FarmerTy

So here's what I decided on. Gig'em, I was actually leaning towards your idea of a continuous vent to reduce humidity in the canopy. However, I had to think of it from a HVAC standpoint. If I am constantly venting at a standard CFM of 50-80, the resulting vacuum from the displaced air will keep pulling in air from outside (not just outside of the canopy but outside of the house). Depending how much turnover that is, it may impact my HVAC negatively as I'll basically be blowing out humid, hot air from the canopy and sucking in a ton of hot outside air (summer) and cold outside air (winter) to replace it. I think in this scenario, it would eliminate my humidity issue and direct heat in the canopy issue and replace it with pulling outside air (hot or cold) and causing my HVAC to run more than usual, either way using a lot of electricity to offset my canopy heat/humidity issues. What I did come across was this particular model of Panasonic Vent fan. It allows me to continuous vent at a much lower CFM than standard fans (30cfm) and then has a switch activated relay that when activated, will jump up to a higher CFM (options of 50, 80, 110 CFM). I think if I can get it hooked up either with a simple timer or to my APEX for it to be activated to the higher mode when my lights come on, and the rest of the time in continuous run mode (30CFM), I would have a workable solution. I think that will achieve what I want with the canopy: 1) vent just enough air, but not too much, to always keep humidity levels low 2) vent a lot of air when the 3x 400-watt MH are on to keep temperature levels low 3) not vent too much air overall so I'm not pulling in a ton of outside air and have my HVAC running more than usual Unfortunately, I won't really know if I have the correct answer until I actually give it a try so I'm going to go ahead and order the fan. The issue is, I'm not an electrical wiring genius... so maybe someone on here can help me troubleshoot. Here is the fan I'm ordering: http://www.rewci.com/whisper-green-select-fv-05-11vks1.html Video for installation: I was thinking of wiring it directly through a junction box I have in the attic that's near that area to power the fan. That would allow the continuous vent option to always be on. I would just hook up the normal black to black, white to white, and ground to ground. It looks like the two red wires on the fan's junction box are non-powered and just basically activate a switch. Basically, if they are connected together, it completes the loop and the fan runs on the high mode. If possible, I want to use the APEX, perhaps via the breakout box, VDM port, or separate powered relay switch, to actively relay the switch to open/closed status that's dependent on the temperature of the tank (APEX temp probe). For instance, of the temp in tank is over 81 degrees, the APEX will "connect the loop" by connecting the two red wires (via powered switch relay or some sort) and the fan will go into "high mode" to vent at a higher CFM of 80 (or 110 CFM, whichever I select). Once the temp drops below 81 degrees, the APEX will "disconnect the loop" and the fan will go back into continuous mode of 30 CFM. Any of you electrical gurus out there have an idea if that's possible or even what type of powered relay switch I could use with the APEX to connect the loop?

If I didn't already have 2 on my system, I'd be all over this! What else do I need to control... GLWS!

James, the live event states no free shipping with it. Have you confirmed you will be receiving free shipping from AquaSD? If so, I may want to get some stuff. Sent via Tapatalk

+1 on what Victoly said. I don't think your usage will up that much with the additions... just a little bit more. Acans grow just a tad slower than SPS so their uptake will impact the tank levels just a little but not as much as a tank full of SPS. I would think regular water changes will suffice in replinishment and maybe a bit of hand dosing if that doesn't keep up. Sent via Tapatalk

If that's the cap you got from me Sascha then it's a strawberry fields monti cap. Sent via Tapatalk

Onion creek Sent via Tapatalk

I don't know anyone that has done it directly but I've been perusing many build threads on some bigger forums. I prefer to catch my flies with chopsticks! I already made Richard take pictures of his hinges so if I go around poking in his tank, looking at his vent fan, he may ban me from the place. Sent via Tapatalk

I don't know Victoly... how MAY Aggies does it take?I know how MANY Longhorns it takes... Sent via Tapatalk

I'd be afraid if I were you! He'll convince you to buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment but then he'll nerd it out and program it all for you probably! Just kidding! Welcome to the club and Austin! If you get a chance, start a build thread and give us some info on what you're working with and what you want to do with it. Sent via Tapatalk

I looked into dehumidifiers for the room that the tank is located in but the systems they make nowadays have terrible longevity issues. I don't know if they switched manufacturing parts but it was enough to scare me off of using one. Plus, it would use even more electricity than the vent fan and it definitely wouldn't pass the wife test... it'd be denied in the blink of an eye for aestethic reasons... heck, I barely made the cut myself! I figure that now I am able to mostly isolate the humidity and heat to the confines of the stand and canopy, let's use that advantage and remove it from that area instead or trying to pull moisture from the whole house. I've always had success blowing air out of the canopy/stand as there are natural gaps everywhere. It will give that perfect amount of negative pressure to pull cool air conditioned air into the stand/canopy to replace the hot/humid air. You give me way too much credit on my building skills if you think that sucker is anywhere close to being airtight. Lol! I'm not as worried about the inaccuracies of the relative humidity probes as I am just aiming for a ballpark number... within 20% works for this application and that's a pretty large margin of error. Knowing that the duostat has the more important temperature probe and uses that as a driving force of control would put me at ease as temperature would probably drive it 90% of the time. Thanks for bringing up the points Reburn. I always enjoy other thoughts and viewpoints. Gives me a good doublecheck on my wild ideas! Sent via Tapatalk

Which shows he's just a good guy... Sent via Tapatalk

I just had a long conversation with one of our very own LFS owners sometime last week about this very issue. Yes, we are in a free market and those that want to survive should model their businesses differently. I believe that wholeheartedly. The point that burns me the most is with those that go in for advice and purchase elsewhere. Then take it one step further and go back for support like the speaker illustrated with the led lights and mounting example he gave. I agree with him, that's stealing to me too. If anybody takes the time to do work for me or impart their expertise, I personally feel like they deserve my business, as the customer support is part of the product they sell. This may be just my opinion, but they earned it and deserve it. To buy elsewhere after taking all their advice and time is just wrong to me, even if it is more expensive at the LFS. I understand we're not all built the same but I just couldn't live with it if I did that, especially after getting to know most of the owners personally. Sent via Tapatalk

Wow, that's a lot! Did you just cycle that tank? That's usually when I see my explosion of copepods. Believe it or not, that mandarin will destroy that population in about 2-4 weeks! They are pod eating machines! Sent via Tapatalk

I feel a Rube Goldberg moment of inspiration coming... Sent via Tapatalk

Our very own APEX unofficial local representative mixing up modules and breakout boxes! The horror! Can I borrow like uhh, $400 for all those extra modules and temp probes? Sent via Tapatalk

I can do that with a breakout box? Or do you mean another module? I thought breakout boxes only relay open/closed signals? Sent via Tapatalk

For us nerds, logging humidity would be really cool but I don't need that. Just knowing how often it is triggered by humidity levels above X would be interesting just by itself. On a side note, I never really how much I over use the word "just"... sometimes using it twice in the same sentence. I wonder if I talk that way too? Sent via Tapatalk

Yeah, that's the humidistat I thought about hooking up to my breakout box. I like the idea of having both thr temperature and humidity level control though through the item you linked. I don't really need control through the Apex but I thought it would be nice to have. Sent via Tapatalk

Genius! Thank you sir for the link. Sent via Tapatalk

They do have models with built in humidity sensors but at those prices, it's almost cheaper for me to install my own humidistat and wire it to the breakout box. An extra bonus of doing it that way is Apex control and monitoring as well. For me, it's 90% heat is what I'm concerned about. It may be the driving force in this particular scenario. What's interesting is they do have a continously run model that can run at a preset cfm (30, 40, 50, 60, or 70 cfm) and then when the "switch" is activated, it will run at 80cfm. Once the switch is deactivated, it will default back to the preset continously run setting. I was thinking of getting this model and have it run at 30cfm continuously and then when the lights come on, activate the "switch" to run at 80cfm. This would take care of any humidity issues with the continous run at 30cfm and ramp up to 80cfm to take care of any heat related issues with the lights. The only problem is I'm not an electrician so I don't know how their "switch" is activated and if I can activate that via the Apex or not. I'd imagine I could use the breakout box but it just depends on how it's wired in the fan. I looked at the electrical wiring diagram for the fan but I don't have enough background knowledge with electrical components to understand if it'll work with my application. Sent via Tapatalk

Normally I would keep all topics concerning my tank build in my actual tank build but I thought discussion of this would be useful to other systems and also, I fear the "automatic ignore" tendency of my build thread. Oh jeez, there's JeeperTy's build thread again, I'm just going to skip right over that because it's usually nonsense! So, to the question at hand. I am in the process of installing an exhaust fan to vent hot air and humidity from my 210-gallon tank to the outside. I have decided on a Panasonic exhaust fan (exact model to be determined as they have a million types). I was wondering what people think about how I should control its operation. Should I have it controlled via tank temperature or via humidity (humidstat hooked up to my breakout box to my Apex)? I even thought of temperature in the enclosed canopy but adding another module to the Apex and another temp probe has me moving away from that idea. Thoughts? Engineers, break out your whiteboards! (That's for you Jim ) -Ty

Just spill a bunch of saltwater on the black and tell your wife, if it was white, you really wouldn't see all the residue. Haha. Sent via Tapatalk

Don't worry, I'll come over and put 98 more up there. Sent via Tapatalk

Plus, I heard you've got a BS in Aggie Engineering! You'll rig up something in no time and only put 100 holes into the ceiling this time around. :-p Sent via Tapatalk

I think the owner of this "potential giant tank to practice on" should give it 6 months and see if my carpentry work doesn't come crashing down on me one day first. Haha. Sent via Tapatalk