Temp and humidity in CO

[flagg37]

Hi guys,

I’ve had reef tanks in CA and now have a large build I’m planning here in Thornton. For those of you with large tanks, how many watts do you use to heat your tank in the winter. We generally keep our house around 68 and the build I have planned will be about 700 gallons and will be on the main level where the thermostat is. Along that same vein, do you think a chiller is needed for over the summer? Again, we keep the house about 72 in the summer.

My next question is about humidity. It’s a much drier climate here; how much humidity mitigation do you think is necessary? Right now I plan on using this in the sump area to push air to the exterior of the house.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZXWN3B...abc_KD4NG7DKSMRCDZ5THV60?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Craigar]

Depends on your equipment you plan on using I have a 1275 gallon system and only run two 500 watt heaters and one 300 watt just in case a 500 fails I don’t run a chiller

 

[SynDen]

Not sure on my wattage for heating in the winter, since my tank uses a closed loop attached to my hot water heater to heat the tank. It uses very little electricity to run. I do keep my tank around 73-74 degrees during the winter though, and room temp at 70, so it doesn't run very much anyway.

Keeping the room temp at or around the temp you want the tank is the easiest and cheapest way to keep a large tank temp stable, especially in the summer. If you keep the house at 72 degrees during the summer, your tank should naturally sit around 74-75 degrees, and no chiller needed. I would only run a chiller if you didnt have ac at all, and room temp was excess of 80. I keep my house at 78 in the summer but I try to keep my tank around 76, so I built a cooling closed loop on my tank to help. Its hooked to the cold tap on the input, and waters my yard, on the output, when the tank needs to be cooled. Generally only had to run it once a day during the summer to maintain a temp of 76-77 degrees

For humidity, I have a little monitor that sits down near the tank to keep an eye on it, and if it gets above 50% humidity I just open a window some and it will generally drop back down to 40%. Sometimes I add a fan in the room pointed at the window to help keep it down, but only need that once in a great while. My tank is open topped and in the basement, but I find that the humidity only really spikes when we do a bunch of laundry, so that is generally when I add a fan.

 

[flagg37]

Depends on your equipment you plan on using I have a 1275 gallon system and only run two 500 watt heaters and one 300 watt just in case a 500 fails I don’t run a chiller

Not sure on my wattage for heating in the winter, since my tank uses a closed loop attached to my hot water heater to heat the tank. It uses very little electricity to run. I do keep my tank around 73-74 degrees during the winter though, and room temp at 70, so it doesn't run very much anyway.

Keeping the room temp at or around the temp you want the tank is the easiest and cheapest way to keep a large tank temp stable, especially in the summer. If you keep the house at 72 degrees during the summer, your tank should naturally sit around 74-75 degrees, and no chiller needed. I would only run a chiller if you didnt have ac at all, and room temp was excess of 80. I keep my house at 78 in the summer but I try to keep my tank around 76, so I built a cooling closed loop on my tank to help. Its hooked to the cold tap on the input, and waters my yard, on the output, when the tank needs to be cooled. Generally only had to run it once a day during the summer to maintain a temp of 76-77 degrees

For humidity, I have a little monitor that sits down near the tank to keep an eye on it, and if it gets above 50% humidity I just open a window some and it will generally drop back down to 40%. Sometimes I add a fan in the room pointed at the window to help keep it down, but only need that once in a great while. My tank is open topped and in the basement, but I find that the humidity only really spikes when we do a bunch of laundry, so that is generally when I add a fan.

Thanks for the responses guys. I have two 500w heaters and two 200w heaters from a previous tank so it sound like I should be fine.

For the humidity, I may hold off on getting the fan until it becomes an issue.

 

[jda123]

My approx 320 gallon volume tanks have 3x 300w in the sump and 1-2 in the tank (I forget how many). Run both on separate Rancos - Ehiem 300w for me. I buy them by the 6 pack case anymore. I would rather have more than less, but maybe I am weird - I don't want a larger heater to stick on, so 300w is my max anymore. I have never even heard of a Ranco sticking on, but I don't risk it. We do keep our house pretty cool.

Evaporation cooling is my biggest expense (heaters). I have no humidity issues - we have a humidifier on our furnace even with the tanks. I never had problems from heat with MH in Missouri with the 100% humidity since I know how to run a simple fan, but I welcome any heat here. Probably 70% of my tank costs are heaters. The MH are a drop in the bucket and help me out a bit, but the heaters are sometimes still on in the fall/spring/winter when the MH are on... and even sometimes in the summer too. Don't underestimate evap cooling.

The weather is so good here, I recommend a way to air out your house with power. We have a 48" attic/whole-house fan that we turn on every day in the spring-fall and any time it gets over 50 in the winter for a few hours. Keeps the tank ph at 8.3-8.4 really nicely. I used to mostly do it for the tanks and to not have 3 HVAC systems running in the summer, but the kids have started to ask to air the house out in the winter - there are benefits for humans to getting the co2 out too.

 

[quackenbush]

Just curious, but why would "high" humidity be a problem?

 

[Roxborough Reefer]

Based on my professional background in indoor air quality, high humidity creates an air environment for microorganisms and fungal growth to flourish. Besides, what extreme humidity does to building materials and furnishings. So, those of you with larger aquariums need to consider controlling humidity within your homes.
Last weekend, there was water dripping from the ceiling in one of the aquarium stores.

Sent from my SM-A716V using MASC mobile app

 

[SynDen]

Just curious, but why would "high" humidity be a problem?

Ya it just creates an environment where mold and mildew can build up to unhealthy levels and if bad enough can cause wood rot at an accelerated rate. Although this isn't something most hobbyist need to worry about in CO. Even with a big tank the humidity will rarely reach level high enough to create those sorts of issues. It is easily mitigated in a house setting.
Now if you have whole bunch of tanks, like a fish store would, or living in a naturally humid environment, then you likely will need to install an in-line de-humidifier, so that you don't have condensate dripping from the ceiling, but 99% of all aquarist will never have enough tanks to have that problem here.

 

[flagg37]

Again, thanks for all the responses. It puts my mind at ease. I saw a post on r2r and the guy had a full like industrial grade humidity mitigation system so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. I think he was in the south though, so maybe he really needed it.