Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am looking to build a misting and drip system. How do I make one? Does anyone know good sites with plans? If you made one yourself, how does it look (pictures)?

I want the misting system a fine mist as possible and as low in price as possible. Having it on a timer if possible, but not mandatory for now.

The drip system should not drip too fast like a drip wand from a cansiter water filter. Just enough to simulate rain fall for use in a rainfall type chamber.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

I have not built one, but I have seen web pages talking about their construction, and have been thinking about building one my self. I think I would use a normal 115 volt pump to supply the water, and use drip irrigation parts for the misting or dripping (they sell them at home depot and other home improvement stores). The only thing I'm not sure about is if a pump that was small enough to fit under my false bottom could deliver enough pressure for the system. I guess you could always have a separate water source for the misting system and use as big a pump as you want, but the tank would fill up with water then

You know, I've thought about this problem, too.

Perhaps we should take a cue from the reef aquarium people and plumb an external sump?

Does anyone know if this has been attempted with a dart frog vivarium?

-John

Exterior sumps are frought with danger of overflow unless it is well built. I have kept marine tanks for 10 years now, but have never touched those simply because I didnt want to deal with it. If BUILT CORRECTLY, it should solve your problems. However, with the much smaller quantity of water in a frog tank, overflow shouldnt be as much of a problem.

One idea I was told about years ago was a simple 10 gallon tank as the exterior sump housing. Getting a predrilled tank would be a must, then simply run some flexible tubing (size uncertain) from that to the 10 gallon below containing the water pump. A powerhead from a fish tank might take care of your issues with pressure, but you would either have to do some research to see the GPH needed or trial by fire (just buy one and try it). From the powerhead, a line (probably 1/2" or 3/8" running to the sprayer or drip system would supply the water. AFter that, a nice timer would turn it on and off to spray the tank. As long as there wasnt more water in the entire setup than the 10 gallon will hold, you SHOULDNT have any wet carpet unless a line comes loose.

For the misting part, a guy I used to work for had a spray bar in a fish tank that could be adapted for vivarium use. Just get spray nozzles (lowes maybe?) and drill the appropriate hole in the PVC spray bar in or above the frog tank, then insert nozzles. Then you could aim them, or do whatever you wanted with it.

Plumbing could be done with flexible OR PVC, however I think the spray bar would have to be PVC for rigidity.

Again, nozzle GPH would have to be a concern so as not to UNDERpower the nozzles with the powerhead or pump so there was a trickle where a spray was desired.

If someone builds this, shoot me a pic! I'm just kind of thinking with my keyboard now!

Unfortunately those nozzles from lowes/homedepot require a good bit of pressure for fine mist. I tried hooking one to the small pumps we use for waterfalls and it just laughed at me.
I've never used a power head, so I can't comment on whether it will work or not. I did manage to get some to work off of the supply tank on my RO filter which is about 5-7psi. I imagine it is possible for a large powerhead to produce this much pressure but I won't make any promises. If you want to be safe buy a booster pump for water filtration systems, they are about $100 but they are made for high pressure low GPH operation. Perfect for ultrafine mist.

Joe

Here is a pic of my mister (if the pic thing works ok for me!!). It works really well. I have it on a timer that comes on for 2 minutes every 2 hours, and it keeps the humidity between 80 and 90% unless I open the lid up at some point. It looks just like a light rain after the mist clears. I'm not sure you would need a "rainmaker" if you had a setup similar to this, since the whole tank (except the glass, amazingly enough!) is wet after it mists. The humidifier is a sunbeam I got from WalMart (the scourge of retail). It was about $35 I think.

I got the idea from the beginners guide earlier on the forum. There is alot of good info on that.