Reef tank Smell
 

ok so my tank has been set up for over 2 months now.

I have a skimmer, refugium and i run carbon.

My tank is located in my basement in a large family room that has the stairs that come down.

The I cant smell anything in the room where the tank is, but as i go up the stairs i can smell a humid ocean smell (humidity rises i guess)

I assume its just the evaporation that gets caught up at the top of the stairs and smells. My tank evaporates about 2.5 gallons/day

is there anything i could do to avoid this?

2.5 g a day seems like alot of evaporation Mind you iv never had a tank bigger then 50G

Ventilation to the outside of your home would likely help.

Basements have usually more humidity to begin with which should reduce your evaporation, is there an unusual amount of surface disruption, or anything else that would cause such an evaporative effect.

If not and it is possible you could install a bathroom fan near the tank and have it kick on when the light are on to help dry out the basement. I got mine for under $40 at HD and it is near silent.

Hi I loos about 5g a week in my basement on my 125g system It is open top I hope this helps you as an indicator.

Bill

my tank is a 180 gallon. i have a canopy but have the tops open to allow the lights to keep a little cooler.

i dont really have much surface agitation in my tank just an overflow that sucks water down into the sump

Your evaporation is consistent with my own. On my +200gal system I loose around 2 gal a day. The low tech solution is to open a window during the summer. In the winter you will probably appreciate the extra humidity when the atmosphere outside drys right out. I actually find that the humidity inside is at its lowest in the dead of winter even though the house is as closed up as possible. For smell you could run a carbon pad in a small air purifier. Or just enjoy it. I'll take ocean smell any day over Prince George black death pulp mill smell.

i dont really mind the smell that much, but whenever guests come down to view the tank they always notice it and think its because i havent cleaned it in a while