# Building a fish room: tackling humidity



## Hock (Mar 23, 2012)

So if you were designing your own fish room from scratch(like i am) in a basement, how would you tackle the issue with humidity? I am not wanting to go the route of dehumidifier, there must be a better solution. I planned on having the room zoned and kept in the high 70's, low 80's temp wise to avoid individual heaters.


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## FarmerDan (Aug 7, 2016)

I am in Colorado. It's very dry here so I used a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) aka air exchanger. I believe it's pretty humid in Kentucky? So you might go with an ERV, Energy Recovery Ventilator. It will exchange air from your fish room to the outside and the core helps to transfer heat energy from the outgoing stream to the incoming fresh air to temper it. ERV and HRV work very differently. An HRV here works way better than a dehumidifier because the air is dry and the core collects condensation and drains it away and an air exchanger is relatively inexpensive compared to a dehumidifier.

You need to get some type of air exchange down there. I don't know exactly what type of condensation you might have to deal with in your climate but here in Colorado if you have humidity above 60-65% in any room and it's cold outside your going to have condensation issues. How major they are depends on what your house/room setup consists of. Anything cold will collect water. Windows, cold water pipes, etc...

If I were you I would talk to an HVAC person near you. Any indoor pools around you? You can see what they use, it's usually an air exchanger but you can find out HRV or ERV depending on what someone in your area is using.


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## Hock (Mar 23, 2012)

I already did and heres what we are installing: Trane XV20i Heat pump, ERV, Humidifier, Air Scrubber, and zoning for the fish room so it can be separately temperature controlled than the other rooms.


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## tanker3 (May 18, 2015)

You can have a small vent to the outside, like those "Clothes Drier" vents, with a small fan.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I have a small fish room (10x12) of 20 tanks plus an additional 9 tanks in a walk out basement and don't use anything special to keep the humidity just right. The whole house is conditioned space with the furnace and A/C for summer use. However I do have large windows that can be opened during non-A/C weather in the summer.

The most important thing to consider is using tight fitting lids for all the tanks and if using sumps, do the same. Air circulation, whether via ceiling fans or other air moving appliances should help some.

A local aquarist near me has a separate fish room in a normal basement and uses a humidity sensing bathroom fan to exhaust to the outside and says it works for him. I think he uses a portable radiant heater with thermostat to heat the room.


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

Not to hijack the thread, but Dee,

Assuming you have a single story home with walkout basement, do you notice a significant temperature difference between the first floor and the basement ?

I'm not sure what it is here - beyond hot air rises. cold air falls - but there always seems to be a very significant difference here, between the living space upstairs and the basement (single story ranch, with walkout basement)

The basement always seems much, much cooler ... usually quite pleasant in the summer, but chilly or even cold in the winter.

On a whim, I just checked it: 75.2F upstairs, 67.2F in the basement.

I know that at least 1/3 of the interior walls in the basement are insulated ... because I built them myself. The walls in the utility room (18' x 40' ?) clearly aren't. The rest of it I'm unsure about ... it was finished off a long time ago (early 70's) ... probably before the cost of heating and cooling was as big a deal as it is now.

FWIW, the foundation walls are solid, poured concrete, at least 8 or 10" thick I believe ... but were not done ICF (insulated concrete forms)


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

wryan, I only see a couple degrees difference between up and down and my house is a single story also, the front of house is below ground.

I had a company come out in 1994 and install premium foam insulation in the stud and cement block walls and it made a remarkable difference in utility bills and comfort level so that may account for a lot of it.

I did a lot of research before building the fish room so as to avoid mold/mildew and humidity issues so in my fish room, I removed the drywall from the exterior block walls and installed 1" thick blue DOW XPS panels against the walls, taped seams, framed with 2X4 on the flat and then greenboard finished and painted. The ceiling is low profile drop ceiling panels and the cavities above are not insulated to allow good air flow and reduce chance of mold growth.

You may be getting quite a bit of coolness from the poured concrete walls since they are not insulated, especially the portion not below ground. The other thing to look at is the balance between the upper and lower floor registers, especially if you mostly use the lower level. When we upgrade furnaces in 1994, the guys added 2 additional registers since we spend 95% of our time in the basement.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I have problems with evaporation...not excess humidity. I am surprised, but there you have it.

Of course my basement is very dry to begin with. Summers here are humid and winters dry. I have an evaporation problem, even with covered tanks, all year around.


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## FarmerDan (Aug 7, 2016)

Why the humidifier?


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Deeda said:


> I have a small fish room (10x12) of 20 tanks plus an additional 9 tanks in a walk out basement and don't use anything special to keep the humidity just right. The whole house is conditioned space with the furnace and A/C for summer use. However I do have large windows that can be opened during non-A/C weather in the summer.
> 
> The most important thing to consider is using tight fitting lids for all the tanks and if using sumps, do the same. Air circulation, whether via ceiling fans or other air moving appliances should help some.
> 
> A local aquarist near me has a separate fish room in a normal basement and uses a humidity sensing bathroom fan to exhaust to the outside and says it works for him. I think he uses a portable radiant heater with thermostat to heat the room.


I just suggested the same thing to s friend that is having humidity issues in his basement fishroom.


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

For those that might want to save a few bucks (humidity-sensing fans can run $100 or more), Leviton and Broan make humidity-sensing fan switches that will turn a normal bathroom fan on and off based on the (user pre-set) humidity level. They run $27 to $35 at the orange big box place and a cheap bathroom fan can be had for under $20.

Would assume that the other home improvement big box stores offer similar.


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

Deeda said:


> wryan, I only see a couple degrees difference between up and down and my house is a single story also, the front of house is below ground.
> 
> I had a company come out in 1994 and install premium foam insulation in the stud and cement block walls and it made a remarkable difference in utility bills and comfort level so that may account for a lot of it.
> 
> ...


Dee,

Thanks for the info/input.


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