Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, so you know how they have those party fog machines? they just use normal water, dont they? would they be safe to use for terrarium foggers?

heres what im thinking:

i could put the unit in a rubbermaid container or whatever, then make some holes in the container to run tubing over each of my tanks...theoretically, the fog would build up in the container, then shoot out to each of the tanks the tubing goes to. anyone see anything wrong with this?

Yeah I looked into those party foggers too and they don't use water. They use some mixture of chemicals. You might be able to get a really powerful ultra-sonic humidifier though and use that. Talk to the guy over at intenseherp.com he has a set up that is very similiar to your idea. Or you could you my plan if you saw it on the one of the lower threads but then you would need one for each cage.
-Matt

Another idea is to use an ultrasonic humidifier or any cool mist humidifier. I used one once to provide moisture to a larger-sized vivarium (2x2x4). I found flexible tubing at Home Depot that matched the nozzle of the humidifier, and brought the mist to the vivarium.

I have seen others use PVC pipe to deliver the mist to multipe cages. Small holes were drilled in the PVC pipe at each cage. This was for small chameleon species.

The only problem I discovered was cleanliness. You have to keep the tubing clear of algae and bacteria.

For humidity without mist, Reptile Haven in southern CA used to distribute a product to be used with an aquarium airpump. The air was pumped into the bottom of a sealed container filled with water (through an acquarium "bubbler". It left the top of the container as 100% humidified air. A small tube brought the air into the cage. When put on a timer to run at intervals, it worked very well to make the cage humid without saturating.

Even a medium-sized ultrasonic humidifier is enough to supply mist to 2-3 cages. In a few minutes, it will fill a 40 gallon tank with an opaque cloud--everything disappears and all you can see is white. A small humidifier with a timer can keep you from totally saturating the cage and inducing skin infections on your geckos.

i saw a very good design in a " furniture quality" cage at the chicago reptile swap.
the guy had a slide in tupperware bin at the top of the cage, it slid in just like a drawer would in a dresser. then there were small holes drilled in the sides of the container.
if you've ever used an ultrasonic fogger you will soon realize they are very difficult to keep clean and the dirtier the water gets the sooner the fogger will fail or not work very well. this way the geckos couldn't come in contact with the water but it was still fogging out. looked very cool. i don't know how well it would work to get it to pump into other cages though, i don't think it would build up enough pressure to get it that far before it would turn to water in the tubes.

once again, ebay has the best prices i've found on foggers.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20569&item=4353490051&rd=1
any " ultrasonic" fogger will work off of water and will need no chemicals.
the first one i got was an exoterra fogger and it only lasted about 2 months but the water conditions i was keeping it in were quite poor. also mineral build up on the fogger will cause it to decline quickly.