Household Humidity Concerns from 400 Gals or so...

[roguemonk]

I have about 400 gallons in my system. At any given moment I'd guess that around 100 gallons are flowing through tubs in my crawlspace (lots of surface area!), and the rest is in three interconnected sumps and three interconnected tanks in the basement and my family room one level up--directly above the crawlspace.

Last winter for the first time I noticed some flexing in our wooden french doors and my wife has picked up on some mold/mildew from condensation around some of the doors and windows. I think part of the problem is insulation, but she thinks we have problematically high humidity due to the aquarium setup. I've ordered a humidity meter to do spot-checks, but my weather center one floor up from the family room (top floor of the house) says the humidity today is 41%, which it classifies as "dry."

I read that 40% - 60% is desirable, and it may be that our whole-house humidifier (which I never have to use any more!) just never got our humidity up to that comfort level before, and so last winter things started to adjust to the "better" air.

I'm thinking that, if the general humidity is not at a problematic level, improving the insulation and running fans where I can't solve it might be the only long-term solutions (small humidifiers in the corners might help but that seems like a losing battle).

While I wait for the meter to arrive I wonder if anyone has thoughts about this kind of problem with massive aquaria in an otherwise dry climate like ours?

Thanks,

Brad