How do you keep your house from smelling like a pet store

[ILOVEYOUHALFISH]

dehumidifier, carbon on top of skimmer, carbon in the sump or use ozone. check for mold, and use some bleach to kill mold

I have a dehumidifier, I’m getting ready to order an adapter in order to put carbon on top of the skimmer cup, and I’m using a diy skimmate collector. I don’t think I have a mold issue… but just curious… how would you know or check? I’m assuming it’s pretty obvious? Black mold? That kinda stuff freaks me out a bit

I’m a huge clean freak so I think I’d see it by now

 

[ILOVEYOUHALFISH]

dehumidifier, carbon on top of skimmer, carbon in the sump or use ozone. check for mold, and use some bleach to kill mold

I plan on doing all of those soon, but odd question maybe: how exactly do you check for mold? I’m a bit of a clean freak so I think I wouldn’t seen it by now… but this kinda stuff freaks me out lol

 

[EnterName]

dehumidifier, carbon on top of skimmer, carbon in the sump or use ozone. check for mold, and use some bleach to kill mold

I plan on doing all of those soon, but odd question maybe: how exactly do you check for mold? I’m a bit of a clean freak so I think I wouldn’t seen it by now… but this kinda stuff freaks me out lol

Edges of your tank's furniture would probably be the first thing to grow stuff. You could just look for "black dust" in those edges.

Next place to check would be the corners of the room and edges around windows. The temperature difference between the room and outside together with elevated humidity in the room causes condensation which is great for mold to grow. It's pretty noticable usually and I don't think you would have missed it.

 

[ILOVEYOUHALFISH]

dehumidifier, carbon on top of skimmer, carbon in the sump or use ozone. check for mold, and use some bleach to kill mold

I plan on doing all of those soon, but odd question maybe: how exactly do you check for mold? I’m a bit of a clean freak so I think I wouldn’t seen it by now… but this kinda stuff freaks me out lol

Edges of your tank's furniture would probably be the first thing to grow stuff. You could just look for "black dust" in those edges.

Next place to check would be the corners of the room and edges around windows. The temperature difference between the room and outside together with elevated humidity in the room causes condensation which is great for mold to grow. It's pretty noticable usually and I don't think you would have missed it.

Sweet, I’ll take a closer inspection tomorrow! Good stuff to know, Thanks!

 

[EnterName]

dehumidifier, carbon on top of skimmer, carbon in the sump or use ozone. check for mold, and use some bleach to kill mold

I plan on doing all of those soon, but odd question maybe: how exactly do you check for mold? I’m a bit of a clean freak so I think I wouldn’t seen it by now… but this kinda stuff freaks me out lol

Edges of your tank's furniture would probably be the first thing to grow stuff. You could just look for "black dust" in those edges.

Next place to check would be the corners of the room and edges around windows. The temperature difference between the room and outside together with elevated humidity in the room causes condensation which is great for mold to grow. It's pretty noticable usually and I don't think you would have missed it.

Sweet, I’ll take a closer inspection tomorrow! Good stuff to know, Thanks!

Note that mold spores are everywhere even without visible mold growth. Humans have been dealing with those for their entire existence on earth and are therefore used to them. To actually reach harmful proportions it needs to be quite a lot of mold, so I doubt you have to worry about any health implications. Of course it doesn't hurt removing and treating mold so it doesn't grow further, but at this point it should be noticable. If the edges of the tank's furniture are dirty, wipe them down, wait 2 weeks and then check again with a paper towel or so.

 

[Aframereef]

I now vent my fish room to the outside. I pull in outside air and exhaust fish room air out. Not a lot. I use a variable transformer on my fan to slow it down. I have a hose that goes to top of skimmer and top of ATS. I also ran small fan in fish room to circulate dead air to keep mold down.

 

[BryanM]

basements often could use dehumidifiers even without a fish tank.

That said, my guess is skimmer maintenance is the biggest factor.... And that is the primary reason I do not run one. That smell was not hubby approved, and certainly wasn't wifey approved either.