Humidity rotting my canopy!

Mount_Prion

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2012
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So I've got a wooden canopy over my swamp setup, and I used to run a heat light but my turtle doesn't even bask there and I recently added some reed frogs to the unutilized land area, so I turned the light off. Also, it was generating excess heat that was making the water temp too high.

This has had the added effect of increasing the humidity, leading to a lot more condensation on the glass and elsewhere, which has in turn made the wood on my canopy begin to rot, especially in the area around the waterfall. Right now it's still solid and just tiny bits of white mold, but I'm worried that it will advance.

What should I do to stop it? It is difficult to remove the canopy entirely, and would open up the possibility of frog escapes.

I was thinking maybe about lightly sanding off a layer of the inside of it, to get rid of the mold and outer nastiness, and then painting on a layer of some kind of coating to stop rot in the future.

Ideally I'd use something that won't kill everything in the tank if it drips, or with its fumes.

Does this seem like a viable plan of action? What product should I use? Any ideas? Help would be much appreciated as this is worrying me.
 

Pharaoh

Administrator
Staff member
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Feb 18, 2008
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Definitely sand it down and get some drylock or sanding sealer on there ASAP. It will only get worse.
 

TheSinisterSOB

Gambusia
MFK Member
Aug 10, 2011
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A little place called C At Hell
^^^ What they said ;)
Good luck
 

Mount_Prion

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2012
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Think I'm gonna take the whole thing off and work on it this weekend. Thanks for the advice all!
 
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