ventilation in room

[blazehok68]

i have a 120 gal reef with dual 250 watt mh. i pretty much have to top off 5 gallons every 2 days. the room that it is in is really small. 13x9. right now being winter time, the room does not get too hot and humid, but the summer time is pretty viscous. i bought a dehumidifier in august and have been running it since then and it has made a heck of a difference. the room is cooler and drier. the other day the dehumidifier stopped working.
instead of buying a new dehumidifier, i was wondering if i could put a ventilation fan in the ceiling like you use in a bathroom, and vent the air into the soffit. i have a ceiling fan running non stop and a fan blowing across the top of the water all the time. would this vent fan in the ceiling work or am i just peeing into the wind?
i am going to try and get the dehumidifier fixed under warranty by the way.

 

[garick]

if the tank is getting to hot. Consider a chiller for the tank.

 

[blazehok68]

the temp in the tank doesnt really get that hot. stays at about 78-79 consistently. its the room that gets hott.

 

[bmkj02]

That would be a good idea. I think it would control the heat issue as long as you make it nice and professional looking and not "ghetto style" then go for it. Do show pictures of it if you decide to do it. You can go with a solar tube style look but for ventilation

 

[westwind77]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/3223350
i have a 120 gal reef with dual 250 watt mh. i pretty much have to top off 5 gallons every 2 days.
Wow, that is a LOT of water! I have a 110g w/ 2 x 250w MH and top off 1/2G each day.
Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/3223350
i bought a dehumidifier in august and have been running it since then and it has made a heck of a difference. the room is cooler and drier. the other day the dehumidifier stopped working.
THIS is the reason you are topping off so much! The DEhumidifier is sucking the moisture out of the air causing your tank to evaporate quickly. Do not replace it and see how much you have to top off.
I would find a simple fan method to air out the room as suggested, you could always get a cool mist humidifier and really slow your top offs and maybe even cool the room a bit

 

[ryancw01]

You need to pull air into the room. No ventilation could effect your pH also. I would put a small desk fan on top of your tank blowing towards the top of the water. Plug it into the same timer that you use when your lights come on if you have it automated so when the hot lights come on, the fan comes on also. This should help keep the temp good and pull some air in from outside rooms.

 

[blazehok68]

i do have 2 fans going in the room at the same time. and they are running constantly. one is a ceiling fan, and the other is a pedestal fan blowing at the top of the water.
one thing i just thought about is my fuge under my tank has a light running constantly, but no fan underneath. should i put a fan under there too?

 

[spanko]

Seems like you are trying to control the heat and humidiy in the room, not in the tank correct?
If so then I would get a good high cfm bathroom style vent fan and evacuat the air into the soffit and out of the house.

 

[ryancw01]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/3225675
i do have 2 fans going in the room at the same time. and they are running constantly. one is a ceiling fan, and the other is a pedestal fan blowing at the top of the water.
one thing i just thought about is my fuge under my tank has a light running constantly, but no fan underneath. should i put a fan under there too?
Oops...sorry about that...I should have read your post more clearly. I would just get another dehumidifier then if that seemed to work.

 

[blazehok68]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3225689
Seems like you are trying to control the heat and humidiy in the room, not in the tank correct?
If so then I would get a good high cfm bathroom style vent fan and evacuat the air into the soffit and out of the house.
thats what i was thinking.

 

[stdreb27]

I was topping off that much in humid south texas with no dehumidifier..
I doubt venting the room would cool it off that much, all those pumps and lights are what is going to really heat up the room.
Humidity just makes it seem hotter...

 

[beaslbob]

From what I hear one of the reasons for ventalating a room is to get rid of the humidity (as mentioned). But the humidity feeds things like mold which can ruin the house and affect human's health as well.
just what I hear

 

[dragonzim]

If you're evaporating that much water it is NOT a good idea to just vent into your atticsoffit. You can do serious damage to the wood structure of the roof with that much moisture up there. If you want to do it, do it right and run a vent stack through the roof.

 

[westwind77]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/3223350
instead of buying a new dehumidifier, i was wondering if i could put a ventilation fan in the ceiling like you use in a bathroom, and vent the air into the soffit.
i am going to try and get the dehumidifier fixed under warranty by the way.
Do you know the current humidity level in the room, without the dehumidifier running? There is no reason to run it if it is not at a higher %.

 

[blazehok68]

the dehumidifier has a digital readout on the front. it shows the desired % and the actual %. i would run the unit at a desired level of 35% for 2 hour cycles. i have seen the actual % get upwards of 75%.

 

[blazehok68]

in fact, my attic stairs are right outside the doorway to this room, and the humidity gets so bad that in the winter, water condensates on the cover to the steps.