Rorie's Fish House Project

[Rorie]

My mate who kept marine fish in his "shed" has this issue with high humidity, in winter condensation & mould appearing on walls despite the winter heating and despite the tanks being covered.

Solved by combination of large extractor fans (12 inch ?) in the roof and two part air conditioning units. You need the two part units as it will extract moisture from the air inside and pump the condensed water outside. He eventually fitted a drain pipe as originally the condensate dripped onto a flower bed, but only large quantities of slime and moss grew.

Well i wanted to avoid puting vents of any kind into the room. I am heating the room rather than the tanks which is saving a lot on electricity and also much safer as its less likely to have one fail and boil a tank (its happened to me before!). So if i put in vents, i will be venting off all the hot air!

THere must be a source of the humidity....water cannot just appear! haha. I am wondering if its moisture still in the walls from when the humidity was high. But sounds like i'm not the first to find this!

The dehumidifier works fine, but the issue is the cost of running it! It basically doubles the running cost of the fish room when its on.

I need to find a solution

 

[dgwebster]

If you know anyone in a cooncil H&$ dept. they will be able to test the walls for water content.

Here is what i think the problem is though: water evaporation is molecular. What you think is a water tight seal, will have leaks. Best thing would be an air exchange unit with built in heat recovery (extracts & intakes the air, but recovers heat from the extraction and inputs into the intake). Expensive but it would work. But expensive.

 

[dgwebster]

Also, how do you play "the dyson game"

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I bet your plaster walls are still drying out too and being in a moist area initially probably slowed down the process or stopped it all togther

 

[Rorie]

I have come to two conclusions.

1) You are right, the walls are most probably not dry yet. So although the air was 50%, as soon as the dehumidifier went off, the moisture in the walls kicks in!

2) I am using air filters. I am driving air into the tanks.....it has to escape or the tanks would explode! But as the water has been driven through water, it is water logged. So when the air exchange in the tank to atmosphere happens, its happening with moist air. So the only way around this would be to have a vent from each tank....not going to happen!

As the room is warm though, there is no condensation which is good....So maybe the humidity isnt too much of a problem and i should learn to live with it

 

[ian_m]

I have come to two conclusions.

1) You are right, the walls are most probably not dry yet. So although the air was 50%, as soon as the dehumidifier went off, the moisture in the walls kicks in!

2) I am using air filters. I am driving air into the tanks.....it has to escape or the tanks would explode! But as the water has been driven through water, it is water logged. So when the air exchange in the tank to atmosphere happens, its happening with moist air. So the only way around this would be to have a vent from each tank....not going to happen!

As the room is warm though, there is no condensation which is good....So maybe the humidity isnt too much of a problem and i should learn to live with it

My mates problem was excess heat in summer, solved with extractor fans (+air con) and condensation on walls, equipment, floor in winter despite heating. A dehumidifier did seriously reduce the moisture (note plumb in tank to drain as you will get a lot of moisture) but at certain times of the year the dehumidifier just heated the room too much. Also the dehumidifier has other issues, if I remember, it doesn't work below 5 degrees (may have been 10), so if cold no good and also the water froze in the collection container cracking it. A two part air con solved the humidity problem, but was not cheap, but then his marine setups were not cheap either.

 

[BigFish01]

Looks great man. Have been following this for a while. Wish I had the resources to do such a thing!!! Hope you get your issues sorted soon!! Great job man!!

 

[Zikofski]

this is been amazing to read and very good i wish i had something like this, but a quick question regarding your last few problems, you said when the dehumidifier was on, the room temp rose, i presume this was with, the heating on, can you not turn the heating down or even off, so effectively the dehumidifier is A taking out the humidity and heating up the room, may not be the cheapest option but may save some money on the heating bill, if you can play around with the heating settings so that the room temp settles where you want it, with the dehumidifier on, may work may not

but i love that room non the less

 

[Rorie]

Its been a while since i have looked at this thread.  In answer to your question, Zikofski, you are right, the dehumidifier puts out hot, dry air.  This hot air heats the room up past the 26 degree mark.  However, as its 'thermostat' is dictated by moisture, not heat, there would be no way of regulating the temp in the room.  The two heaters are on a thermostat so if the dehumidifier is on, the heaters will not be on.
 
After some time of operation, the temp and humidity in the room became pretty steady.  I never used the dehumidifier and never had vents in the room.
 
My choice of LED lighting had ups and downs - cost was absolutely tiny and they put enough light into the tank to see the fish and they were happy spawning.  However, i like to have live plants in, to help with any ammonia and also to give fry hiding places.  But i could hardly keep the most basic plants alive.  Java ferns would live for a few months, but would eventually all die off.
 
My system for water changes was good.  I put a small pump into the tank covered in netting from a fry trap.  This saved any fry getting sucked up.  I then put the big water pump on which distributed the water to each tank as was required.
 
The system to heat the room (two tube heaters, 400w each, both on one thermostat) seemed to work well.  The tanks and room were very steady temp wise.  If i needed a tank hotter, for example, discus, i could add an extra heater to the tank and it was only required to add a couple degrees to the tank.
 
I upgraded my air pump from a 50l/h to a 140l/h as i found the tanks low down and the deep tanks were not getting enough air.
 
I think that is about it!  Any questions, give me a shout!
 
As some of you may know, i have  just shut down my fish room after loosing all my fish thanks to the water board!  I never got the enthusiasm back to buy all my fish back so made the decision to shut it down 

 

[Staxx]

losing tanks to the water board? i dont understand

 

[Rorie]

in short, the waterboard mix ammonia with chlorine in my area. During times of high rain fall they dose this even higher.....to a level so high that the residual ammonia was 3ppm and killed off all my fish!
 
They admit to doing this. They say that the levels of ammonia should be ok as your bio filter takes out the ammonia.....true....but it cant deal with the high level it experiences during high rain fall.  I proved i was right, but as the water was technically safe for human consumption, i didnt get a penny back from them.

 

[dgwebster]

mix ammonia with chlorine

Foe anyone unaware, this is part of the process for making chloramines, which are safer for human consumption hence why its fit for drinking water. Why it goes up during heavy rainfall baffles me though as all treated drinking water is stored in sealed reservoirs here.