# how do you deal with condensation?



## WarrenMichaels (Sep 5, 2014)

I have an aquarium that's roughly 85 gallons on a stand. It fits the stand like a glove. There is a wood lip around the top, and the aquarium sits just inside of it. It's supported around the perimeter, and is open on the bottom.

I've never set this aquarium up. The most I've dealt with was a 10 gallon. With the 10 gallon, I'd have some condensation issues, but not many. I just kept the aquarium on a towel on top of a piece fo plastic, and everything was fine.

The problem is, I might put a brook trout in the tank. This means chilling the tank, and having it be colder than the air in the room, which means condensation. I don't know what to do about this.

I'm thinking of doing nothing. Condensation will just run onto the floor. This is probably not the right way to go. 

An easy solution would be adhere strips of plastic on the bottom of the sides, all leading to a drain hose. This would catch most of the water, and keep it off of the floor. It's not the most visually-pleasing solution, but it would work. I could also trap the condensation in a lip, not use a drain hose, and manually blot it up. This would be visually better, since the strips would not be at an angle.

I'm also thinking that I could remove the wood lip on the stand, and move it down an inch or so. This would give me a flat surface to work with. I could put something (a sheet of lexan, maybe?) under the aquarium, and let condensation collect inside a lip there. I could then drain it somehow. I'm reluctant to do this, since I don't want to mess up the stand to the point that it fails under weight.

I could get rid of the stand, and put the aquarium on a table and then put something (plastic sheet?) under the aquarium. The aquarium will probably weigh at least 700 lbs, and I don't know if tables can support this kind of weight.

Any thoughts? Thanks.


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## Tolak (Mar 10, 2013)

Get a fan, blow it on the tank, evaporation is your friend. Fishroom folks have a similar but different problem, it condenses on colder walls. Increase air circulation, eliminate dead spots, it doesn't condense. Fishroom humidity control could be its own topic.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

hmm a trout.and yeah that would be a very good topic holder.i might tell susankat about that.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

While studying up on cold water(chilled) marine tanks(would like a "native " marine tank?{from Maine!}) I found there where many claims of acrylic tanks with 1" thick walls and such.supposedly the thickness and mass relieves the condensation issue.


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## WarrenMichaels (Sep 5, 2014)

thanks for the fan suggestion. wall condensation never occurred to me, and is something that I'll keep in mind if I don't have a trout, and end up with a warm tank. A fan is a simple enough solution.


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## Tolak (Mar 10, 2013)

They also make lobster tanks, double pane sort of thermopane deal. They sure aren't cheap!


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

i just take out a bit less water that i put in when i do a w/c.but then again i do manually.so whatever works best for me i guess.


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## WarrenMichaels (Sep 5, 2014)

for other reasons, I'm thinking of ditching the stand and using a table. Is there any reason why I shouldn't do this? Can your average solid wood kitchen table support 700 lbs?


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