We have somewhat similar setups and problems. High heat and humidity in Central Virginia prevent just opening a window. While my DT is on the first floor, the 125 gallon sump and external MRC Orca Pro I reside in a dedicated fish room in a walkout basement. The majority of the basement is a full wood/metal shop with an indoor electric brewery tucked in the middle.
Intermittent use makes venting the brewery easy using a 10” inline fan, but having the fish room on the same HVAC system was wreaking havoc on tools. You could almost watch rust forming. That was solved by installing an inexpensive (read cheap $15) exhaust fan plugged into my APEX (simply cut the end off an appropriately sized extension cord) and set to come on when the room temperature climbs above the aquarium’s temperature (which varies seasonally using the APEX’s Season Table).
The negative pressure worked well all last summer, drawing cold air from the rest of the basement. On the few occasions when applying a noxious finish, it was easy to shut the fan off and keep fumes out of the fish room, while using the brewery’s exhaust to vent the shop. This summer has been different... a double whammy.
My son is wrapping up his Eagle Project having built a recycling center, shelves and a couple work desks for a local adult learning center. It has been so hot and humid here this year, the finish on the furniture would never have cured with an open window. That also means the fish room has been closed off for a little over a week now. Even running reduced lighting schedules, the aquarium temperature has been running at ~82F (4F higher than it should).
The one thing that has continued to work well (and getting to your original question) is the CO2 scrubber... Probably not what you wanted to hear, but follow along before discounting it as a option.
With that large a skimmer and that much air draw on the Orca skimmer, I started with one of
BRS’s jumbo canisters. I was having to swap out media every 3 to 4 week’s. It was ridiculously expensive...
Watching one of
BRS’s videos they recommended a valve controlled by an APEX that would bypass the CO2 scrubber when you hit your target pH. That helped some, but did not have quite the impact I had hoped.
The silver bullet came from a thread here on R2R. I drilled and tapped the top of the AVAST Swabbie neck cleaner for two John Guest quick connects and started pulling moist air from the skimmer cup.
The results were dramatic. Such a simple change and I went from replacing media every 3-4 weeks to every 3 months. CO2 scrubbing was now a financially viable option for controlling pH. The system as a whole is much more stable now and chemical additions are focused on maintaining alkalinity. Much easier than trying to maintain pH through a saturated kalk solution - although I do miss watching the stir bar on Avast’s kalk reactor. LOL
In your case, running a semi closed system to control odor, there would be no impact drawing moist air from your skimmer cup. You are essentially recycling air within the skimmer - there is something to be said for the efficiency in that. Oh and you can drop the outside air as well eliminating outside pollution, pesticides, errant bugs and having to swap out carbon.
It is certainly a cheaper alternative to an EVR and after having installed the 10” vent line for the brewery - much easier than drilling holes in Hardieplank!
M
