Humidity vs Human Health?

[DrRockso]

Hi all!

We have in our living room a 120G reef setup. My girlfriend is very allergic to fungus, dust, etc. It causes her eczema and stuffiness... Lately, it's been pretty bad... and someone told us that it may be the humidity from our tank causing her allergies/eczema to spike, probably because of the closed windows (colder weather). Result is very heavy humid air, mould around some windows, etc. Could this be the cause of her problems? Would a good dehumidifier do the trick? Maybe something more drastic?
Help! We don't want to say goodbye to our little piece of ocean... 

[Darth]

maybe try an air purifier, they can remove  alot of airborne spores if you get a decent one, I would think you would need a lot more tanks then the one to have that much humidity IDK

[JetJumper]

120g tank here.  humidity was 70 all the time for me.. spices would go hard, etc.. installed an air exchanger and now I sit at 45-50

You could get a dehumidifier on the Furnace duct work..

[76brian]

I think you would have to have quite a significant amount of mold and moisture in the home before it would contribute to health issues, and I wouldn't think the added moisture in the air from a tank that size would be enough to significantly contribute. I dunno though, every house is different. Most homes are much too dry in the winter. If you live in a very small space, I guess it's possible, but it's not like you've got a 500 gallon hot Jacuzzi going or something. A dehumidifier would definitely take moisture out of the air, that's what they do... whether or not it will be enough to stop mold in those areas, who knows? Depends on the size of your house, the size of the de-humidifier, etc. Mold is definitely a problem though.

How much water vapour can mix in the air before it condenses depends on the temperature of the air. The warmer the air, the more water vapour the air "holds" ("hold" is not the correct term, look up "mixing ratio"). If the air is cooler it can't "hold" as much water vapour, so when it cools it will condense, and the moisture in those areas of course will cause mold.

You may just need better ventilation in your house around windows and other problem areas, or maybe bump up your house heat up a degree or so, and/or the tank down a degree or so if possible (warmer water also evaporates into the air faster).

Also, if you keep your blinds or curtains closed a lot, it can trap the warm air against the window, it will condense, and the lack of air movement won't let it dry, causing mold to develop.

[veron]

running anything more than 60% humidity is not good. 50% is a better target.
Hi humidity will cause mold and just feels grose. I have to run a dehumidifier
were I'm at right now. Basement with a 120g and lotsa ground water.
When your furnace is running more it might improve. [dry out your air].
also, are you running your fan on auto or on? leave it on as it will help on circulation.

[xenon]

Without a dehumidifier, we hit 70-80% humidity.

When I turn it on, I can get into the 40% range in a pretty short period of time so its worth the expense for sure.

[lucius]

Go to one of the home improvement stores and get a hygrometer.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/PersonalCare/ThermometersMonitors/PRD~0439266P/Vicks+Hygrometer.jsp?locale=en

As others have said, 40 to 50% is the comfortable range but it is relative to the outdoor temperature.  You may already be in range.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/humidity-settings-vs-temperature-humidity-tables/

[Fishnut]

I suffer from the same things as your gf.  Yes, you're going to needs some kind of dehumidifier. 

I have LOTS of tanks in the house (180g, 70g, 40g, 30g and lots of small ones) and none are open top tanks.  In fact, I do everything I can to cover them so I don't get lots of evaporation.  Most are also not heated tanks, which cuts down the evaporation a bit.  Last winter we noticed the house getting muggier...it was like walking into a rainforest when we came in the house!!  The windows were fogged, there was mildew growing in the crevices of the window frames and my health was deteriorating in the same way you're describing your gf's.  We bought a humidistat, which said the humidity was over 90% so we bought a dehumidifier.  Now it sits at 50%.  We also got the ducts cleaned as well as did a thorough scrubbing of the windows, walls and anywhere else we could get access to where mould might have started.

The first one we bought was at Home depot and my husband bought the extended warantee for it, knowing how much work it had to do.  It's a good thing we did because it broke down just past the manufacturer's warantee.  The replacement was bought at costco for a reasonable price.  Do yourself a favour and get one that has an option to attach a hose for draining into a floor drain.  Mine would likely fill up so frequently that I'm sure I would have had a few over-flowing buckets.

[exv152]

I would recommend getting an inexpensive hygrometer to measure the level of humidity. Ideally you want your RH to be between 30-50%. We actually have a humidifier installed on our furnace, otherwise it gets too dry which leads to other issues.

[DrRockso]

Thank you so much for your replies!! It gives us a lot of hope... you get attached to those little marine critters, ya know 

I'll try to test the air humidity and maybe get a new dehumidifier. We have one, but it's pretty old, and we're not sure how efficient it is.

Thanks again!!

[lucius]

Canadian Tire usually has dehumidifers on sale so watch the flyers, Sears also.

[touchofsky]

At our house, I always find the humidity the highest in the autumn.  I think the house holds moisture from the humid summers, then in late Sept. and October it always seems to rain quite a bit, and it is humid outdoors and damp indoors.  Once it gets colder and the humidity drops outside, and also once we start heating the house regularly, the humidity indoors drops.

We had water accumulating on our windows a few weeks ago, but it is gone now that it has stopped raining everyday and we have the heat on.

[martin_jones]

We consistently had around 50-60% humidity due to my large SW tank (and 3 FW tanks in the house). We had water running off the windows when it got cold outside, and black mold around the window edges.

Recently, we installed an HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator) onto our furnace and the humidity has dropped to around 30-40%.

Last night, for example, with the -17C temperature outside, we had a very small amount of condensation around the edges of some of the windows, which is much better than it used to be (we would regularly sponge off at least 2 bowls of water!).

I highly recommend getting one installed if you suffer from high humidity.

[alexv]

We had the same issues with moisture. We got a dehumidifier from Canadian Tire (which had 50% off the other day), and put insulator film over window panes to reduce contact of humid air with cold windows. That virtually removed condensation on windows and mould growth. Even in coldest of the nights...