Humidity from large Fish tanks ,heat savings- 600 gallon tank example

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DIDYSIS

DIDYSIS

Mantilla Stingray
MFK Member
Feb 9, 2012
5,543
310
1,946
West Jordan Utah
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Let Me start off with that I Live in Utah which is a Dry place, more than most places.

Alright so I setup my tank and it has been running for a good while in the basement. Its 10x4 600 gallons, so allot of water.

I keep the tank at 80.1 degrees and the humidity in the room is 60%, getting this reading off a weather station. The room is 70 degrees with the setup, tank is setup with open tops no nothing covering it or the 125 gallon sump.

I took simple plastic covers and put them onto the tank top and covered part of the sump- tank temp increased to 81 degrees, might be more still letting it settle, and the humidity dropped to 54%. I think upstairs the humidity level is 30% I will follow back up and update this information once I double check. I will add pictures of my temp covers I have on now, I am thinking 1/4 inch acrylic might be a good option if I can keep it from sagging, I might add some spines to it to help with the support.

After seeing the effects of this I have been thinking how much better I can do if I work a little harder at getting everything sealed up. So that is going to be my next task is building some better tops for the tank to hold the humidity in and the heat in. Also start to turn down the heaters a little so I can get back to my 80 degree mark. I need to get a Volt reader to understand how much power the tank is using. I always look at Aldiaz33, 770 thread when I want to look at power costs with large tanks, He put up allot of good info.

I want to save electrical cost overall since running such a large tank can really increase the over all cost, I am not sure at this point since the weather has been warmer how much extra the tank is costing me.

So with all this I wanted to reach out to other people and see what you are doing to cut the heat loss and also keep humidity at a low level. I have read a good bit and people say the humidity in a house should stay low and 60% is the highest it should get.

I have been thinking of a dehumidifier but that would just be one more item running to use power when the goal is to cutback over all.

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Thanks for the shoutout. :) My kill-a-watt actually died on me so I haven't been tracking my electrical usage, but it doesn't matter...since it's been so hot I actually unplugged my heaters a few weeks ago. I bought a new kill-a-watt and I will be tracking my heater's eletrical draw as soon as it starts to cool down this fall.

I thought about a dehumidifier too...I might end up buying one this winter. For now, as long as I keep the windows open my humidity levels stay at around 30 to 40%. Keeping the windows open in the summer is fine, since it's warm out, but in the winter it's going to let in a bunch of cold air and make my heaters work overtime. I have heard that dehumidifiers actually generate a lot of heat, which would be a welcomed side effect in the winter time. But yeah, some of the larger units use a lot of juice and that's why I decided to just insulate the heck out of the tank and keep the window cracked open. I'm planning to wrap the sides of my sump in rigid insulation to help keep the heat in. I already installed some on the back wall of my display tank.

In regards to covers, I think you will find that 1/4" acrylic covers will become really warped. I made covers for my old 240G out of 1/4" acrylic and I had to flip them over every week or so because they would become warped. I now have 3/8" covers on my sump and they are warping some, but not as much. The covers on my display tank are 1.25" thick and in the winter time, it was pretty amazing how warm to the touch they were.

Your tank's openings look huge! Hopefully someone can chime in with some other ideas. Using acrylic would be better than nothing, but maybe there is a solution that won't warp. Glass wouldn't warp, but the idea of glass over the tank makes me nervous.


How often are you having to top off your tank? This past week was especially hot and dry and I'd guess I lost about 15 gallons of water to evaporation.
 
Ya after I put a bunch of wood in the tank one day I thought I lost about 20 gallons out but soon remembered the wood soaked it up. I have some 1/8th inch acrylic that warps bad and I flip it over allot. But my idea of adding a piece onto to add like a back brace might keep it strait. I have a 125 gallon sump and I think after a week I loose three inches out of the sump so not too much. I'll see now with these make shift tops.

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Hello; I ran a dehumidifier last winter. The cost to operate it was a wash as the energy eventually became heat and that was fine in the winter. During the warm months i open up the house or run the central air on very warm days. The AC will remove humidity from the air.
My first winter here was also my first with a heat pump. It did not remove humidity and I had some issues.I added more tank setups and knew the humidity issue would be even worse. The humidifier did a decent job and i plan to use it again the next cold season.
 
Ya here the winters seem to be as dry or sometimes worse. Will be interesting to see what changes during the season. Thanks for the info.

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Interesting thread, have subscribed as I'm setting up a 4-500g tank in our new house and it will be the first time I've had a huge tank indoors. Summer won't be too bad as we can have windows open, but our house is surrounded by bush [forest] on about 2/3 the perimeter and could be quite damp over winter. We do have two heatpumps downstairs where the tank will be, and a wood fire upstairs.

Slightly OT, but thats an interesting lighting set up, got a link to some pics of what it looks like in the tank?
 
Tight-fitting lids and foamboard insulation on all non-viewing sides will go a long ways towards saving energy.
 
Ya look at my 450 L shape tank thread I started and it has pics.


David R said:
Interesting thread, have subscribed as I'm setting up a 4-500g tank in our new house and it will be the first time I've had a huge tank indoors. Summer won't be too bad as we can have windows open, but our house is surrounded by bush [forest] on about 2/3 the perimeter and could be quite damp over winter. We do have two heatpumps downstairs where the tank will be, and a wood fire upstairs.

Slightly OT, but thats an interesting lighting set up, got a link to some pics of what it looks like in the tank?
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That is a good thought putting foam on the back of my tank. I really don't think that is going to add too much overall though since that would be the only side to do it on. I think the top is the key. I also changed my setup a little with adding an air pump and having less water moment on the surface of the water. I think this will cut down allot on evaporation and also humidity. I'll add picks of my make shift tops on the tank tomorrow tonight I worked far too late. I Did look at the humidity when I was home it was at 54% and then the ac turned off for a bit and I saw it drop to 52% almost instantly so I know that sure cut it down fast and I only have one vent open a little down there. Tank was 80.8 when I checked Also so seems a little warmer. In the sump I saw allot of condensation. Another thought I had is how bad is condensation and most of all does it grow stuff that would be bad for the tank.

Dan F said:
Tight-fitting lids and foamboard insulation on all non-viewing sides will go a long ways towards saving energy.
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