Humidity and tanks?

[Nerine]

I know this has been discussed before... but I'm being blamed for some serious humidity issues in our house...I have roughly 90 gallons of water? a 55 (it has maybe 45 gallons of water in it due to rock work/sand) and 2 20gal, and 3 2 gallons....
I broke down all the others and combined into the 55 and 20's...

Soooooooooooooo I don't top off much, the 55 and one of the 20's (one has a heater due to trying to encourage breeding) get topped off once a week or every other week with a couple gallons ...

and the little ones NEVER are topped off, in fact I haven't changed the water in two of them for over a month (whoops) and they a tiny bit lower but not much (good lids!)

But that much water wouldn't make my house 71% humidity would it?! Average room in this house (with or without tank) is about 60-71% humidity. I was told that we need to be at 35% humidity....(though I need to double check that) and I have houseplants too, that will raise it, and 6 people living here and lots of cooking/baking/laundry/showers etc. Which all play a factor!!

Soooooooooo with all that...an average aquarium adds how much humidity to a room??? What is everyone else's humidity in their house and how many gallons of water do you have? and are your tanks open or not? and do you have a dehumidifier? thanks

[zoom111]

I think a dehumidifier would help, I have mine set to 55 and it's on fairly often with a 20 long and another ~7 gallon. Both are open top.

[NjOyRiD]

its 40% min in the winter
if kids are sick, 70% in their room

summer is under 60%

at my house:

rooms: 50%
middle: 40%
basement where my tank is: 30% ( i need humidity!!!!!!) lol

[touchofsky]

Just checked and today we have 58% humidity.  I have 220 gallons of water.  Only one tank out of 8 is open top.

[JetJumper]

I used to have high humidity with my 120g but we ended up getting an air exchanger for the house and that solved that.

[NjOyRiD]

I laso have an air exchanger for the house
but I also added aother one just for the tank's canopy

[lepageg]

aye, I sympathize with you.

I also have multiple tanks(~300gal total), all with open tops which causes high evaporation, thank goodness for my automatic water changer/replenisher.  However it does mean 2 dehumidifiers just to keep up.

As a side note, cooking/boiling/steaming etc also adds a considerable amount of humidity.

I need to investigate this air exchanger gizmos.  Does it make a big difference?  Are they expensive?

[NjOyRiD]

Yeah, huge diference
I paid 300$

[lepageg]

wow, just that pays for my bloody dehumidifiers.

Not sure if advertisement is in conflict of interest here, however could you pm me where i can get it done?

[JetJumper]

Mine was $1500 installed, however thats an entire house unit.  My humidity was 70-80% before I installed this, right now I have it set for 45% for the winter, summer will be 50-60%

Spices in the cupboard don't go rock hard anymore!

[Chinaman]

Like the other previous posts stated, I believe the norm humidity for
winter time is about 43-45ish!!  At 35% you will get nosebleed.

I used to have my tanks, all in my basement 90Gs and 55Gs loosely covered.
And as a result, the condensation in my furnace had high build-up. After I had
appropriate tank canopies and lids on them. The problem seemed to disppear.
Just a personal experience.

Cheers,

Sam

[limmer]

If your windows are full of condensation, maybe you need a one of those 3m films put on.  Could be your windows are not up to par.

[Fishnut]

I was battling high humidity too.  I have good lids on all of my tanks and all internal or canister filters.  Most of my tanks are also non-heated, except for the 30 in Fishnut Jr's room and one 10 gallon in the basement.  It was ticking me off to no end that my house was feeling like a rainforest.

We broke down and bought a dehumidifier for $250.  It's set at 50%  Our windows in the front also have the plastic on them because they never get the nice direct sun and get super cold!

Me @ Home Depot: Where are the Dehumidifiers?
Home Depot Woman:  Oh, what you need this time of year is a Humidifier and they're over there
Me: No, my aquariums are providing us with an excess of humidity.  That's why I asked where I can find the dehumidifiers.

Was I rude?  I has assumptions.

Most HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) companies will install those air exchangers.  It's planned for the future, but we wanted an immediate solution before we started getting mould.  I've heard that most are around the $1000 - $1500 price point.

[wolfiewill]

I have a humidifier on my furnace and in the winter it's always on. They come with a chart which suggests the optimal internal humidity for a house with a given outside temperature, so I set my humidifier to that setting (and it unhealthy to run the humidity lower than 40% anyway). I have a high efficiency furnace which keeps circulating the air at all times to even out all the highs and lows. The important thing is that several years ago a heating/furnace specialist said the aquariums are helping to keep the humidity up during the winter. This ended the argument I've been having with my family about the very same thing. Cheers, and keep the tanks open. They need air too. G

[Nerine]

good to know others out there are in the same boats too

yes the windows are old, they are from 1980 or so...but the seals are going on them.

the in laws want the house down to 30% humidity in here...but I agree that is rather low!! I don't want it DRY in here!!!

[exv152]

The ideal inside humidity level really depends on the outside temperature, the colder it is outside the dryer it should be inside. On a day like today where it's -21ºC the inside humidity should be around 25% or you run a risk of developing mold, in the walls, windows, atic, basement, which can lead to rotting wood beams and countless other expensive to fix problems, not to mention health risks. Here is something I copied off the internet showing what the humidity levels should be at specific temperatures:

Outside Temperature Indoor Humidity Level
°C     Humidity % 
-30   15%
-25   20%
-20   25%
-10   30%
-5   35%
0+   40%

http://www.improvinghome.com/content/correct-humidity-level
I just bought a a new house in 2011 and it came with an HRV, humidifier and electronic air cleanser and the above chart is posted on my humidifier dial on the furnace. I was also told by the foreman who did our walk through inspection of the house when we took possession, that the humidity should be adjusted manually depending on the outside temperatures, but if we stuck to 30% in the winter and 40% in the summer we should be fine.