Humidity Control

[Christine]

So I walked into the fishroom today (spare bedroom for now) and noticed the carpet felt a little funky. I checked the humidity guage and its at 70%. According to what I'm reading online it looks like anything above around 50% can be a problem with causing mold etc. In the next 6 months or so I hope to be totally moved into a room in the basement but for now, I'm in the spare bedroom across from my son who has allergy problems so mold definitely could be a big issue for us.

How many of you have noticed humidity problems and what have you done about it? Has it helped?

[Puffer Pita]

Dehumidifiers help. The one thing you have to be very careful of is that conditions could be ripe for toxic mold and once that infests, all you can do much of the time to erradicate it is raze the house. One of my old bosses ran into that problem.

[emc7]

To lower humidity add a winndow air conditioner, a dehumifier, set the house air conditioner lower or open a window, or get dryrite or get damprid You definitely don't want mold to get a foothold. Fill up your tanks (falling water from filters evaporates more) get lids and fill gaps with saran wrap to reduce evaporation from the tanks.

[Christine]

I had a few tanks with no lids. I covered them with saranwrap today leaving just a small corner open to feed. It was 54% humidity outside today so I opened the window and turned on the ceiling fan for a while. That brought it back down from 70% to around 58%. Still a touch too high I think, but thats what it is throughout the house.

Thank you very much Boxermom and emc!

[SvenRhapsody]

Hi Christine,
I'd suspect that if you're only at 78% you'll go down some as winter comes on especially if you leave the door to that room open. Winter air is dry. A fan to the outside or from the outside should drop it a lot too as long as it's winter. Once summer is here you're on your own. I'm watching my new setup closely to see how humid it gets. I'm thinking I might put in a bathroom style exhaust fan in the ceiling if it gets bad...

SR

[Christine]

Well, now that I've closed the window for the evening the humidity is creeping back up. Yesterday was the first day we didn't use the AC and the first night we used the heat (spoiled I know). But I also put in another tank yesterday that had no lid. It seems tho since the humidity is already creeping back up that the handi-wrap may be helping somewhat but its definitely not going to be a remedy. The door to that room stays open now.

Maybe I sound like a dunce but... how do I use a fan to/from outside in the winter without freezing the fishroom? I may have to get some of that dryrite or damprid as a temporary fix.

All of this makes me wonder, in the new fishroom I'm building whats the best way to stop this problem from ever occuring? I've heard some folks talk about an air exchanger but I'm not really sure how it works or if it can be used for a single room. I searched it online a bit and it looks like it gets connected to the central unit so I'm not sure thats the answer.

Bathroom fan huh? Would you just turn it on whenever it got too humid? Is there someway you can trigger it turn on based on the humidity level?

[girth vader]

if the carpets arew old, pull them up before it gets to be a real problem. hardwood doesnt get affexted.its quite a big decision, but if mold gets in there ur beat

[SvenRhapsody]

I'm sure you could get a controller that tests the humidity in the air and flips a switch for you. I found a few models by doing a quick google. Good Luck.

SR

[Osiris]

Dehumidifier or but ur south so opening window is kidna tough. 3yrs ago we had quite a few tanks in the house, the humidity got so bad it created mold in the ceiling along corner edges assuming the building was slightly slainted and being against the cold wall it was worst there...
got a dehumidifier the mold problem was controleable but we moved. the new house we just leave the window cracked but we dont have nearly as many tanks as our last place only 5 now, plus its twice the size as my last place....