in a closed room, adding a vent low noise fan of some sort to increase circulation and would equalize the humidity in the room as well. This would have an added benefit of reducing CO2 levels in the room and help keep PH up. You could also put the vent fan on a timer to kick on/off regularly as well to reduce power usage. The combination of a vent fan and a moisture barrier paint would likely solve the problem and allow you to not have to run the glass lid.