evaporation station

[leveldrummer]

just curious if anyone knows which causes more evaporation, if the temp of the house is cooler than the tank, the same temp, or hotter? which would be best to keep down evaporation?? i would think if the out side temp is hotter, there is more space between molecules, and its easier for water to break free and join the atmosphere, so a cooler house would mean more dense air, but in the same, running your aircondition is also removing moisture and humidity, making the air dryer, any help???

[fchidsey]

can't say I live in south florida the house is between 74 and 80 the tank has a chiller on it betwwen 77 and 78.
i have 3-4 gal per week in evap.

[gwen_o_lyn]

Your AC will have to work harder to keep your house cool since your tank is always evaporating. Why are you trying to stop the evaporation? Evaporation leads to good oxygen exchange and helps keep your tank cool in the summer. I run a fan over my sump to increase evaporation.

[leveldrummer]

Originally Posted by gwen_o_lyn

Your AC will have to work harder to keep your house cool since your tank is always evaporating. Why are you trying to stop the evaporation? Evaporation leads to good oxygen exchange and helps keep your tank cool in the summer. I run a fan over my sump to increase evaporation.

haha you know what? i guess i didnt see it had a purpose besides making me top off everyday. wasted money, i believe my tank has superb oxygen exchange, between the skimmer, and a return line spraying right across the top of the tank, open sump, over flow box tumbling water down the drain. there is no way oxygen is an issue, i was just curious how to slow it down. you can have good oxygen exchange with out any evaporation cant you?

[gwen_o_lyn]

Originally Posted by leveldrummer

you can have good oxygen exchange with out any evaporation cant you?

I don't think so.... evaporation is very important, but I think you can leave the glass lids on if you want since you have a sump. Make sure your stand is open in the back and allows for good air exchange- I would recommend a fan blowing across the top of the sump just to be safe.

[wharyat]

Evaporation rate is most related to relative humidity -- lower more evap; higher less evap.

You can have decent oxigination with a top; but it is best to have a large area of water exposed to help absorb O2 and lose CO2.

[VWD]

Evaporation is one of the cheapest and best ways to drop the temp and keep it in the range you want. I don't think you need to have higher evaporation to have good gas exchange. just good surface area and movement.

[Berggy]

Lookout! Physics lesson coming in!

Evaporation works on kinetic energy theory. In your tank, there are all these water molecules moving around and each molecule has an attratction to the others in this liquid state so they all band together. Even though they are together, each molecule is traveling around at a different speed than the others.

The molecules at the top of the tank (like my fish) tend to jump up into the free air. Due to the attraction of the other molecules though, most return back to the tank. The REALLY speedy ones escape into the atmosphere because they have more energy (and thus more heat) than the slower ones. The slower ones left in the tank, have less energy and less heat. The absolute temperature of the faster ones is higher than the slower ones left in the tank, so evaporation is a cooling process.

The super fast molecules will escape all by themselves, and we can help the slightly slower ones to escape by moving the air they are in away so they cannot fall back into the tank. Thus a fan above the water speeds the cooling process (even if the air being moved is warmer than the water) by removing the superfast molecules AND some of the not so fast molecules.

The rate of evaporaton is determined by the difference in vapor saturation ( relative humidity ). I bet we all can see that the tank is at 100% water vapor (8-). The air has less than 100% saturation unless it is raining in your house. The greater the differential in vapor saturation, the greater the exchange of water molecules. In warmer air, the molecules are further apart and can hold more water molecules. So having warmer air is relatively better than cooler air for your evaporation process because if the humidity in the air is equal in both cases, the warmer air will hold more moisture.

Make sense?

[Matt_b]

I'd just like to know where all the evaporated water goes

My 55usg evaps a gal a day in our Uk heat, supprised my ceiling is still holding

[tdwyatt]

it goes to the sky and becomes rain clouds

[tdwyatt]

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=53347

[Twitterbait]

What... you don't see clouds forming in your house like me??? that is a great explination Berggy, thanks. I will agree with gwen to a point based on the premis that an uncovered tank will have more water mixing with the air as it tries to evaporate and falls back into the sump. I can see how o2 exchange would be better in that case for sure. I say leave it uncovered. it gives you a chance to give your fish the equilivent of a fresh breeze every day or two

Originally Posted by Matt_b

I'd just like to know where all the evaporated water goes

My 55usg evaps a gal a day in our Uk heat, supprised my ceiling is still holding

[leveldrummer]

Originally Posted by Berggy

The rate of evaporaton is determined by the difference in vapor saturation ( relative humidity ). I bet we all can see that the tank is at 100% water vapor (8-). The air has less than 100% saturation unless it is raining in your house. The greater the differential in vapor saturation, the greater the exchange of water molecules. In warmer air, the molecules are further apart and can hold more water molecules. So having warmer air is relatively better than cooler air for your evaporation process because if the humidity in the air is equal in both cases, the warmer air will hold more moisture.

Make sense?

you got it perfect man, but i got another thing to add, a normal home airconditioner, acts as a dehumidifier, it pulls moisture out of the air as it travels through the coils through condensation, so which evaps more? humid warm air? or dry cool air? thats the main question i was getting at.

[whatevva]

The air with the lower enthalpy will evaporate more.

[Loverotties]

Dito!