Best way to purify/de-humidify air in fish tank room...

[bleedingthought]

Lately, I've been wanting more and more to cut down on the humidity in my fish room. Since adding my reef tank, things definitely got way more humid. That room being right next to my bedroom makes things even worse. I checked out www.freshbasement.com but their equipment looks way too expensive, so I didn't even bother signing up for a "quote call."

Anyone using anything, or have any ideas, to help keep the air drier (more importantly) and purer? I have no window in that room, only a big glass sliding door.

TIA

 

[Anonymous]

I use a dehumidifier in my strongroom as the climate here is pretty damp- works really well, but raises the ambient temp a bit... think that you may need to hunt around for an AC unit, that will get your air quality up and take the moisture out.

 

[Anonymous]

I bought a portable demudifier from HD to cure the humidity problem in my fish room.

I think I paid $280 for it.

It cured the problem I was having in the winter time of condensation all over the room. It was a mess. I don't need to run it in the summer.

Louey

 

[bleedingthought]

I have central AC and the room stays at about 72-75F but all the evaporation from 5 fish tanks builds up pretty bad sometimes. But I don't need it all the time. And I don't have any condensation problems. Any dehumidifiers that are cheaper or some other cheaper solution?

 

[Anonymous]

I just picked up a dehumidifier from Target for $129. It is doing a great job keeping the basement dry, and it doesn't put out as much heat as the older model it replaced! I wish I would have replaced our old clunky one a long time ago.

We were having quite an issue with humidity, the floor of the basement was developing actual puddles from the condensation on the cool concrete floor. We don't need our AC on much in the summer so we run this to keep the humidity down.

 

[Anonymous]

I open up a window and have plenty of airflow

 

[trido]

I installed a nutone 110CFM bathfan (Super quiet) in my ceiling controled by a coolingstat. The coolingstat works opposite of a thermostat and kicks on when the room reaches a certain temp. Fresh air is then drawn in from the out side from a vent installed in the wall. This works as a tripple purpose unit. As it is pulling heat from the room it also pulls humidity out with it and then brings lots of fresh oxygen in. MY tank room humidity is usually the lower than outside humidty somehow. No PH problems here either.

 

[bleedingthought]

Laura, my problem isn't that big of a deal but I do want to freshen things up a bit. Crisper air is the best! I might look into that sometime. Not too expensive, but could be better.

SFSUP, no window available. Also, I'd have some "conditioned" air flowing out the window if that was the case, which might make the whole house warmer.

Trido, do you run AC also in addition to that nutone? If so, aren't you loosing the cool air in addition to the humidity?

Thanks a lot guys!

 

[rayjay]

Not a cheap remedy, but cheaper than what I paid to replace window, doors, and siding due to many years of too much humidity was installation of an HRV. (And, I still have to replace a lot of drywall that was mildewed by the excess humity from pre HRV time.)

 

[trido]

No A/C here. Just a fresh air vent to the outside and two cooling fans on top of the tank. MY tank swings from 79-82 daily and I am still working out some bugs in that. Here in Seattle it has been around the upper 70s low 80s lately.

 

[WRASSER]

An a/c is a humifier, cheapest route is if you have a window in the room buy a window unit and install it. they go for about 80 to 90 buck :wink:

 

[bleedingthought]

No windows though.

And what's a HRV?

 

[Anonymous]

No windows though.

And what's a HRV?

You can cut through the wall and install an ac there.

Can you place a fan in the doorway of the room and blow some of the humid air out of the fishroom and torwards the a/c return?

 

[Rob Top]

$100 cure. Maybe
What I am doing to vent my fishroom, which will be pushing 1000 gallons when complete, is something Calfo suggested at IMAC. Take some 6" duct work and depending on the shape of the room have it so there is an opening every 6sf or so for intake then at the opening expand to 8" and put an exust fan blowing outside. This pulls warm humid air out of the room and sucks air into the fishroom from the rest of the house. You can hook this up to be on all the time, put it on a timer, manual switch or a humidastat. You should be able to put a hole in the side of the room near the top of the foundation with little problems. Otherwise see if you can tap into the dryer vent.

 

[rayjay]

No windows though.

And what's a HRV?

HRV is heat recovery ventilator.
Mine is a double core unit that pumps 265 cubic feet/minute into the house, exchanging temperature with the same amount of outgoing air.
The exchange means that my heated humid air in the winter transfers the heat to the incoming cold, low humidity air so the furnace doesn't have to warm the new incoming air up to room temperature.
In the summer, the cooler outgoing humid air transfers the cold to the incoming air, precipitating humidity from the incoming air, and saving on A/C run time.

 

[bleedingthought]

By the way, when I say fish room, I don't mean the ones behind a "in wall tank" (although I do have one of those, but no humidity problems there) - I mean that I have a room with 5 tanks in it and I walk through it to get to my room.

Andy, I don't want to cut holes into the wall. Less work the better. Something that can be moved would also be a plus. I don't have returns for my A/C although I really wish I did. It would probably solve my problems.

Rob, would all these ducts become vents or just be exposed? Since this is a "show" room, I can't really have something "exposed." Also, this too seems like I would have to drill through the wall for the fan. And how does thing idea keep the outside air from coming back in when the fan is off?

And Ray, that's pretty awesome. Anyway to do it cheaper? How much was it, anyway?

Again, thanks a bunch guys! Keep the ideas coming!

 

[rayjay]

I paid $1200 wholesale for it, and I don't know the regular price. Home Depot has some smaller upright ones for under $1000.
I installed my own so there was no extra expense that way.
The beauty of the HRV is that it doesn't have to be in the fish room, it can be anywhere in the house, and leave the furnace fan on all the time and it will draw all the problem air out in pretty good time.

 

[bleedingthought]

Definitely too much for my application!

 

[Anonymous]

I installed a nutone 110CFM bathfan (Super quiet) in my ceiling controled by a coolingstat. The coolingstat works opposite of a thermostat and kicks on when the room reaches a certain temp. Fresh air is then drawn in from the out side from a vent installed in the wall. This works as a tripple purpose unit. As it is pulling heat from the room it also pulls humidity out with it and then brings lots of fresh oxygen in. MY tank room humidity is usually the lower than outside humidty somehow. No PH problems here either.

Do you have the model number?

 

[bleedingthought]

I installed a nutone 110CFM bathfan (Super quiet) in my ceiling controled by a coolingstat. The coolingstat works opposite of a thermostat and kicks on when the room reaches a certain temp. Fresh air is then drawn in from the out side from a vent installed in the wall. This works as a tripple purpose unit. As it is pulling heat from the room it also pulls humidity out with it and then brings lots of fresh oxygen in. MY tank room humidity is usually the lower than outside humidty somehow. No PH problems here either.

How's the fresh air brought back in?