# DiY misting system



## Guest (Nov 17, 2004)

do any of you have experience with using a mister that is integrated into the water section of the viv? i was wondering about using a pump in the water section to pump up to misting nozzles at the top of the tank. the drainage water would allow some of the mist to be recycled. has anyone tried this? or is there an obvious reason why i should not?

TIA

landon


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## Guest (Nov 17, 2004)

From the lurking that I've been doing lately and not from first hand 
knowledge. It seems that if you use this approach you are very likely to foul 
your misting nozzles with debris(dirt, dead flies, etc.). Depending on how 
you mount the nozzle it could be a real hassle to clear the line.


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## FCA (Oct 7, 2004)

You need a high pressure pump to run misting nozzles as well as for the reason stated above about clogging them from debris in the water.


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## jhupp (Feb 27, 2004)

You could filter detritus out with little effort. The main issue is the pump. Impeller driven pumps will not generate enough pressure to drive the mising heads. Instead you need a small pump which can produce a fairly high pressure. And pumps for this purpose generally run about 100$, which under most circumstances is not cost effective. You should also consider if the water from the water feature is suitable to mist your plants. PH dercease with droplet size in fine mist. So if your feature contains black water, the mist may become to acidic. Just some things to think about.


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## Guest (Nov 17, 2004)

*thanks all!!*

those were fast responses. thanks for the words of wisdom. i guess ill have to rig something up for under the tank. do you guys have any links to good DiY misters, or is there a DiY section on this forum. i think ive stumbled across a gold mine of info findon this board.

landon


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## Guest (Nov 17, 2004)

One thing you could try to do is use a winsheild washer pump. As soon as I get a missting nozzel I was going to try and see if they prodce enough pressure to get a fine mist. I do believe their are 2 differnt kinds of these pumps; one of which is an inline pump, and the other that goes directly into the washer fluid. Your best bet would be to get the inline pump which mounts on the outside of the washer fluid tank. The biggest problem with this would be wiring it up. You will need a 12v adapter to run and I am not sure which wires go to what. If you use this method then you could hook pump up to a gallon jug and just refill it when needed.

Mike P.


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## bluetip (May 18, 2004)

Hi Mike,

Can you share with us your experience with the windshield wiper pumps once you've tried them? I would be curious to find out if that will work!

thanks



> scorpion1971 Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 4:36 am Post subject:
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## Guest (Nov 18, 2004)

scorpion1971 said:


> Your best bet would be to get the inline pump which mounts on the outside of the washer fluid tank. The biggest problem with this would be wiring it up. You will need a 12v adapter to run and I am not sure which wires go to what. If you use this method then you could hook pump up to a gallon jug and just refill it when needed.
> 
> Mike P.


i like this idea but wanted to try and contain it to inside the tank. i went last night and picked up a garden sprayer, a patio misting kit (with 8 adjustable flow nozzles and all the tubing needed), and an automatic timer/sprinkler control, along with all the misc plumbng needed to hook the garden sprayer to te timer and nozzles. the total setup cost me about $90. im going to hook it up at work today and see if it will work. if it will ill have a 3 gallon reservior, and total control over flow. in theory i should be able to control how much H2O comes out by, adjusting how much i pump it up and by how i adjust the nozzles. im still interestd in your idea as i will be setting up an 80 gallon for darts soon. this is where i want to contain the misting sytem within. this system i am going to try on a large chameleon cage that im currently building. i got the general idea from http://www.trix.com/binx/mister/. i found some better stuff than what he mentioned and the prices are a little different because the article was written a while back.

landon[/url]


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## Schism (Nov 12, 2004)

I used to run something exactly like you are describing. I did it years ago when I had no clue what I was doing. However it was successful, but I guess that term is relative. I used those misting systems that they use for outside misting systems, I got it at home depot. I then bought a sump pump. It was well massive compared to the pumps we used for misting systems. It weighed a good 15lbs and was bulky. I submersed it in a water area and affixed adapters to attach it to the misting hose. I ran it on a timer and it worked extremely well, surprisingly. It didn't have a lot of pressure, but it ran 6 nozzles relatively well. It was very nice because I almost never had to add, or remove water, and it stayed 100% humidity.

I'm sure you don't want to do this, but I would guess something could be figured out.


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2004)

thanks for the idea schism. i actually dont mind the sump and pump idea, but what kind of pump was it? my idea uses the pressurized garden sprayer as a pump, and it doesnt seem to do to bad, with two nozzles. there is no way it could run six though. the only thing i really dont like is the nozzles. the girl at my LPS is getting me some mister nozzles from the little mister they sell. it will attach to the small tube that the patio spray kit uses. we'll see how it goes.

landon


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## Schism (Nov 12, 2004)

I have no idea what kind of pump it was. This was years ago. 
I can assure you it won't work like most people expect today out of a misting system, but it might be sufficient with enough experimenting..


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2004)

im used to the ol' spray bottle and a walk around the house, so anything automated is going to be a real treat for me 

landon


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