Evaporation prevention - How to prevent excessive evaporation?

W

wild375

[Hello, I am new to this forum but I have been involved with aquarium keeping for many years, mostly with discus and fancy goldfish. I have decided to start a reef tank but one of my concerns was with evaporation. I have experienced evaporation with some of my fresh water tanks but reading over many of the posts on this forum it sounds like there is much more evaporation with a reef tank. I am assuming this is due to the heat generated from the lighting and attempts to cool the system with fans. So I guess my question is really if the evaporation can be limited through other means? Does a chiller help reduce evaporation? What other solutions are available? Would it make as much of a difference if the tank was located in a room that never gets hot in the summer even without AC? Hope someone has some insight into this, thanks in advance.]
 
[Evaporation is normal, and it ranges from tank to tank. My 29g evaporates about 1/2 a gallon a day with a tiny fan blowing down on my sump 24 hours a day. It keeps my tank at 80F or below.

My 55g is basically open top, even though I have a canopy. You can see pictures of it on my site, on the 55g page. With two computer fans blowing downward on the display surface, the water still reaches 81F, so I've got a larger fan pointed into my sump that comes on when the actinics come on. Trying to stay under 80F if possible.

If you have a chiller, you'll reduce evaporation because there is nothing blowing on the water, but your chiller will release heat into the room it is located.

If you have weak lighting, and not that many pumps, your heat issues are lessened.]
 
[Really doesn't matter about the evaporation as one of your central A/C units' major functions is to take the humidity out of the air in the summer to make it feel cooler...]
 
[Ok here is some clarification- I live on the coast in a moderate climate, we rarely have temps over 80 for any amount of time and we have lots of rain in the fall, winter, and spring. I don’t have Air Conditioning but having lived in this area for many years I know that high humidity levels in my area cause mold, mildew, and rust inside of your house. My thoughts are that my placement of the tank is in a daylight basement area that seems to stay cool even in the summer time. What I am concerned with is excessive evaporation that leaves condensation on my windows and raises the humidity to levels that cause other problems. Given that we just moved from a house that had humidity issues the little lady would not be happy if the reef tank started sweating up our house windows and causing mold or mildew. I know some of you who live in hot arid areas like Texas probably cannot understand this situation but on the moderate moist northwest coast this is a real concern. So, I am just trying to get some ideas on how to reduce evaporation. Thanks in advance!]
 
[You could use a dehumidifyer. It pulls all moisture out of the air. I have only seen them in large applications but surely you could find a smaller one for home use. If it was too loud you could run it at night.]
 
[I have seen some LFS run dehumidifiers in their stores.

I found this on the net and it may be of interest.

Homemade Dehumidifier
Some inventive people use bags of road de-icing salt to absorb moisture from the air. The wet salt solution drips into a pan or floor drain, drying the air. Because the salt runs off with the water removed from the air, it must be replaced.The system has no moving parts.

If you try this homemade dehumidifier, remember that salt is highly corrosive to metals and quite hard on the skin.]
 
[Scott, if you live in an area that has very high humidity and you do not have central air in the house, you do not have to worry about evaporation from the tank. I do not care how many fans you have on the tank, if the air is already humid you just are not going to get the evaporation from the tank water, the air can only hold so much water. The reason we get so much evaporation and it does increase and decrease with humidity, it is a little drier climate than you are talking about. And most of us have central air that dries out the air in the house even more.
The problem you are going to have is cooling, if you have very hot lights, you are going to have to run a chiller, you are not going to cool through evaporation.
Unless you do what has been suggested already, get a dehumidifier. And I would get a large one.]
 
[I use a medication dose pump that nearly matches evaporation...I know this doesn't adress the humidity problem, but it helps with keeping water level right.]
 
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