Evaperation

[skybird]

What is hte main cause of evaparation in a saltwater fish tank....

when i had my 60gal long, it had a HOB filter, and HOB skimmer. With a set of T5 lights over it.... And every week or so i lost about an inch of water.

At the moment, my sump seems to be dropping several inches every day.... I filled it up about 3 inches over the mag5 return, and over night it was just above the mag 5 again... Theres a set of LED's over it but they werent on last night....

Whats the deal? Is this just somthing im going to have to live with since theres a sump???

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[heyitsmirix3]

I believe it's water movement.

 

[lilrobb]

It's actually the dry air emitted from your furnace - dry air can cause MASSIVE evaporation...

 

[skybird]

so just a by product of winter, and the fact that i havent put a door on the stand yet... Something to do when i get home from travel

 

[jbdreefs]

Evaporation is definitely something everyone deals with. This is why so many people want an automatic top off (ATO). You can pick a nice one up from a retailer for around $100 or so. I'm not sure what they go for in the used market. A DIY ATO is another option.

Heat also drives up the evaporation. I'm assuming those with metal halides experience more evaporation than those running LEDs. Can someone second this thought?

I'm currently losing around 2 gallons a day for my 125.

 

[gofastinc]

Consider that an inch of water out of a 60 gal could be a few gallons. Remove the same number of gallons from a much smaller sump and the drop in water lever will be much more noticible. What size is your sump and approx how much water in gallons are you loosing each day? I currently loose about 1.5 gal per day from my 90. Visually in the sump it drops about one inch each day.

 

[frantz]

I consider evap a good thing. While its a pain to keep salinity up with daily top offs (an ATO would be nice) it also keeps my furniture from drying out in my apartment.

 

[tritium-3]

Let me start by first stating that we live in a world that wants to reach thermodynamic equilibrium. Go to Wikipedia for more details. To put it simply "things", water in this case, wants to move from an area of high concentration (Your reef tank) to an area of lower concentration (The surrounding air). So, that said, the things that effect evaporation includes the temperature of your water. The higher the temperature the greater the rate of evaporation. The relative humidity of the surrounding air. The lower the relative humidity the greater the rate of evaporation. The surface area of your tank and sump. The greater the surface area the greater the rate of evaporation. All things being equal you will get a somewhat greater rate of evaporation in the winter because of the lower relative humidity as already stated in a previous post. There is little you can do to control the evaporation rate. The key is to understand your rate and put compensatory measures in place to add fresh water. I hope this helps.:roll: