HELP!!! Wood cabinet stand bowing from humidity!

I still don't understand and, I would like to in case I have this wrong , why you're dehumidifying in the winter and leaving it humid in the summer. Your hvac is drying the air with fire during the winter when your furnace is running but you're pumping humid air and condensation into the house when you run the AC or leave the windows open in the summer am I wrong about this? It's why you get chapped lips in the winter. What am I missing?

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I have 8 tanks, from 10-125g, totaling over 325g, in my living room & fish room. There is a dehumidifier in both rooms that remove 2g ea day (4g total) in the winter months. Without them, our windows in the whole house are fogged & we have had mold growing on the walls. When I am able to open the windows in the spring/fall, the humidity doesn't build up inside the house. During the heat of the summer, we have central air but that's not enough for my fish room, which has tanks on 3 walls, so Hubby added a window AC which I started using today, to dry out the room.
 
So the dehumidifiers go off basically to save power? When it's 80-90% humidity in the summer it's probably helping a little to open the windows but if you can't dry clothes on a line you're probably not really removing that moisture. I'd think if you're getting 2g/day in the winter you'd probably get 5 in the summer even with a good breeze. Those things don't run on happy thoughts though and I guess ac does dry the air a little (while it condenses that water on your basement pipes though)

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AC dries ALL the air inside the house & acts as a dehumidifier. By opening the windows on cooler days though, it keeps the humidity from becoming "trapped" inside the house, building up on the windows & walls.
 
because warmer air is dryer, you tend to want to not run it in the winter, while in the summer everything is nice and moist, and will act to cool the house down because that's what an AC condenser does. you are doing it backwards, but if it keeps the house good doesn't really matter. and no amount of moisture in the air is going to cause that much damage, you have a leak, somewhere.
 
I may be chiming in late here, but do you happen to have any photos of the bowed area and / or saturated area? I'm not an engineer but I have a pretty good back ground in structure, just curious to see what the short term and long term fix would be. Sorry to hear your tank may have to be broken down =/
 
BowedStand_zps4b3dce5f.jpg
 
Yeah, still kind of hard to tell Jeni, It looks like the swollen wood is actually a panel and may not be part of the framing, but I really can't tell =/ There is definitely some salt water making contact, or at least that appears to be salt creep in that joint and possibly the wall. Do you have splashing or bubbles in your intake of the sump that may be causing the damage? Any way you can take a photo from the inside facing that corner? That might explain much more for me. From just what I see in this photo, I "think" you are pretty safe as far as collapse goes, but again, I can't see clearly enough to be 100%. Hopefully it can be repaired without having to tear down....
 
Yeah, there's a lot of salt spray from the bubbles where the water drops down into the tank. That's also where I put the fan, because I read to place the fan over where the water's most agitated. That is the corner that was so wet (dry now) & layers of the wood is crinkly & wavy & shedding off from the inside of that 1 panel, all the way on the left. I tried to get a pic but the sump is in the way of a good view of it.
 
Sounds to me like tank leak too. I cant c a stang getting that bad that quick and with a fan blowing on it all night should of been dry. Jmo. Good luck either way sounds crappy. From what ive seen on most stands the corner and center braces r the suporrt. The paneling on side is usually just for looks. But every stand is different. Trying to wedge a 2x4 under it to fix it willl temp work but one slip and it can go thru bottom of tank and that be bad very bad
 
madjoe said:
Sounds to me like tank leak too. I cant c a stang getting that bad that quick and with a fan blowing on it all night should of been dry. Jmo. Good luck either way sounds crappy. From what ive seen on most stands the corner and center braces r the suporrt. The paneling on side is usually just for looks. But every stand is different. Trying to wedge a 2x4 under it to fix it willl temp work but one slip and it can go thru bottom of tank and that be bad very bad
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You'd be surprised at the damage a bursting micro-bubble can do, especially wind driven!!! It still may be a leak, but it sure sounds like salt spray as Jeni said. The fan will only quickly dry the surface area that it's hitting, which is likely above the sump line. The moisture below that line will take quite a bit longer to dry and likely saturate the wood.

Jeni, it may not be feasible to incorporate a drain change in your system, but if there is any chance that you could research a "herbie or beananimal" style overflow / drain and set one up, it will eliminate the massive amount of bubbles being generated through the overflow, essentially eliminating the salt spray. It requires (2) drain holes to achieve it (safely), so if you don't have two, it likely wont work in your situation. If you do have two, you should seriously consider it!

If it's something you're interested in and think you might make the change, I can post some close up photos of mine and explain how to tweak it to have a dead silent overflow and no more salt spray (if you aren't already familiar with them)! As far as the stand goes, hopefully it can be repaired on that end panel and no structural damage was done!! Hope this helps, good luck!!
 
I do have rock rubble under the output of the overflow drain to minimize bubbles. Almost 0 noise from it. Turned off the fan last night. With the windows open in the room (cool night) & the cabinet doors open, it's completely dry inside--no leaks!
 
I'm so glad to hear that at least it's not a leak! Hopefully you figure a way around having to dismantle the tank while still getting it on a new stand :) Good luck with all of that!
 
Whew!!! What a relief to hear that this is only a panel & not a supporting wall of the stand & I'm not gonna find the tank & all my beloved corals/fish on the floor one day! Also that there is nothing leaking... :rain:
 
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