Evaporation question

[PetePin15]

Hello everyone,

I had a 120 gallon tank that I recently had to get rid of. (It was a little too much for me to keep up with). As I was breaking it down and cleaning everything I noticed that some of the nearby storage totes had a salt like film on them. Very similar to what it looks like when I would wipe salt creep off of my tank but without the actual salt crystals. I would describe it as oily. Does anyone have experience with something like that and if so any recommendations on how to prevent that? I had my tank in my basement so there is a lot of totes and boxes nearby.

Also, as I mentioned earlier I had to break down my 120 but I have a friend that will be donating a 40 aio that I will hopefully have up and running soon. (That will hopefully be more manageable). I assume the smaller volume will reduce whatever is ending up in the air?

Let me know if anyone has had a similar experience and how to manage it. Thanks in advance.

 

[jsmkmavity]

A lid will drastically reduce evaporation and migration of airborne water/salt but it creates other issues like cleaning, light penetration and feeding. Salt doesnt really evaporate but some does migrate over time.

 

[PetePin15]

Thanks! Yea I definitely didn’t have a lid. The tank I had was acrylic so there was a lip around it but the center was wide open. I was worried about the oil damaging things around the tank.

I knew the water would evaporate but I wasn’t aware of the salt migration and hadn’t really planned for it.

Hopefully the smaller tank will have proportionally less migration. I’ll have to do better job of keeping the surrounding surfaces wiped down as well.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

lids are the only way to stop large amounts of salt creep, even then you will still get it

 

[PetePin15]

The oily film I’m talking about, that is from the tank though right? So more than just pure water is escaping during evaporation.

 

[Jamie814]

The oily film I’m talking about, that is from the tank though right?

Are you sure it's a oily film? Salt dust from mixing saltwater can settle on nearby surfaces and condense moisture from the air which could feel like an oily residual I guess?
Did you mix your own saltwater?

 

[PetePin15]

It’s definitely oily. Or at least it’s the same as when I wipe salt creep off the rim of the tank. It does not have the obvious white salt that creep has.

I do make my out water but I mix it by the sink where I make the water. It’s far away from the tank and nothing in that part of the room has the residue.

 

[Kooma]

The oily film you see is salt accumulation and moisture collection.

Grab a lid. I put a glass lid on my 225, cut my power use by 40% heating and dropped evaporation by 75%. I evaporate about 9-11 gallons per week now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Salts only get into the air from popping bubbles. Is that happening?

I'm personally not a fan of lids. They have the drawback of reducing aeration and block light. I'm not even a fan of the glass cross brace my tank came with due to light blocking.

 

[Jamie814]

Salts only get into the air from popping bubbles.

And when mixing fresh saltwater, I see a lot of salt dust fly when pouring the bag into the mixing tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And when mixing fresh saltwater, I see a lot of salt dust fly when pouring the bag into the mixing tank.

Yes, that would certainly do it.