Controling humidity in a fish tank room

So you have a nice tank we all have a nice tank, lots of great thing in it for the southern crowds its mildew, for the northern its mildew and frost in are windows, whats the solutions. No really, we dont all live in the basement and the before we know its the windows crack with ice and melts in the spring leaving stains all over the place and damages. For some its are home , some appartments some condos and condos fees. So you got any ideas. For one tank it can be managable some have two or three, what about four tank how do you do it?

 

I have a window AC unit sitting next to the 90. If it gets a little stuffy (I have humidity induced asthma, so I have a fine tuning for "stuffy"), I flick that on for a bit. It pulls a lot of water out of the air and we're just fine. Or turn a fan on and vent some outside air through the house. Granted, it hasn't been "hot" here yet this year.

 

I have a high capacity, whisper quite bathroom fart fan that is vented to the outside of the house in my fish room. I leave it on all of the time, and it has done a great job keeping the humidity down...even in the hot georgia summers. I also am fortunate that my fish room is an a finished basement with full heating and AC....and here in georgia, its hilly...so basements are typically daylight basements...so we have lots of windows we can open as well. That being said, my fish room is the only room in the basement with no windows (which is why my wife let me make it into a fish room) so the fart fan is key. Also, as a point of comparison, I went several years without the fan in there, and just had this added last year when I installed my in wall tank...and it really did make a huge difference in humidity control...

 

How long have you had your tank?

 

Time of ownership does not impact evaporation... but it's been full of water for 10 months? Had a smaller tank for 2 years before that.

 

No the reason i asked was because the yearly weather will impact on the rate of accumulation, for instance in the winter the cold windows will draw the humidity on to them and for the summer the walls seems to be the target it seems to shift accordingly and was currious to see if you had noticed those differences.

 

Gotcha. We're in an older home that "leaks" a lot more than a newer home. We don't really have the issues that you're highlighting I think mostly as a result of that. Plus, I love a fresh breeze from outside. That and we vent the canopy with room fans to help spread it across 5 decently large rooms.

 

Don't give me any ideas, i'm looking at my axe right now, maybe i'll start hacking my 2x4 and nibble at my walls a bit LOL.

 

LOL. It's a blessing and a curse. Apparently new homes have such good insulation that CO2 can build up and change the pH of your tank and all that. That's a challenge I'll have to face when we move to a new(er) home.

I also have a nice dehumidifier in the basement that I would move up if it became an issue. For the new(er) home, we're planning on having a walk out basement with a "fish room" for the sump and cords and all that. I would likely also put an exhaust fan in to be able to flush out the humidity if I needed.

 

I prefer a finely-controlled atmosphere, using heat or AC which also removes moisture from the air. The only time windows are open is when the temp is moderate and humidity is low.