Water Evaporation?

[gabbagabbahey38]

I've had my freshwater 20 gal tank for about a month and a half, and lately I've been noticing the water is evaporating extremely quickly. It's to the point where each week the amount of water lost is about equal to the amount I'd take out to do a water change.

Is this from the air stone? and how can I prevent this?

I have two tetras, a molly, and a bambo shrimp. An airstone, a filter, and a heater.

 

[tropicaldave]

I've had my freshwater 20 gal tank for about a month and a half, and lately I've been noticing the water is evaporating extremely quickly. It's to the point where each week the amount of water lost is about equal to the amount I'd take out to do a water change.

Is this from the air stone? and how can I prevent this?

I have two tetras, a molly, and a bambo shrimp. An airstone, a filter, and a heater.

Hi, does the tank have a lid? I had an open topped tank with an airstone in and was constantly topping it up, this loss was caused by spray from the airstone.

 

[hillmar77]

Yeah...Everytime I pick up my lid for feedings, there is always alot of water dripping off it. So if you don't have a lid then that could be the problem. If not, it could just be how dry your place is....The dryer it is the higher the evaporation.

 

[Arei]

Ever since I installed a bubble wand in my tank, the water has been vanishing quickly. I'd say that could be a huge possibility.

 

[moochy13]

assuming you've checked the air line for leaks ?

 

[Rogue4Fish]

Yeah...Everytime I pick up my lid for feedings, there is always alot of water dripping off it. So if you don't have a lid then that could be the problem. If not, it could just be how dry your place is....The dryer it is the higher the evaporation.

Would that not be how cold your place was and how warm your water is?

 

[waterdrop]

And think of every mineral and organic non-water molecule that's come in via the tap or via you adding something to the tank STAYING in the tank every week as all those H2O molecules drift out in to the room!! In nature this wouldn't matter, both because of the scale and because of the vast replenishment of rain and so forth. But our tanks are quite tiny compared to nature and we are constantly pushing the limits on re-creating what nature provided to these fish during the period they evolved in (which is what sets in place their cellular machinery to "osmoregulate" which way water needs to flow in or out of the cell so that it (the cell) can stay alive and keep its vast soup of complicated organic molecules all performing like a well-oiled factory! )

When we see evaportation constantly lower our tank levels it should remind us that these non-water molecules are working away on us, building themselves up and challanging our maintenance abilities! Every inch of water that goes out of our tanks in that manner is an inch of water that did NOT go out via water changing. Water changing takes -out- these excess molecules and moves our tank water towards a match with our tap water (which is nearly always what we want, because it allows our tap water to be our number one safety valve and "medicine" for anything that may seem wrong with our fish that we don't understand (and make no mistake, we don't really understand a lot of them, in my opinion.)

Evaporation is just a great reminder that often somewhat larger water changes are better than somewhat smaller ones. No one can tell you what percentage water change is right for you. All sorts of purposes are served by the gravel-clean-water-change, like achieving a good nitrate balance (nitrate being our all-purpose "canary in the coal mine" among the hundreds of dissolved substances we wish we could measure and track in our tank water,) or lowering the algae spore count, or lowering the tannin density. And in tanks where we've progressed to a larger mass of healthy growing plants, we might sometimes be getting closer to what nature does and need a little less help from water changes. All those things play in to the end decision an aquarist makes about water change size. But for most beginners, a little larger is the safer direction.

~~waterdrop~~ (you got me in morning coffee mode )

 

[hillmar77]

Yeah...Everytime I pick up my lid for feedings, there is always alot of water dripping off it. So if you don't have a lid then that could be the problem. If not, it could just be how dry your place is....The dryer it is the higher the evaporation.

Would that not be how cold your place was and how warm your water is?

Nope I was talking about the humidity(dryness) factor.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Waterdrop has melted my brain again.

 

[gabbagabbahey38]

Waterdrop has melted my brain again.

yes, thank you waterdrop! very helpful.

 

[Shaman]

Waterdrop has melted my brain again.

What WDs trying to say is that tap water/tank water will contain non-water particles, ammonia, calcium, magnesium, sodium etc... as these don't evaporate with the water they build up over time and only get removed with water changes.

Did you ever do the experiment at school with various chemicals disolved in water and evaporate the water? You'd end up with the chemical left behind (usually salt!)

HTH

 

[OldMan47]

Relax Aquatom. Let me go for the easy statements. All of the water you add to a tank include some form of minerals and other impurities. When water evaporates from your tank only the water molecules are removed. The impurities are all left behind. Even though you may see huge water level variations from evaporation, you must drain even more water before adding back any tap water. That way the impurities in your tank don't build up as high. In some of my tanks, I can lose 3 inches of water in a week. Before I add any water back in, I will siphon off 5 or 6 more inches of water to avoid an excessive build up of minerals in the tank. The extra water that I drain out removes some of those concentrated minerals and allows me to replace the water with simple tap water concentrations.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, its always better when we have the more relaxed half of our duo around to calm me down

 

[OldMan47]

Sorry WD. No harm meant. I simply wanted to give a less technical description in case it helps a bit.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh you never need to worry about that, I'm totally comfortable with you. I was just enjoying the company tonight, nice to have you back for a bit! Hey, I'm getting closer to my big plant trip, let me know if you have any special questions for the plant people! WD