Evaporation

[Tangster]

Originally Posted by Stingray

Hi
At the moment i have a reflective lid on my tank so the evaporation of water is just dripping back in, but i'm soon to be purchaseing a hanging hood which can house 312watt of t5 lighting, my question is how much water am i likely to loose weekly to evaporation?

Cheers

Oh I misunderstood what you wrote .. As for evaporation it is much needed and wanted really Thats why when I use a full hood I like lots of fans . Evaporated water allows for more new water in my case as all the make up water runs through my Kalk reactor . And that helps out the Calcium reactor .
But there are many things that influence evaporation rates they are never the same day to day or season to season , city to city . Humidity content and temps of the surrounding air and room will dictate the evap. rates . Someday's I'll blast through 5 gallons plus and some days less then two.. Today will be a 2 gallon day its humid and rainy .
Yesterday was sunny and dry and a 5 gallon day.
Now Thats what I know that controls or influences the evaporation rates of any tank on any given day less and scientific research or Data or Gtoogle inks to C&P Maybe someone can do that ? for us (:

[baugherb]

I had a 12 gallon nano sealed up tight, and I added a cup or more a day... Just remember not all of the water is dripping back in... Now my hood I made for my 5.5 has a open back and I was adding even more to it than my previous 12 gal.. I rigged a autotopoff due to losing so much...

[Stingray]

Hmmm topping up the water every day 5 gallons plus is kind of like doing a small water change daily........no?

[norman.stormin]

Hi Stingray-

Actually, no- topping off with fresh H2O isn't the same as doing a water change. When water evaporates, it leaves all of the salts, proteins, mineral, poop, and goop behind. Topping off is important, because if you didn't the concentration of all of the stuff that is dissolved in your water will increase to higher, potentially toxic levels.

You should always top off with fresh H20 before you do a water change, too. If you don't, you may see eventual creep of your salinity levels to be higher than what you anticipate!

Norm

[Executivelevel]

plus a fresh top off always makes the tank look so clean!!!

[Stingray]

I see so everytime i do a water change i should vaccum on top of the substrate too to remove the dead, poop, deritus etc etc?

[paulg]

I have a 90 gallon open top, my lighting system has legs that mount on the frame of the tank. I lose about 1- 1/12 gallons a day to evaporation. As far as doing the vaccum, sure cant hurt to get any detrius matter out. Dont do the whole bottom at once during that water change, just do half. Then your next water change, do the other half. Cuts down on removing to much benificial bacteria all at one time.

[Stingray]

ok cheers i will be expecting to be looseing quite a lot of water due to having 312watts of t5 shining down on it, the more wattage the more evaporation?

[paulg]

Well I have 765 watts on mine and like i said just about 1-1/2 gallons a day, more heat, more evaporation

[Stingray]

Thats what i meant, lol, cheers