Fish Room Dehumidifier

[KingAlee]

I have roughly a 400 sq. Ft fish room, this room consists of:

• 320 Gallon Acrylic tank (Open top)
• (5) 50 Gallon frag tanks (3 are not setup)
• 40 Gallon Frag Tank
• 40 Gallon Aquatop Recife

All of the frag tanks have sumps (open top) and the larger display has a sump with an open top.

This all being said, I’m in the south, very humid climate. What would be a great dehumidifier for the room? Tops are not an option as the tanks get super hot in the summer. I was told the 50 Pint Frigidaire would work but would run 24/7. What’s yalls input on this? Is the larger 80+ pint needed in this instant?

Trying not to make it run 24/7 to possibly extend its life!

(This is a separate building from the house, fully insulated w/ a AC unit on it.)

 

[Subsea]

Wow. You have quite the operation going on. If you have a window in that room, I suggest installing a window AC in your fish room. Here in Austin, Tx I installed an inexpensive 5000BTU window unit in my fish room, along with 4 ton central unit. No worry about 100% duty cycle.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I agree with window AC and if you have no window, cut and frame out a "hole" that fits the AC unit. If you have a bit more cash to spend consider a mini split....no window needed.

 

[KingAlee]

I agree with window AC and if you have no window, cut and frame out a "hole" that fits the AC unit. If you have a bit more cash to spend consider a mini split....no window needed.

So I have an AC on the back wall, it’s meant for a window but was placed in the wall! That being said that is why I’m looking to now get a dehumidifier!

 

[DIYreefer]

I run a little Hisense dehumidifier in my “fish room” (spare bedroom that is loaded with frag tanks). I chose this brand in particular because we have one at work that is in a small shack that pulls in air from outside 24/7 while being located out on a pier on the Tx gulf coast, and it has ran flawlessly for literally years. It does a great job. For less than $200 it’s an incredible value.

 

[DIYreefer]

Horrible picture, but here it is in the top left corner.


Here’s all of the tanks to give you an idea of what I have packed into this room currently. Lots of surface area for evaporation!

 

[KingAlee]

I run a little Hisense dehumidifier in my “fish room” (spare bedroom that is loaded with frag tanks). I chose this brand in particular because we have one at work that is in a small shack that pulls in air from outside 24/7 while being located out on a pier on the Tx gulf coast, and it has ran flawlessly for literally years. It does a great job. For less than $200 it’s an incredible value.

So let me ask, does it run 24/7? I know you said it pulls in air. Also what pint is it? I’m looking at Home Depot right now to see what I want

 

[me & my baby]

This is the one I am using
It drains to the outside and works like a charm

 

[exnisstech]

So let me ask, does it run 24/7? I know you said it pulls in air. Also what pint is it? I’m looking at Home Depot right now to see what I want

Our dining room living room and kitchen are kind of like one big room with a partial wall divider. I have a 330g in the living room. 65g and 8g in the dining room. House is a small ranch (less than 1200 sf) and there is a 20g in one bedroom. I run a 50 pint ge that drains through the floor to my basement sump crock. The dehumidifier runs 24/7 to keep the humidity 45-50%.

 

[Subsea]

So I have an AC on the back wall, it’s meant for a window but was placed in the wall! That being said that is why I’m looking to now get a dehumidifier!

What size window ac? Even in winter, I run my ac. I suspect that you do as well in Mobile, Alabama.

On cold days with high humidity, I run dehumidifier.

On warm days with high humidity, I run ac.

A 2Ton ductless heat pump with a 22 SEER. 5000 BTU/Hr window unit has an efficiency of 11. Not sure of efficiency of dehumidifier.

 

[DIYreefer]

So let me ask, does it run 24/7? I know you said it pulls in air. Also what pint is it? I’m looking at Home Depot right now to see what I want

It’s on 24/7, but it isn’t dehumidifying the room 24/7. I have it set to bring the humidity level down to 50% and I have a humidity meter on the other side of the room that consistently reads right around 60%. That’s good enough for me. They sell these at Lowe’s, but I didn’t see them on the Home Depot app.

The thing I really like about the smaller unit vs the larger one that I have is that the smaller one doesn’t generate nearly as much heat in the room. Not sure if that’s relevant for your application but it definitely is for mine!

 

[Ryan15236]

I have a GE 50 pint in my basement with 180 gallon tank. More humid months it runs very often. I run a drain tube from unit where it pumps out automatically into yard. During the winter it rarely kicks on. I remove drain tube and dump reservoir roughly once a week. I set dehumidifier to kick on at 60% or higher. Located in East TN

 

[JeffB418]

Highly recommend this unit. https://a.co/d/31dA4lS


I have 2 of these units. One in my fishroom (200sq ft, 1000gal) and one in my basement. Works great. Pulls a ton of water. Plus it’s serviceable. Parts are available from the manuf if you need to replace a sensor or anything.

Do know that any dehumidifier will generate heat in your room. So take that into account.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

You must have read my post on this today. I’m in Memphis, I can relate on humidity. With 550g and 50 sq ft of water surface in my fishroom. I have 3 other tanks in my house, 2 floors +4k sq ft. I learned a lot about this topic this year. I had a Sante Fe MD33 and a 12k btu mini split in my fishroom room. My fishroom is my former formal dining room. The Santa Fee died after 13 months. I think what happened is this: my chiller blew 2 months ago. At that time, I was evaporating about 12-14g a day in the summer (much less evap) but chiller died coming into the dry time. I am using fans to chill, thus my evap is through the freaking roof. The Sante Fe was 2 feet from most of this water. I missed the part where you need to do the calculation on evap vs how many pints the unit can pull from the air. Remember, it’s not linear.

I bought it new but it was left over from a large job. I only paid a couple hundred bucks. Can you imagine paying $1.8k and it not being serviceable!?!?!?

I’m going after one of those commercial crawlspace units. I’m going to vent this one out of the house, regardless. I always wondered how I didn’t have a thunderstorm in my fishroom…

 

[Tonycass12]

Running roughly 300gallons of saltwater in my basement. I have an 80pint unit that constantly runs on the unfinished side of my basement and drains into the same lifter pump for the drain as my hvac. I also have a 30pint unit that I run in the finished side of my basement where 2 of my displays are, that one has to be manually emptied at least 2x a day.

Regardless of what you end up getting having it run into a drain will make it much more pain free than having to empty a unit 1-2x a day.

Im keeping my eye out for an industrial dehumidifier that also circulates the air from one room to another. These are popular in "grow" setups and occasionally you can find a great deal on them on fb marketplace.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Running roughly 300gallons of saltwater in my basement. I have an 80pint unit that constantly runs on the unfinished side of my basement and drains into the same lifter pump for the drain as my hvac. I also have a 30pint unit that I run in the finished side of my basement where 2 of my displays are, that one has to be manually emptied at least 2x a day.

Regardless of what you end up getting having it run into a drain will make it much more pain free than having to empty a unit 1-2x a day.

Im keeping my eye out for an industrial dehumidifier that also circulates the air from one room to another. These are popular in "grow" setups and occasionally you can find a great deal on them on fb marketplace.

I couldn’t imagine doing this without a drain. I feel for you, twice a day… ouch…

 

[Australian_Reef]

I just run AC at 78deg and it keeps the room dry in summer and an open window the rest of the year.

 

[Tonycass12]

I couldn’t imagine doing this without a drain. I feel for you, twice a day… ouch…

Honestly that dehu is not running more often than it is just because it's usually full. I try to get it once in the am and again in the evening. Winters are the worst, summer I usually have so much ventilation in the house that the humidity rarely becomes an issue.

 

[Subsea]

Honestly that dehu is not running more often than it is just because it's usually full. I try to get it once in the am and again in the evening. Winters are the worst, summer I usually have so much ventilation in the house that the humidity rarely becomes an issue.

My use of mini split and dehumidifier is very similar in Texas. Sometimes, I use both in summer & winter. The dehumidifier that I use will condensate 1G per hour and is almost useless & unnecessary when humidity is < 50%, so I set controller at 55%.