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Custom Ventilation System

Hello everyone,
Here are some pics of a cheap experiment I made the past few days.  I had a Exoterra Fogger, spare 5.5 gallon tank, and a nice fan at my disposal, so why not try something new??  I spent a few $ at Lowe's getting PVC pipe, metal brackets, and nylon screws, etc to make it all work.  
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The system turns on 3x a night for an hour each.  Both tube outputs seem to produce the same amount of breeze. Before I ran the system, the RH on the top tank was 94%, the lower 62%.  Half way through the trial, the RH for the top tank was 84%, the lower tank 73%.  It seems that it pushes both tanks RH toward the 80% range, which is fine with me.  I hope the heterodoxa x minor and clipeata x reinwardtiana enjoy the wet breeze at night
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, not to mention the pygmies in the lower tank
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Any questions or comments welcome of course!

enjoy

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Sheer genius.

edit - Question: how much water does it go through a day?

Capslock
 
Hey, that's neat! What did you use to seal around the pvc where it goes through the panels?
 
thanks.  The Fogger goes through 200ml of water an hour.  That's not counting evaporation, so at least 600ml a day.  No big deal, its easy to just add water.  

As for sealing the pvc pipe...  I didn't
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  There are small squares cut into the acryllic top of the 5.5 tank.  The pvc is resting on top of it while the elbows secure it.  While its not entirely 'airtight', its quite effective!  We'll see how this works in the long run.  

My next experiement is using a peltier system to cool the water in the 5.5 tank.  I have ideas, I just do wan't to spend too much $ at one time you see.  Maybe next week
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That is a DREAM system you have going there! It's...It's.... I'm at a loss for words!

SF
 
OK I have some words now.

  How much would it cost for you to come set one up at my house???
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 (joke)  

What are the temperatures in the tanks? Does the moist air cool the tank down?

You definitely have a knack at engineering.

SF
 
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You're a genius!!! When I setup a highland chamber for my ultrahighlanders, I will have to do that!!! It saves just that much room for more nepenthes...
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Well, there was a slight temperature drop.  The upper terrarium temp went down in temperature from 78.4F to 76.5F.  The lower tank temp decreased by almost 2 degrees as well.  I measure temps before the system turned on a right after it shut off.  The water in the 5.5 tank, I might add, was at room temperature (sat overnight).  

I plan on incorporating a peltier system of some sort to chill the air.  Then I would have a cool setup for a highland tank one day.  

You guys should try and build one of these things.  Maybe a airstone would provide the humidity for the system in stead of a $35 fogger?
 
  • #10
Jmenprkr,

What do you mean by it exactly?

If you're referring to the fogger, Petco.

-Homer
 
  • #11
That looks like a very nice setup Homer. I'm curious, how constant does it keep the RH in the tanks? Do you get spikes when it turns on and off? Does it only run at night? Have you tried running it durring the day? How much of a temp drop do you get? How effective might it be in cooling at night? I guess it may be a little soon to have any real data on some of this. I would be very interested in the hard numbers from what you have set up here.

Thanks
Steve
 
  • #12
Well Steve, I ran the system last night for an hour while checking the readings every 15 minutes.  Here is the summary of the results:

temperature drop for top tank 3 degrees, bottum tank 1 degree.  Keep in mind the ambient room temp dropped 1 degree in that hour.

Humidity level in top tank dropped from 97% to 91% in the first 15 minutes.  After that it decreased to 89% at the half hour point and stayed there for the rest of the duration.

The initail RH was 74% in the lower terrarium.  It rose to 77% within 15 minutes. After that, it continued to climb slowly to 79% and stayed there.

In conclusion, there is a spike in RH within the first 15 minutes, but its only within the 5-10% range in both terrariums.  My objective for this setup is to bring in moist air from outside the tank to prevent mold, etc.  

Hope this helps answer some of your questions.  I plan on doing one more run during the day today.
 
  • #13
Hmmm. I have the extra tank and several stones. I even have an idea on how to make one for a lowland tank. What if instead of just a fan you used a heater and fan. I have an extra one of those to. That way the breeze would not bring down the temp, but hieghten it.
 
  • #14
hehe, i just have a fish tank pump for ventalation. i took the airstone off and put outlet of air in front a ultrasonic fogger. maybe im just too cheap
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. Zongyi
 
  • #15
Keep an eye on the tips of your leaves... the exoterra fogger slightly heats the water molecules as it vaporizes it; as the mist settles onto the leaves it can cause them to brown at the edges and eventually liquify... a lesson phil and I learned with the large display terrariums from our Houston retail store....

We replaced the exoterras with you average compact home humidifier from target... pipe it in the same way and the cooler temp makes most terrarium dwelling plants happy and safe from liquification! And the larger water tank will make you happier with fewer refills...

Michael
mmcgee@petflytrap.com
 
  • #16
can you tellme where you got all the stuff
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  • #17
i got mine from petsmart. the clerk said they didn't sell it, but after a brief search, i found it in the reptiles section
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. i believe you have to turn it off once in a while (like every few minutes) to avoide overheating of the tank. Zongyi
 
  • #18
Jmenprkr,

Buy an aquarium at Petsmart or a garage sale. Buy the fogger from Ebay. Buy a little computer fan at Radio Shack. You can buy a cheap timer from Home Depot or Target. Get the PVC pipe at Home Depot too.

You can get any of that from a lot of places, not just the ones I mentioned.
 
  • #19
UPDATE

Now that several days have passed, i checked my readings after a 1 hour ventilation cycle.  I am suprised that my humidity levels have risen quite a bit!  

After 1 hour at night:
humidity in the upper terrarium was 97% instead of the mid-80 range.
humidity in the lower terrarium was 94%: much higher than the 70% range.  

The temperatures in both tanks were 2 F less than ambient room temp.  (room temp = 73 F)

So what happened?  The water level in the 5.5 tank has been decreasing over the past several days ( I have yet to refill the tank ), and now the fogger is working more efficiently with the lower water level.

My point  You can adjust your water level in the small tank to bring about desired humidity levels in your terrarium(s).

I could be all wrong, but I think I'm onto something here  
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  • #20
Homer,
You are very correct in assuming that less water means the fogger works more efficiently. I find that best fog from an Exoterra fogger like yours is at about 2 inches(+/- a little). I would love to see a picture of the system at startup, and then maybe an interval or two, then after the full hour... This is very interesting indeed!! THANKS FOR SHARING!!
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