changed to refugium and now water evaporates faster

Hey everyone,
Its my first post so forgive me if its very long lol. I build a refugium over the weekend and set it up on sunday. Its doing great and my main reason was to help eliminate GHA that has been getting out of hand. I might add that i have seen a decrease in the hair algae in these few days. At the same time that i added the fuge i also got a great deal on some led lighting that i bought and setup the day before the refugium. My question now is that ever since adding these 2 items i am having alot of evaporation. I went from 3 quarts every 2-3 days in the wet/dry to 3+ quarts per day in the refugium. Is this due to having the light running now on the fuge? Do the leds evaporate the water faster? The fuge is a 10 gallon tank, 18" fluorescent 3000k light, with live rock and mangroves. I will be adding cheato hopefully today or over the next few days. I havent had a raise in temp according to my thermometer. All the lighting is on timers, i run the actinics for 10 hours a day, have the whites set to 4 hours a day to acclimate the corals, and the fuge for about 12 hours opposite the DT. Do i have everthing running at the correct times etc and is it normal to lose that much water from switching to a fuge? I will appreciate any help!

 

The larger the surface area of water the greater the rate of evaporation. The rate of evaporation is also influenced by the room temperature, water temperature, humidity level.
You can put a top on the sump and that will help or you an just get your self an auto top off device.

 

I use almost a gallon a day in my 90.

 

Yea i want to setup an auto top off. I was gonna get a cheap sensor and pump and set it up myself. I love diy stuff. Anything i should know about with an auto top off? Ive watched a few videos and it looks very easy.

 

No, it is pretty simple. I have 3 DIY kits from autotopoff.com. I think they are like $25 for the kit and then another $20 for an Aqualifter pump and you are good to go

 

Its very easy to flood your house too.lol I would use top quality component. Redundancy is very important.

 

Lol true vinny. Marshall i was looking at the autotopoff.com kits and those were what i wanted to go with.

 

I'm with da Boobatz on this one. I seem to add 5gal a week at least in my 75gal. Too scared of flooding with an auto top off, but my LFS loves me!

 

I have an autotopoff.com ATO unit and it has worked well for me after such time. I recommend it and they are not as pricy as other units available.

 

I am burning about a gallon a day in my 29 with 13 gallon sump have to factor in the movement of the water burns it off more then just a regular filter