Is this normal evaporation?

[Notsolostfish]

I have the redsea where i can see how many times i evaporated and it seems like i evaporated every hour, i just dont get it where the water going? Its a 150G. My basement is humid so my dehumidifier runs at night and most of the day. To keep my humidity in the basement at 50%-55% range.

The crazy part the evaporation happens mostly at night, during the day time i dont evaporate that much. I thought theres a leak at first, so i checked everything, and i can’t find none. And since my basement is unheated i have a long fan, sitting on a small box, further away from the tank pointed at the ceiling of the water. To keep my tanks temp at 77-78 during the hot hours. Could that be it?

Also i use constant flow at night at 30%



Im genuinely always worried about ny evaporation for skme reason. Like why would i evaporate that much

 

[hoffmeyerz]

Air movement along the surface of the water will increase evap. With the fan moving air and the dehumidifier removing water from the air I wouldn't be surprised to see an increase in evap.
You can experiment a little by turning off the fan or upping the humidity range on the dehumidifier and see how it impacts your evap.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That seems normal to me.

Most reef tanks without a lid evaporate 1-3% daily, but of course it depends on the climate, season, etc.

 

[Notsolostfish]

That seems normal to me.

Most reef tanks without a lid evaporate 1-3% daily, but of course it depends on the climate, season, etc.

I have a mesh lid

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have a mesh lid

That won’t inhibit evaporation the way a glass lid will.

 

[Notsolostfish]

I have a mesh lid

That won’t inhibit evaporation the way a glass lid will.

Yeah but hourly evaporation?

 

[Savage Henry]

Sounds like you need a chiller. With a chiller you won’t need the fan and you will have less evaporation.

Without a chiller, maybe increase humidity and direct the fan against the tank glass rather than the water surface. This will cool the tank less as whilst the fan on the water surface increase evaporation, the evaporation process cools the water.

 

[hoffmeyerz]

A glass lid will definitely reduce your evap if it's that important to you. As long as you can keep up with your top off water ok I personally don't see it as an issue.
I use glass lids year-round now but I used to use egg crate lids along with a computer fan on the sump to help with summer heat which gave a very noticable increase in evap.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yeah but hourly evaporation?

In a 150 gallon tank, if you evaporate 1% daily (1.5 gallons) you can lose 1.5/24 =0.063 gallons per hour.

Yours seems in line.

 

[Fish Fan]

Yeah but hourly evaporation?

Right now this time of year on my small 25 gallon tank, my ATO tops up about every 70 minutes or so.