Big tanks & humidity control

[Biff0rz]

As I'm planning this out I want to make sure I have humidity under control. My basement is fairly large (2k sqft) with 1750sqft of it finished. The ceiling is a drop ceiling but it is vented with fans and intakes (prev homeowner built a bar, smoked occasionally, used the vent to exit the smoke). I plan to run a dehumidifier, size is still tbd, but, is there anything else I should plan to do? The tank will be about 500g.

 

[revhtree]

I have not had any humidity issues in my 400g basement tank.

 

[Biff0rz]

I have not had any humidity issues in my 400g basement tank.

What state do you live in? I'm in Michigan. We have hot summers (90-100+) with very humid air. We have super cold winters with extremely dry air. We get all the fun!

 

[revhtree]

What state do you live in? I'm in Michigan. We have hot summers (90-100+) with very humid air. We have super cold winters with extremely dry air. We get all the fun!

Georgia just south of the Tennessee state line!

 

[AlexG]

There are a lot of factors to consider. While your display is 500g do you know how much water volume the filtration system will take up? Will you have a sump under the tank or a separate fish room? Will there be a closed canopy over the display or will it be open to the room? A dehumidifier should cover your area but it really comes down to monitoring humidity levels and evaporation. If you are evaporating 20gallons a week but your humidity levels are stable and there is no dehumidifier or ventilation then I would be concerned as the house can be soaking that moisture up like a sponge and once it becomes saturated it might be too late to control. If you are evaporating 20gallons a week and see humidity getting beyond the 50% range then its time to add some mitigation. I grew up in southeast MI and now live outside Chicago so the climate is more or less the same. I have used both ventilation and dehumidifiers successfully. Best practice is to keep covers on sump tanks or tanks that don't need open tops to limit evaporation. Then have a few humidity monitors near the aquarium and other parts of the house to ensure humidity readings do not exceed acceptable levels.

 

[Biff0rz]

There are a lot of factors to consider. While your display is 500g do you know how much water volume the filtration system will take up? Will you have a sump under the tank or a separate fish room? Will there be a closed canopy over the display or will it be open to the room? A dehumidifier should cover your area but it really comes down to monitoring humidity levels and evaporation. If you are evaporating 20gallons a week but your humidity levels are stable and there is no dehumidifier or ventilation then I would be concerned as the house can be soaking that moisture up like a sponge and once it becomes saturated it might be too late to control. If you are evaporating 20gallons a week and see humidity getting beyond the 50% range then its time to add some mitigation. I grew up in southeast MI and now live outside Chicago so the climate is more or less the same. I have used both ventilation and dehumidifiers successfully. Best practice is to keep covers on sump tanks or tanks that don't need open tops to limit evaporation. Then have a few humidity monitors near the aquarium and other parts of the house to ensure humidity readings do not exceed acceptable levels.

Thanks! Do you have any recommendations on what to use to measure humidity effectively for this purpose? I have a 233g now and haven't really looked into it yet, so I could start now before upgrading. The tank is in the basement and the sump is in a fish room next to it, but it's a small room. The current and future tank are open top (with screen).

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Most run plug in ac or de humidifiers. Hths
D

 

[Biff0rz]

Most run plug in ac or de humidifiers. Hths
D

I have ac in my basement, and we run it constantly in the summer (wife likes it cold). I can buy a dehumidifier and pipe it to the drain no issues there.

What's acceptable humidity? How can I check to see if I'm having issues with my current setup? I'm concerned I haven't checked this yet, don't want to ruin the house obviously.

 

[Biff0rz]

I just checked the indoor humidity on my nest which is 10ft from the tank. 46%

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

The evap on big tanks isnt going to curl the drywall behind it if thats your concern. Maybe salt residue and such over time... ive never been concerned enough to research this.

I imagine as the humidity rises so does the stuffyness like a jungle or a warm smokers home. Lol
Maybe the humidifier will come with some info in the manual? Not that us men read those. Lol!
D

 

[Biff0rz]

The evap on big tanks isnt going to curl the drywall behind it if thats your concern. Maybe salt residue and such over time... ive never been concerned enough to research this.

I imagine as the humidity rises so does the stuffyness like a jungle or a warm smokers home. Lol
Maybe the humidifier will come with some info in the manual? Not that us men read those. Lol!
D

Hah! True. I have a full bar lined with wood in the basement... I want to protect that haha.

 

[djf91]

I’m working on a similar project right now. 500 gallon in wall aquarium in the basement. It’s a small basement around 500 sqft. With it being in wall it will obviously have its own fish room surrounding it (~100 sqft). To combat humidity I plan on painting all of the walls and ceiling in the fish room with a wood sealer/anti mold paint. Next I plan to plastic tarp all of the ceilings and walls and caulk the seams together to encapsulate the entire room. Lastly, I have a small window in the top back corner of the room where I will mount an exhaust fan with a humidistat allowing it to kick on when the humidity reaches a certain point.

 

[AlexG]

Thanks! Do you have any recommendations on what to use to measure humidity effectively for this purpose? I have a 233g now and haven't really looked into it yet, so I could start now before upgrading. The tank is in the basement and the sump is in a fish room next to it, but it's a small room. The current and future tank are open top (with screen).

I use Acurite humidity monitors as they are fairly cheap and are relatively accurate.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Following

 

[TheDuude]

In Michigan here as well and IME it really depends on your house. My previous home had skylights in the kitchen and I noticed after my tank was setup ( 90 gallon cube ) I would have to turn off the humidifier on the furnace in the summer or else I would get condensation on the inside of the skylights. New home now does not have the same issues but also have left the humidifier on the furnace off for most of the year aside from the coldest months when I start to see humidity drop. You may need a dehumidifier with a 500 gallon depending on how often you run AC in the summer.

 

[FishTruck]

In my case...

1. Negative pressure vented display tank upstairs with a four inch flexible duct pulling air out of the canopy and using a Panasonic inline duct fan located in the basement fish room . There is a fan blowing across the tank for cooling purposes and lots of hot wet air gets taken into the vent. Because the air is hot... the humidity in the canopy says about 50% or lower.

I have both AC and DH in the room below, and initially tried to DH and cool all the air in the fish room, but, found that it was too hot and both the DH and AC were running constantly.

2. Now... that canopy air gets blown outside (200 cfm 24/7) out of a vent in the fish room in the basement and fresh air gets pulled right into the fish room. The fresh air coming into the fish room keeps the CO2 in the room down and bumps my tank pH up a bit.

3. With trial and error I found that just dumping that hot wet air outside greatly reduced the run times on the dehumidifier. The tiny window unit AC runs 24/7 is the summer.

This system works great in the winter, the cold air that gets pulled in to replace the expelled hot wet air gets heated up when entering the fish room, taking up the moisture so the DH barely runs at all. My winter utilities were lower than expected.

The system does not work so great in the summer. The air that I pull in is also hot and sometimes wet, so, the AC and DH run quite a bit and my summer utilities are higher than expected.