Minimizing Humidity

[Alex]

I'm putting a sump and a frag tank in an area under my stairs. It's basically a large walkin closet. I wanted to know if poeple had suggestions for keeping humidty in check. Stuff like covering the sump or venting the fumes from a protien skimmer out side.


Woo hoo first post in the advanced forum

[fanaglethebagle]

Dehumidifier

Covering the sump will make your tank get very, very hot.

I'm pretty sure dehumidified water has a low TDS level too ;)

[penguinsix]

Dehumidifier would be good, but if it uses coper piping then using it's water may not be the best of ideas. Venting skimmer air out of the room will also be a good idea. Is there anyway you could plumb the frag tank into the main tank?

[stevenp]

Does copper really leach into water from pipes? I wouldn't think that they'd use it for plumbing if that was the case?

[necco]

second the dehumidifier for humidity in the room, and covering the tanks will help with evaporation so the dehumidifier don't suck up more than it should or your fresh water top off will be alot.

Does copper really leach into water from pipes? I wouldn't think that they'd use it for plumbing if that was the case?

over time I think they eventually rust in the form of rusty water?

[penguinsix]

Does copper really leach into water from pipes? I wouldn't think that they'd use it for plumbing if that was the case?

I am not positive on it, but remember it from a thread on using dehumidifier water as top off. The only way I could think to test if it leaches would be to tst the level of copper in your tap, then test again after it has been running for 10 minutes.

[DavidGallant]

Since you are already in the wall, could you run a line from the dehumidifier right to a sink or drain?

[Alex]

The tank is not actually going to be in the wall. It's going to be on the other side of the wall with everything else in the small room under the stairs. It's about the width of a flight of stairs and about 8 or 9 feet long with a sloping ceiling.

[jbundas]

I would try to set up a blower and duct to directly vent air from the closet outside - HD has everything you need. A dehumidifier will pull water out of the air, but it generates a lot of heat to do it which will be stuck in the closet creating even more evaporation and making it difficult to keep your tank water cool. Blowing everything right out of the house is a much more efficient way of managing heat and humidity in a confined space. If you want to get fancy, direct the exhaust into your main room in the winter time when extra heat and humidity is a good thing to have inside.

[ChrisL - Seaworld]

agreed venting out would be the best solution without causing other issues.

[rtc_reefer]

I vent out using a cheapest Lowes bath fan... no humidity problems at all....

[Alex]

IF you have a vent set up going outside does it run constantly? Does this work in the winter around here when it gets cold?

[JayM]

You can set up a humidistat to cycle the fan on, or redirect the humidified air into your house when winter is upon us.

[Mr. Krabs]

Check out this previous discussion on the topic: http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=33199&highlight=dehumidifier . Not sure what the end result was though, but HTH.

One concern with dehumidifier water I'm not quite sure what the issue is, is related to the copper piping. I understand the water that condensates on the copper coils drips into the collection tray, but how different is that from the tap water that runs through the house copper piping to the RODI feed? Is that filtered out in the RO/DI filter?

-Jack

[RichConley]

I wouldnt worry about he copper issue. Again, same deal with copper piping in your house. Its simply not really an issue.

The main issue with water from a dehumidifier, is that it is generally filthy. Its not really distilled water (well, it is, but..). When you distill water, you have to have a clean environment. The process tends to pull all of the dirt and dust floating around in the air into the condensing water. Water coming from a dehumidifier is often almost as bad as Tap.

[Greg Hiller]

>Does copper really leach into water from pipes? <

Yes.....in a BIG way. It does not matter if you run the water through an RO/DI unit since it will remove all the copper, but you can get plenty of copper in water that sits in a copper pipe.

[aquarium nut]

I used my dehumidifier water all summer for 6 months last year to top off my tank had no adverse side effects

[customclimates]

You could look into something like this. I put larger versions of these in all the time. They are very easy to install as a DIY project.
http://www.fantech.net/shr1505r.pdf
Also it is great to Consider one of these to do your entire home for the air quality benefits. Just figure in a few tees for the intake & exhaust into the fish room. :D

[savyboy]

In the past I tried the Dehumidifier and my house temp went up 10 degrees in one day. I later found out that Ac units duhumidify anyhow. So after installing the ac unit I set up a collection device and was collecting about 5 gal of water a day that was being removed from my house. This with the added benifit of cooling rather than heating. Although if I had the mula I would prefer to put in the heat exchanger. Good Luck

[rtc_reefer]

IF you have a vent set up going outside does it run constantly? Does this work in the winter around here when it gets cold?

Mine is in the basement and I run it all the time. Works year-round.