Humidity & Temp control - 600 gallon fish room

[nivenethan]

Boy oh boy....I am setting up a built in 300 gallon tank with another 300 gallons in multiple other sumps and tanks. The equipment room and tank will be completely sealed off from the rest of the house and located in the basement. This is a brand new and expensive house and can't risk any moisture problems. I live in Iowa...temps range from 100 in summer to -5 in winter. Humidity can be brutal 90% + in winter and very dry in winter.

Any ideas would be AWESOME!. I had an HVAC contractor engineer and quote me a system and they recommend a split AC system and a Desert Aire dehumidifier. Great right?.......except it comes with a $6,000 price tag!!!! Cant do that.

Please help. Anyone with a quality and effective system in place?

Thanks, Darren

[AS]

I have 500 Gal Tank with a seperate room (no heat or ac) with another 300 gal in the seperate fish room. I have a standard bathroom exhaust fan in that goes outside. I also have a LG dehumidifier (typical home size). I do not have any issues and tank maintain a constant 78 degrees (no chiller)

The only thing that I plan to modify is to wire the fan into my Neptune AC3 to automate on / off control.

Also new large house.

[nivenethan]

Originally posted by AS
I have 500 Gal Tank with a seperate room (no heat or ac) with another 300 gal in the seperate fish room. I have a standard bathroom exhaust fan in that goes outside. I also have a LG dehumidifier (typical home size). I do not have any issues and tank maintain a constant 78 degrees (no chiller)

The only thing that I plan to modify is to wire the fan into my Neptune AC3 to automate on / off control.

Also new large house.

So...exhaust fan and dehumidifier? Man that would be great!

Is the display tank mounted in the wall so that it is in the same room as the sump?

Are you drawing in any fresh air from the rest of the house?

How long have you had it set up this way?

Is the fish room sealed off from the house with sheetrock and insulated walls?

What kind of lighting are you using?

Does your dehumidifier run constantly?

Does your exhaust fan run constantly?

Are you venting exhaust through the roof or side of your house?

Sorry for all the questions, but humidity and temp really has me concerned?

Thank you!!

[ReefWaters]

I have a cheap dehumidifier and I hate it. It is extremely loud and annoying. It runs 24/7 to maintain 60% humidity in my fish room. It is also plumbed directly to my floor drain. I have about 350 gallons total right now and plan to add about another 200 gallons. If the dehumidifier cuts off I will have standing condensation on every surface in the room within 20 minutes or less.

I also have an A/C unit in the room that helps to maintain the room temperate at 77 to 78 (tank temperature). I had hoped this would pull more moisture out of the room but it doesn't. If I turn the A/C off, the room will heat up well past my comfort level.

I am about to install a vent fan through the roof with a fresh air intake as well unless I discover something better before I cut holes in my ceiling and roof. Unless you are looking into a very large and very expensive dehumidifier, I would not waste your time.

But that is just my opinion based on my experience. I would like to hear what others have to say as well.

[dahenley]

Im tagging along and hope to hear from more people too.
Thanks

[mm949]

ventalation is the key....i have 6000gl in only 1000sq' of space

i run a large adjustable speed exhaust fan to pull air out of the room....keeping the water temp a few degrees below room temp will help ruduce evaporation levels and humidity

its also a good idea to insulate the room to stop colder air from outside getting in...this is the major issue with condensation and mold in colder months.....summer is easier by opening a window

i also tried the whole dehumidifier thing and for me it seemed to make matters worse by creating alot of heat and sucked more evaporated water from the tanks

[wmilas]

The dehumidifier thing just doesn't work.

I have 1000 gallons in my fishroom which is completely sealed from the rest of the house. You need to make sure its sealed, water tight, and insulated. Once thats the case you don't CARE what humidity level it is in the room. What you care about is the temperature. You want to control temperature so that you don't need to use a chiller.

So, install 2 fantech fans. One pulls air from outside the house and dumps into the room. The other pushes air out from the other side of the room. Put a large fan on the sump. (I use one of those that is elevated on a stand). When your temp gets too high, both fantechs kick on and dump humidity out, fan on sump kicks on increasing humidity in the now under-saturated air and brings down tank temperature. Evaporative cooling is far and away the cheapest way to cool your tank. The reason you need two fantech fans is that if the room is sealed, you can't just exhaust or you create a vacuum and you won't be dumping air. You need makeup air to come from somewhere... in this case outside the house.

In the summer time you will have an issue. You can't take hot moist air from the outside. You have 2 choices. Install a T on the intake and pull air from inside the house. Then dump it outside. You'll be using your house air conditioner to be doing the chilling for you.

The second is to install a split system. IMHO with the system described you won't need it... I don't need it and I have more water than you in the same climate (chicago).

You MUST install close-able flappers. One on the inside of the fish room on the air input (makeup air) and one on the outside of the house on your exhaust air. This will ensure that air doesn't leak out of your fish room.

IMHO this is the best of all worlds. Mine is a little more complex than this as my makeup air actually goes through one of my large whole house HEPAS's first. I also don't run the fans full bore in the summer. To get every last bit out of the house air, I run the fans so they turn over the fish room air one time. I run the fan over the sump till it completely saturates the fishroom air, then dump it again with 1 turn over. This is all easily doable with something as simple as a good controller like a AC 3 Pro and a little bit of math... you don't need a humidity controller.

The key is contain the moist hot air in the fishroom so it can't escape to the rest of your house. You can then manage it with ease.

[BradR]

A heat recovery ventilator is the way to go.
Just be sure to get a metal or polypropylene, not paper film, heat exchanger.
It'll pay for itself pretty quick over a bathroom fan.
Dehumidifiers consume electricity like crazy.

HRV info

[NexDog]

I have 450 gallons of water in my fish room. Tank is in-wall so room is pretty much sealed. I have an AC unit in there that is rated for a 4m x 3m room and I keep it on 24/7 from May to October. Run it during the day only in April and November. Have an exhaust fan that is hooked up to the light hood so extracts that hot air. I think my water temp averages at 81.5 in the really hot months (average 110F with 176767696976% humidity).

[wmilas]

The problem with a HRV is that if its a sealed room,you don't WANT to save the heat. You want to dump it. Thats the whole idea.

I have 2 HRV's for my house and they work great. For the fishroom ,they would be working opposite to what I would want.

[BradR]

True wmilas. In the summer you can disable the heat exchange function so it works like a bathroom fan. In the winter you re-enable it to save on your heating bill.

[flworkd]

soon i will start build 96x36w x 25h
and i will use a Humidity Sensing Fan

http://www.nutone.com/product-detail...roductID=11229