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Water Evaporation

1885 Views 16 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  blueguppygirl, 
J
Does anybody experience water evaporation on their planted tank? For some reason, each week .... my water level in my 50g drops about 2-3" and was wondering what causes so much evaporation?
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N
If you live in a dry climate, water will evaporate faster. If your tank is open top water will evaporate faster. If you run a heater during the winter to heat your home, the dry heat will cause water evaporation.

All in all that is not a lot evaporation. On my 180g tank that I had, I would evaporate that amount in 1 day...
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C
Yes, evaporation is going to happen unless you have a tight fitting glass top and even then it may still happen a little. If your humidity is low (air is dry) you will experience more evap. If you are blowing air across the top of the tank like from a draft or a fan ina canopy then you will experience more evap. The last few weeks I have been loosing about 3" a week from my 75G, my house is at about 35% humidity and I do have a fan blowing in my canopy while the lights are on.
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distrbd
One of my tanks is close to a heating outlet and it causes a lot of water evaporation.
Also if the light is too close to the top of your tank I believe that could have the same effect .
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R
Hey Jdinh,

I see you live in Michigan. During the winter months you have your furnace on. Usually in a home during the winter with a furnace running things dry out. You'll notice that it's winter time while your walking around your house you will get shocked by static electricity. Not that we don't have dry spells in the summer also but here in Ohio we have lots of humidity in the summer also.


My tanks evaporates more water during winter months. I have a small 3 gallon bucket for just these occasions. I top off mid week and that holds me over till water changes.


Slap a some glass on the top to slow it down if you choose?



riverrat
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R
Man!.... I am a slow typist. There were no replies a moment ago!

lol :help:


river
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J
Thanks for all the replies, they were very helpful. I don't have any glass tops which is probably why i'm evaporating so much water, also the lights are about 4-5" from the tank so that could be a factor as well, or maybe its just the winter, I don't know.

I will probably see if I could get some glass tops for the tank, maybe that'll do some help.
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S
I just deal with it, keep a bucket of water handy and do a quick top up every day or two.

Some folks pay a fortune for humidifiers and I have one of the best as a byproduct :)
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JenThePlantGeek
I was actually complaining that the air in my bedroom is too dry - I need to set up another tank!
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B
that makes sense since relative humidity is a function of temperature. as cold air from the outside makes its way into your house and warms up, it will drive down the relative humidity since warmer air has a higher ability to hold more water. with this the gradient for mass transfer is more favorable also

riverrat said:
Hey Jdinh,

I see you live in Michigan. During the winter months you have your furnace on. Usually in a home during the winter with a furnace running things dry out. You'll notice that it's winter time while your walking around your house you will get shocked by static electricity. Not that we don't have dry spells in the summer also but here in Ohio we have lots of humidity in the summer also.


My tanks evaporates more water during winter months. I have a small 3 gallon bucket for just these occasions. I top off mid week and that holds me over till water changes.


Slap a some glass on the top to slow it down if you choose?



riverrat
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Mangala
my largest tank loses about two gallons a day... this could be due to it's high temperature (86 degrees) to the lights being near (6" away) or possibly... jusssttt possibly from my cat drinking out of the tank. or maybe all three. :)
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mistergreen
it's humidity yo..... it won't be as bad in the summer time.
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Rex Grigg
One thing to note is that if you have hard water and lose water to evaporation and refill the tank with tap water you are increasing the hardness.

If you need to top off try and do so with distilled or RO water (this is one of the few times I think it's needed). Filling with tap water is one of the methods how people end up with much harder water in the aquarium than out of the tap.
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mrbelvedere
I have two 18 gallon tanks in a small bedroom. I evaporate an inch a day on both. Now, my room has perfect humidity, my dry skin problems quickly cleared.

Just top her off:icon_smil
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B
haha thats gross but funny
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N
Mr B has a point. Since the addition of a 50 gallon to my room, my skin has been less dry.
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blueguppygirl
Well, in 5 small tanks I have to add about a gallon a day. I'm not sure if it's helping the dryness in my skin but I certainly itch less, and my sinuses are a whole lot happier with me.
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