Evaporation rate through the roof ..Please help!!

Hey everyone

I have just set up my fort salt water tank currently only sand and water although the sump is experiencing a great amount of water loss. I have a skimmer in my sump and I was wondering is it would be the when the bubbles come to the surface of the water level in the sump they pop a release small amounts of water into the air and I wondered of that might be the problem.(It might not be the problem bust my guess)

Well anyway could someone please tell me how to fix this problem.

Cheers Daniel.

 

Dont worry. My tank also loses lots and lots of water to evaporation. The only real way to fix it is get an auto top off.

It is always going to happen, especially because there is so much more surface area with sumps compared to those without.

 

oh good thanks.

 

If your loosing a lot of water from the micro bubbles popping then you'll have a lot of salt creep around the sump.
My 125g looses about 3g + or - depending on the weather and there's nothing that can be done about about it.
The more surface agitation there is tends to have more evaporation. Just something else to look at. If your return agitates the surface then that could contribute some.

 

Agree with both.

Also, higher tank temps will elevate evaporation rate, as will using heat or AC which removes moisture from the atmosphere around the tank.

 

Agreed, the more flow and movement you have, the more it evaporates...I lose about 12 gallons a week in my system..which is about 290 gallons...which is what..like 4% of the total volume a week...a lot of water.

 

Evaporation can also be a good thing,as it really helps alot to cool your tank.

 

Evaporation is never really good. It changes the salinity of your water and can harm delicate fish/inverts and corals. It is best to have a very stable salinity that is only brought about by an autotop off.

 

It will be worse when you buy a dehumidifier to control the water mist or vapor on your walls or windows at times . The more you take out of the air the more your system will compensate. Not sure where you live depends on the local wheather too.

 

I did find that if I left a window slightly ajar I didn't get the nasty condensation that commonly occurs. Not sure if this increased or decreased evaporation rate.