Condensation

[Paul70]

I am getting a lot of condensation on the inside of my tank hood. Is this normal and what can I do about it as after a day or so it all starts to drip and becomes an annoying sound. water temp is 29c and room temp is usually around 21-22c

 

[Doc7]

i am surprised that water is dripping with such frequency and volume it is bothering you, is your tank filtration system etc completely silent? maybe raise the water level some so the drips have much less farther to go?

 

[Paul70]

there is just a faint hum from the powerhead which in itself is not a problem. it is just the condensation drips that get on my t**s.

I have lowered the water recently to allow better surface agitation and thus more oxygenation for my fishless cycle (which seems to be working) so don't really want to raise the level again just yet unless people think that it won't make any difference to the oxygenation levels

 

[Doc7]

the water level only needs to be lowered for a fishless if you're using a hang-on-back filter - which, if the water level is lowered, should be making a much louder trickling noise than water drops from condensation!!

 

[Paul70]

Doh!

Having looked at my internal bioflow filter outlet it is this that is making the noises lol. I will increase the water level and see what happens!!

sorry for being thick but I am new to this!!
thanks for the advice however

 

[mtbdean]

Are you running a Air Pump, i find that if mine is turned on strong, it makes it drip off the glass and down the side, but Ive now got condensation trays in there and dont have the problem now!

 

[Joshwainwright]

I hate condensation, it's horrible when I lift the hood up and it all pours off.

 

[JoshuaA]

I hate condensation, it's horrible when I lift the hood up and it all pours off.

Not as bad as when you lift my Rio light unit to find half a pint of water has dripped down the unit and into your sleeve.

 

[Curiosity101]

Not as bad as when you lift my Rio light unit to find half a pint of water has dripped down the unit and into your sleeve.

With one of mine the light unit keeps filling with water, not fun. I keep expecting it to blow at any moment.

 

[BigC]

I think we are talking about evaporation here. The water escapes your tank when it is warm enough and condenses on a cooler surface which happens to be your aquarium canopy. This is normal for modern plastic hoods and your lighting would or should have sealed connectors with rubber gaskets at each end of your tube that screw on and off when you want to change it. Your tank must be in a pretty cool room and your canopy must sit a fair way from your water surface for this facet to become an annoyance.
The only thing I could suggest is to make a modification to your tank itself which would employ using sliding coverglasses set at an angle. This would mean, rather than water dripping and falling directly downward and causing noise, it would run back into the aquarium rather than drip. The coverglasses would also be closer to the water surface and this would also eliminate some of the noise factor. Not knowing your canopy setup & weither this would be a chore at feeding and maintenance time you will have to decide how this would work in your specific situation
You will always have Evaporation and Condensation its part of the natural cycle of liquids.
Regards
BigC

 

[Paul70]

Many thanks for the advice folks. My noises are coming from my filter outlet and the surface agitation rather than as I initially thought, the condensation dripping from the hood. I changed my pre-filter prior to noticing this and I have to say as the tank was newly setup and has had 1 substrate change, the pre-filter was absolutely filthy. Obviously it was reducing the flow through the pump and filter and now it has a clean filter in it the flow has increased dramatically increase surface agitation and thus creating the noise. It is not as bad now that I have increased my water level (it was a little low) and I can live with it. I have also put some cirax media in my filter basket so this may have contributed to the increased water flow.

Just looking forward now to stable water and dare I say it, FISH!!

 

[Joshwainwright]

How long has your cycle been so far?

 

[Paul70]

currently on day 9 josh. have got a +5ppm nitrite spike and ammonia processed from 4ppm to 0.25ppm in 36 hours this time instead of 4 days!!

looks like things are happening. I also have a good amount of nitrates although my nitrite level has not dropped since yesterday so doesn't look n-bacs are growing too much as yet. I shall persevere though.

 

[Joshwainwright]

Gosh, you're lucky! It took until the 7th day of my cycle to see a 2ppm drop in ammonia for it to then continue to drop and suddenly get stuck at 2ppm. The ammonia level has now been 2ppm for the past 3 days

I'm sure it's trying to kill me.

 

[Paul70]

lol m8. i put some safestart in the tank which supposedly had bacteria in it already so I feel this may be the reason for things happening fairly quickly. I'm not counting my chickens tho cos it could be an artificial bit of progress. Hopefully though it won't be and things will continue to be positive. Mine was at like 4 ppm for around 4 days without a movement but then it slowly started to move. was only able to test for nitrites yesterday as I was waiting for my api test kit to arrive. don't think there would have been any point testing before day 7 anyway.

I;m a little concerned about my pH. It was at 8.0 yesterday. I only hope this settles down when cycling is done cos I'm not gonna be able to have the fish I want with that pH unless they can adapt.