Recirculating dehumidifier to reduce filling up ato reservoir?

[toi_ss]

I have thought of a pretty weird idea. What if, in the room that my reef tank would be in, I would have a dehumidifier running 24/7 and the water collection holder tray in the dehumidifier had a drain and some way to pump it through an rodi filter and back into the ato reservoir. Would this work? Because I really like shallow tanks but I don't like evaporation that comes with having a large square footage of tank in relation to tank size.

My humidity sits at around 80% normally as I live in New Zealand and it's quite rainy here. I don't want to completely eliminate filling up my ato reservoir as I know dehumidifiers aren't 100% effective but I think this is a way to certainly reduce it.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

 

[felda001]

I would think it's theoretically possible. But I also think you might be overthinking it. I would check the tds of the water from your dehumidifier. It's probably pretty close to 0.

You could probably take a pump and run it through a carbon block and di resin filtration setup into a reservoir for your ATO.

But I think if you wanted to run it through a full rodi setup you would need a reservoir for the dehumidifier. When it fills up it could run as many ro booster pumps as necessary to get the required pressure (use a float switch to turn on and off the booster pumps) and push it through the system. You would probably lose a lot of pretty clean water that way because even a fairly efficient ro unit is a 1:1 clean to waste.

 

[Kmst80]

i reckon you should rather ask yourself why you lose so much water through evaporation.
I am in Queensland Australia and funnily my Evaporation is more in winter than in summer.
In winter we have less humidity but my heaters are running constantly because the insulation of the house is crap and temp will sink down up to 5 degrees C.
In Summer the Ato lasts way longer, higher humidity, higher temperatures but heaters aren't working much at all.
Also higher humidity means less evaporation vs lower humidity means higher evaporation, so you shoot yourself in the foot running a dehumidifier.

 

[toi_ss]

i reckon you should rather ask yourself why you lose so much water through evaporation.

I am frequently away for around 2 weeks and I don't want to have a massive ato reservoir. Also my 500 gallon takes up around 45 square feet and is very shallow so there is tonnes of evaporation. I also don't have lids because of mangrove trees.

Also higher humidity means less evaporation vs lower humidity means higher evaporation, so you shoot yourself in the foot running a dehumidifier.

But it won't affect anything because the water from the dehumidifier will just run back into the reservoir. The only con I could see would be power usage and the ato having to work more often.

 

[toi_ss]

I would think it's theoretically possible. But I also think you might be overthinking it. I would check the tds of the water from your dehumidifier. It's probably pretty close to 0.

You could probably take a pump and run it through a carbon block and di resin filtration setup into a reservoir for your ATO.

But I think if you wanted to run it through a full rodi setup you would need a reservoir for the dehumidifier. When it fills up it could run as many ro booster pumps as necessary to get the required pressure (use a float switch to turn on and off the booster pumps) and push it through the system. You would probably lose a lot of pretty clean water that way because even a fairly efficient ro unit is a 1:1 clean to waste.

Yeah I think I might just run a carbon block because of the amount of waste water produced by rodi systems. I think I could just run it through a reactor powered by a pump in a reservoir for the dehumidifier. I am just worried about anything like bug spray or something in the air but I guess I have an open top tank and no issues with anything like that.

 

[The new fish on the block]

Interesting idea!

My concern would be what the water would be in contact with… If I’m not mistaken they use a metal coil to “collect” water, I would be concerned about it leaching something into the water.

 

[toi_ss]

Interesting idea!

My concern would be what the water would be in contact with… If I’m not mistaken they use a metal coil to “collect” water, I would be concerned about it leaching something into the water.

I'm fairly sure the coil is made of aluminium, so I think running a carbon block or reactor will minimise that. I will do icp tests more frequently if I do end up doing this and/or I might try and find a dehumidifier that runs differently. As far as I know the aluminium coil only has to be cold so I might be able to replace it with something if it causes problems and I can't find a dehumidifier without one although I will talk to someone more knowledgeable for that.

 

[Doctorgori]

I’m pretty sure this has been thought of before, and I think there are threads somewhere…
anyway
the short answer is : not a good idea because as stated the possibility of contamination is high …
might not be worth the bother/risk

 

[Bruttall]

Run the dehumidifier into a collection container/5 gal bucket and test the water see what TDS it reads, if it reads 0 TDS, you got RO/DI that is safe to use. If it reads anything above like 15ppm send it to ICP for a test, see what's in the water before using it.

 

[tmecfowlr]

Commercial aquariums run massive set ups like this but scaling it down is tough. I think the guy with the massive concrete indoor tank mentioned it in his build thread.

 

[Reef By Steele]

I run a dehumidifier near one of my aquariums and that tank evaporates at a higher rate than the others in the same room. Another issue to consider is bacteria, as I have mine draining directly to my sump pump so I don’t have to empty the collection reservoir, but a grey slime builds up in it which I googled and is stated to be bacteria build up, RODI and carbon may “clean” this but I would be concerned.

 

[toi_ss]

I run a dehumidifier near one of my aquariums and that tank evaporates at a higher rate than the others in the same room. Another issue to consider is bacteria, as I have mine draining directly to my sump pump so I don’t have to empty the collection reservoir, but a grey slime builds up in it which I googled and is stated to be bacteria build up, RODI and carbon may “clean” this but I would be concerned.

I can clean the reservoir by hand every so often but I am meaning that I would use the dehumidifier to collect evaporated water from the tank and run through a carbon block/reactor straight back into the ato reservoir