goldendreamer Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 if two tanks are the exact same relative dimensions, and one is 1 gallon and one is 100, why does the 1 gallon lose more water, relatively speaking, than the 100 gallon? wouldn't the water loss be directly proportional to surface area, so that both tanks would lower their water line at the same rate (relatively), and they woudl both empty simlultaneously? Link to comment
andykee Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 in theory, they should evaporate at the same rate. that is assuming that all factors are the same... surface area is just 1 part of the equation. things like temperature, surfice agitation, surrounding air humidity, etc. also change the evaporation rate Link to comment
Dave61 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 OK, gotta ask...how could 2 tanks be of relatively the same dimensions (L, W, H)but have such a large difference of volume? But if it could, I'd say that with the same lighting over the 2 tanks, you're heating a much smaller volume of water in the one gallon so the amount of latent heat of vaporization is greater so you'd lose more water. Link to comment
andykee Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 the dimensions of the tank are relative to each other. i.e. a 1'x1'x'1 tank would have the same relative dimensions as a 2'x2'x2' tank, but the 2'x2'x2' tank is 8 times bigger than the 1'x1'x1' tank Link to comment
Dave61 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 the dimensions of the tank are relative to each other. i.e. a 1'x1'x'1 tank would have the same relative dimensions as a 2'x2'x2' tank, but the 2'x2'x2' tank is 8 times bigger than the 1'x1'x1' tank OK, guess I didn't understand the sizing correctly, thanks Andy. Link to comment
Mr. Fosi Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 if two tanks are the exact same relative dimensions, and one is 1 gallon and one is 100, why does the 1 gallon lose more water, relatively speaking, than the 100 gallon? Are there 1g and 100g with exactly the same relative dimensions? Do they have proportional sand and rock as well? Link to comment
tinyreef Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 the dimensions of the tank are relative to each other. i.e. a 1'x1'x'1 tank would have the same relative dimensions as a 2'x2'x2' tank, but the 2'x2'x2' tank is 8 times bigger than the 1'x1'x1' tank8x the volume but the surface area is only 4x the smaller tank's. like andy mentioned, surface area is one aspect but ime it's the most critical aspect (all things being relatively equal in proportion). splash from returns is another very significant source of evaporation. a 1" sump feed on a big tank is typical but on nanos (also usually 1" or at worst 3/4") that same pipe/splash results in a greater proportion of evaporation. Link to comment
goldendreamer Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 now that i think about it, if i have a 90gph flow in a 2 gallon, that is 45X / hour, which is much much larger than i had on my 55 gallon Link to comment
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