Dary's tank!

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I’ve kinda noticed over the years that for some reason during the winter months when everything gets colder that I seem to add twice as much water to the ATO system then during the summer months when it’s really hot … granted that the whole tank system stays at a constant temperature due to the cooler and heater combo but it just seems kinda weird to me ,…seems like it should be just the opposite happening,… humidity??? Just kinda baffling,…Lol
 
Cold air typically has lower humidity than warm air, because warm air can store more water vapour than cold. That low capacity/ low humidity air comes into your house where its presumably warmer and its capacity increases as the air warms up.

More evaporation will happen in winter because the air coming in once warmed will be low humidity/ high capacity compared to summer air coming in which is already high humidity/ high humidity.

Terribly explained by me, but what you are experiencing is fairly normal.
 
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Start off with the water in the tank being warmer than the surrounding enviroment. Once you tie in winter conditions, the furnace will suck the humidity out of the air. The same happens with cooler air, but it is much more drastic with the hot dry air we circulate during winter months.
So in Pennsylvania, during non furnace running months I have ~4-5 gallons of evaporation on the 135 every other day. When the furnace is on, that can change to every day depending on how low the temp drops. I plan for temps around 15-30 for one bucket of evaporation daily...ish.
 
Wow !! Thanks guys , I thought I was going nuts ,… makes some sense now .
Learning something new everyday !
Very much appreciated!
 
Hi everyone ! I got a birthday wish from the forum this morning and thought wow it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything so I thought I’d say hi again !
As far as the tank goes , everything running smooth and with out any major incidents,… all my residents are doing very well ,…especially the powder blue tang which I’m extremely happy about .
Hope everyone is doing great !
 
Hi everyone ! I got a birthday wish from the forum this morning and thought wow it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything so I thought I’d say hi again !
As far as the tank goes , everything running smooth and with out any major incidents,… all my residents are doing very well ,…especially the powder blue tang which I’m extremely happy about .
Hope everyone is doing great !

Glad to see you again. :) Happy Birthday!!!! (y)(y)
 
Hi everyone ! I got a birthday wish from the forum this morning and thought wow it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything so I thought I’d say hi again !
As far as the tank goes , everything running smooth and with out any major incidents,… all my residents are doing very well ,…especially the powder blue tang which I’m extremely happy about .
Hope everyone is doing great !



Glad to hear you are doing well! I’m in the process of moving my three decade old reef. Still have several 25 year old fish!
Built the house I designed so long ago. 400 gallon peninsula glass tank by Planet Aquarium is home to the old fish. The 300 gallon outside corner tank will be sold with my old house. The nostalgia is killing me. Hard to make changes at our age?
 
Great to see you back Dary. I guess life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. Tanks on this end are doing well too. Along with the arachnids. And now I’m doing dart frog vivariums (vivarium #3 build currently in progress). Need to charge people admission when they come to visit. [emoji16]
 
Glad to hear you are doing well! I’m in the process of moving my three decade old reef. Still have several 25 year old fish!
Built the house I designed so long ago. 400 gallon peninsula glass tank by Planet Aquarium is home to the old fish. The 300 gallon outside corner tank will be sold with my old house. The nostalgia is killing me. Hard to make changes at our age?



Greg, sounds like an awesome setup. Looking to move more rural in the next year or so and want a large in wall tank with a “fish room” behind it. Make things easier to manage. Have had my reefs up as long as you but I get it. The thought of disassembling a perfectly good setup is a little heartbreaking.
 
Holy smokes , everyone’s come out if the woodworks ! So nice to hear from every one !
Greg what a pleasure to hear from you again !!! Wow, just the thought of what you have to be doing to move that whole setup must be mind boggling!!!
Sean ., I too had a house full of tarantulas from all over the world and the dart frogs too…. I eventually decided to get rid of the tarantulas because those “old world “ ones aren’t the friendliest bugs on the planet and I kept thinking about an escaped baboon spider crawling into my bed at night ! … but the frogs were really cool.., I keep saying “ someday “ lol… but those fruit fly feeders escape too !!
Great hearing from all you guys !!!
 
Wow,….i just realized that I haven’t posted anything since April !!!!
A moment of pure stupidity on my part this morning I’d thought I’d share …..
Usually every Monday I plan on doing my maintenance and water change for my main tank ,….i have a 40 gallon barrel that is located by the side of my tank that is fed into by my rodi water,… in the bottom of the barrel is a heater and a circulation pump ,.. it is here that my salt is added for my water changes,… at the bottom of the barrel there’s a valve that feeds the freshly made up salt water into the sump….. a siphon hose is attached that removes the aquarium old water from the main tank at the same time , all works perfectly unless stupidity rears its ugly head .
After my water change this morning I turned on the rodi valve and started filling the barrel with freshly made rodi water,… after about a hour or two I walked by the aquarium and my floor was wet ,…” oh you know what !”
Apparently I forgot to close the valve that would feed the newly made salt water into my sump ,.so for a hour or two I was running pure fresh rodi water into the sump causing it to overflow.
After figuring what the heck was going on I had to siphon about 20+ gallons of water from the main tank and sump to get the water level to be where it’s suppose to be.
I quickly made up some hyper rich salt water and added it to the tank to raise the salinity to where it was supposed to be to be .
Luckily in a tank and sump that hold approx 185 + gallons of water the salinity didn’t drop too much but what a scare !!!
I apologized to my loyal fishies and just shook my head thinking what a stupid adventure that I just had !
On the bright side, my laura my girl friend and I came back from Hawaii last month in what I believe was our 24 th trip there (?) …. We snorkeled at “ two step” on the big island which we do every year ,…im happy to report that the Hawaiian fishies are doing just fine ,..lots of tangs, triggerfish and all the assorted local critters that inhabit these beautiful waters.
I guess, the moral is to pay attention to the task at hand while you do your aquarium maintenance,… im feeling pretty stupid at this point .
Hope alls well with everyone !!! Thanks for the ear .
 
Glad you caught it!
Slowly building up the population in the new tank. Still have my 30 year old yellow tang, 20 year old hippo and some other geriatric fish.
 
Hey Greg !!!
Wow ,..you kinda made my day ! …. I can’t compete with those numbers but my fox face has prob been in the tank for 8-9 years (?) give or take ….and my powder blue tang is going on 4 I believe …. Those are pretty good numbers for me !!!
Your tank is and will be beautiful!!
 
Hey Greg !!!
Wow ,..you kinda made my day ! …. I can’t compete with those numbers but my fox face has prob been in the tank for 8-9 years (?) give or take ….and my powder blue tang is going on 4 I believe …. Those are pretty good numbers for me !!!
Your tank is and will be beautiful!!



It proves to me that if you maintain stability and feed properly that these fish can vastly outlive their free counterparts.
I miss the old tank, and house. But that’s just me not liking to let go.
 
Wow,….i just realized that I haven’t posted anything since April !!!!
A moment of pure stupidity on my part this morning I’d thought I’d share …..
Usually every Monday I plan on doing my maintenance and water change for my main tank ,….i have a 40 gallon barrel that is located by the side of my tank that is fed into by my rodi water,… in the bottom of the barrel is a heater and a circulation pump ,.. it is here that my salt is added for my water changes,… at the bottom of the barrel there’s a valve that feeds the freshly made up salt water into the sump….. a siphon hose is attached that removes the aquarium old water from the main tank at the same time , all works perfectly unless stupidity rears its ugly head .
After my water change this morning I turned on the rodi valve and started filling the barrel with freshly made rodi water,… after about a hour or two I walked by the aquarium and my floor was wet ,…” oh you know what !”
Apparently I forgot to close the valve that would feed the newly made salt water into my sump ,.so for a hour or two I was running pure fresh rodi water into the sump causing it to overflow.
After figuring what the heck was going on I had to siphon about 20+ gallons of water from the main tank and sump to get the water level to be where it’s suppose to be.
I quickly made up some hyper rich salt water and added it to the tank to raise the salinity to where it was supposed to be to be .
Luckily in a tank and sump that hold approx 185 + gallons of water the salinity didn’t drop too much but what a scare !!!
I apologized to my loyal fishies and just shook my head thinking what a stupid adventure that I just had !
On the bright side, my laura my girl friend and I came back from Hawaii last month in what I believe was our 24 th trip there (?) …. We snorkeled at “ two step” on the big island which we do every year ,…im happy to report that the Hawaiian fishies are doing just fine ,..lots of tangs, triggerfish and all the assorted local critters that inhabit these beautiful waters.
I guess, the moral is to pay attention to the task at hand while you do your aquarium maintenance,… im feeling pretty stupid at this point .
Hope alls well with everyone !!! Thanks for the ear .



Hey Dary,

Welcome back. These things happen when you do things hundreds of times. We go on “autopilot” and there you go. I’ve found that in the hobby there are two types of people. Those who have made the same or similar mistakes and those who lie and say they never have. [emoji16].

No harm, no foul.
 
It proves to me that if you maintain stability and feed properly that these fish can vastly outlive their free counterparts.
I miss the old tank, and house. But that’s just me not liking to let go.



Greg,

Beautiful tank. And I agree, it’s amazing how long these fish can live in a controlled environment. I just lost a Lemon Damsel I had for 15+ years. The little guy survived having a Volitan Lionfish as a neighbor and a move from my 180 to my 90.
 
Hey Sean,…. Thanks for the encouragement,…I had to laugh when you said there’s two types of people those, who’ve I made similar mistakes and those that lie and said they never have ,…. I somehow found that funny , reminds me of an old employee we had at the shop
 
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