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Unread 02/12/2012, 10:43 AM   #118
mr.wilson
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 2,803
Dave answered the humidity question well. The only thing I would change would be blowing the exhaust from above the tank outside, rather than into the fish room where it needs to be moved once again. In doing this, we have a negative pressure above the tank, and positive pressure in the fish room. That warm humid air has to go somewhere.

The HRV saves the heat and puts in back into the return air. In our case, we need to expel that air, not save it. We are planning to put an exhaust fan in that does not go through an HRV. I was hoping that we could modify our HRV so it doesn't save the heat, in other words, just exchanges air from inside with outside. Apparently, this modification cannot be done for some reason. The heat exchange unit in the HRV is simply a block of corrugated polycarbonate, like the stuff used for signs. I think we can just remove all or most of the panels and it will export the hot air, butte experts tell me it won't work. I'm not that kind of expert

The silly part is we are paying to cool the fish room concurrent to saving the heat. Mother Nature gives away free cold air all winter (that's August - June for those of you who don't live in Canada, yet we are paying the utility company for the same service

We have a spin-off problem, in that the air conditioner is acting as a dehumidifier. This is a standard issue with AC, but in our case the drain isn't level so condensed water pools in the AC and dries into our mangrove system. The fins are aluminum but there may be some copper exposure somewhere in there.

If we put in an "out" fan, and passive air intake, we will maintain negative pressure, save energy, and regulate temp and humidity better, not to mention saving the house from humidity damage.

We are down from three 1300w metal halide fixtures to one, and that one will be gone this week too. With it will go a lot of heat so the dynamic will change. This is where LED owners are discovering that heaters are necessary

We have successfully built up a very nice collection of fish for the tank. We have had very few losses and only had one breakout of disease in the tank, a mild case of icy that went away in a few days on its own. We currently have three moorish idols, a blue spot jawfish, and an achilles tang in the quarantine system. The next batch of fish will be some more anthias from Micronesia. After that, we are considering decommissioning the Mars systems and thanking them for a job well done. We are considering a coral frag grow-out system as this is where our focus will be in the future. We would keep one Mars system for future fish, but three systems is overkill and wasted servicing resources.

Peter really liked the commercial coral tank I built for another project so we may try to adapt a similar design. We just need to send Judy out to a weekend spa so she won't find out

This style of shallow coral tank allows for maximum gas exchange, flow and illumination. The DC pump only uses 40w to provide adequate flow and return from the sump.



Here it is with one of Peter's old metal halide fixtures. The best part, is Peter has an excuse to upgrade all of his older model LEDs on his tank (16 fixtures) and repurpose them for a coral farm tank. I say he applies for an aquaculture pioneering grant from the government of Canada




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