Room Humidity And Fish Tanks

[dingweding]

i noticed my room humidity is kinda high, even now is winter, the heater is on at night.

as i moved 3 houses last a few years. In the first one, i had 3 small tanks in a room, seems fine.
The worst is second house, as it is very old, my room is upstair, but all my clothes in the cloest get a little wet, esp those store at the bottom of shelf. my leather jacket, shoes has a white films grow on top of them. and those black stuff normally grow on out-of -date food, i do not know the english word of it, grow in the corner of room.

now i moved to a new house, it is kinda new, i just set up my first tank here. Only one month later, i notice the blck stuff grow at the corner of this room as well.

what should i do? open the window more often? and it is very difficult to get rid of the black stuff, it looks really ugly.

many thanks

 

[Truck]

de-humidifier

 

[dingweding]

de-humidifier

i know that. but i just wonder , why the humidity is so high? i always have open top fish tanks. But i just noticed this problem. maybe because i used to live in other countries instead of UK?

 

[Truck]

just the water evaporating. thats why you get condensation on the lid of a tank.

 

[saltynay]

Evapotranspiration if you also have plants that are exposed to the air. Stops you getting nose bleeds if you have a high humidity is one benefit. The whitey black stuff is mold from fungal spores just scrape it off and if your walls are white bit of spray on bleach should stop it returning for a couple of weeks. Opening your window will help but you will still have the humidity creeping up at night

 

[Socks]

A good fitting lid will drastically reduce the amount of humidity that escapes into the room.

 

[Schmill]

You have open top tanks, full of realtively warm water, in a relatively cool room. You WILL get evaporation, you WILL get it condensating on any cold places, (ceiling corners, windows etc), and if left it WILL cause mold.

So all you can do is reduce the humidity, by either:

a) Getting a dehumidifier to draw the moisture out of the air.
b) Get some decent fitting lids on the tanks, (or at least condensation covers)
c) Open the windows more, (this will exchange the warm humid air in the house with cooler, less humid air from outside (but might make you cold!)

You can't 'stop it' happening, but through lids you can try to contain it, and the other methods will attempt to minimise it's effects

 

[Amerce]

Have lids on all my tanks and never noticed any damp problem.

Invest in an inexpensive dehumidifier put it on for a few hours a day and put lids on your tanks.

Old houses usually have high celings and are a lot cooler than new houses so damp is always going to be a problem, you don't say how often your current house has it's heating on but if it is cooler than your tank temp then you will evaporation from the warmer water in the tanks compared to the room temp.

 

[dingweding]

i know, but i have planted tank, have to fit more light.so i got rid of the original lid

 

[Dave Spencer]

You have open top tanks, full of realtively warm water, in a relatively cool room. You WILL get evaporation, you WILL get it condensating on any cold places, (ceiling corners, windows etc), and if left it WILL cause mold.

Why WILL it cause mould?

All my tanks are open topped, and I have no problems. Dingweding, log on to UKAPS and ask there how many people have open topped tanks. Or any planted tank forum for that matter...try reef tank sites too.

Dave.

 

[backtotropical]

I'm with Dave on this. I have open top tanks and have never had any problems with mould.

I do get mould on the bathroom ceiling, but I don't have any tanks in there...................

 

[Truck]

as these two have said i have open top tanks in my room, you sure you dont have damp?

 

[Schmill]

Sorry, I should have clarified my last post

What I meant was that if the tank is open top you will get more evaporation than if it was covered.
Equally if you have cold areas of ceilings etc then it will tend to condensate there.
'Generally' the same areas that are cold enough to cause the condensation, (corner of a ceiling between 2 outside walls, back wall of a built in wardrobe against an outside wall etc), will also have a lack of airflow, and in my experience this can cause the mould to start.
Either warming the cold area, reducing the evaporation / humidty, or increasing the airflow all seem to work to stop the problems.

 

[petertr]

I have the same issue.

My house is 75 years old and doesn't vent very well - so humidity from Showers, cooking and dry clothes on radiators builds up in the house.


I get the black mould you spoke of too.


I have a weather-station alarm clock that tells me the humidity in my room - it was up to 80% - so I bought a dehumidifier and its now around 55%. Its noticable that I have less condensation on windows and less mould around the house.

 

[Inchworm]

I have about 30 tanks going and live in a fairly new apartment building. The windows are tight and the owners provide the heat so I don't want to waste any more of it than I have to. Air circulation is a big problem and something I'm always having to keep up with. I'm very concerned that mold might grow on the walls because that would surely get me in trouble with the management.

The summer is not usually a problem because even though I live in an area with high humidity, I run the air conditioners and that keeps it down. In the spring and fall I use exhaust fans in my windows to suck the moist air out. It's the winter that his harder to manage. Because we've had a long cold spell this year I've gotten into the habit of opening my hall door and a window in the fishroom and letting a draft come through, usually in the morning when the sun shines on my side of the building. When it seems necessary I do it in the evening too.

Sometimes I run the exhaust fans in the bathroom and over the stove in the kitchen too. They help but not as much.

Mold that forms from humidity is unsightly at best, but is it the kind of mold that causes health problems too?