How do you control humidity?

[gbeef]

what about a cover?

[Keri]

Originally Posted by gbeef

what about a cover?

If I cover it with glass wouldn't I cut out a lot of the light?

[mark]

there's salt creep, plus you might need the evaporation to get your temps down

[Keri]

It wouldn't cut down on the spectrum of the light?

[High tide]

Originally Posted by Gizmo

I use a Venmar 3100 Air Exchanger/Dehumidifier.
This unit does it all. It sucks in dirty, stinky, humid air from the tank room, takes in fresh air from outside, runs it all through a HEPA filter and heat exchanger, then blows the fresh, dehumidified air into the furnace ducts and expels the bad air outside and drains the water down the drain. Runs about 15 watts on the power cycle I use. Highly recommended!!

I do have to top off more though because it drys out the air in the room.

That sounds pretty sweet!

In my basement I have well over 1000 gal. of water. I run an exhaust fan during the day (14 hrs) and dehumidifier at night (10 hrs.) in the winter and the fan on all the time/no dehumidifier in the summer. This keeps my humidity in the 40-50% range, which isn't too bad where I live.

[o.c.d.]

I installed a inline exaust fan in my attic with two ports in the fish room still waiting on a dehumidistat? Nice thing about them is you can't hear them at all.But 12hr in my attic really sucked. First I use a regular bath fan and it was good for about 2 years then the port locked close and the line filled with water and what a pain. All fixed now just remember the lesson learnt, check outside ports and inside for obstruction. I now have the humidity reading also, I could have wrecked my roof if I hadn't have caught it.

[bauder1986]

Wow, glad I read this thread. So far there is about 200g of tanks in this house and much more to come (inbetween the roommates and I). So far I'm doing good on the humidity. Also helps that I live on edge of the prariies to! Guess I'll have to keep an eye out on that!

[Atomikk]

Controlling your humidity is a must for all tank owners! And do not cover your tank with glass or acrylic. Your tank needs to get rid of CO2 gas, and by closing it off, you can suffocate everything!

As for my setup... here are my pictures:






Two fans, vented outside, on two dehumidistats.

And the write up:
http://blog.fragd.it/2008/11/28/a-re...-continuation/

[Gizmo]

If I can throw this in, its a good idea to also have a method of brining in fresh air from the outside to make up for everything you are exaushting outside. There are 5" inline duct heaters that can heat cold air in the winter months, but if your place is like mine, the cold air can aid in cooling down the tank too.

Edit - If an exchanger is out of reach, use a min 300cfm bathroom exhaust fan. But you will need to have some form of makeup air duct according to building codes. Broan makes some nice "high flow" fans that are very quiet. Note that some juristictions require that fans above 300cfm be interlocked with your furnace, keep that in mind if you can't get a wire down to your furnace.

[mark]

Originally Posted by Gizmo

If I can throw this in, its a good idea to also have a method of brining in fresh air from the outside to make up for everything you are exaushting outside. There are 5" inline duct heaters that can heat cold air in the winter months, but if your place is like mine, the cold air can aid in cooling down the tank too.

In the building code at least for Edmonton, if running an exhaust fan in excess of 300 CFM, there's a requirement that the fresh air intake duct for the furnance have a inline heater and that when the exhaust fan is turned on, the furnance fan comes on also.

Came across this when looking to install a high flow (~600cfm) kitchen range hood.