# Ultrasonic fogger



## tivas (Nov 23, 2005)

I got one of those fogging discs for my birthday, and am trying to figure out a way to put it in my terrarium, while excluding the frogs from it. The terrarium will have a false bottom and overflow circulating a good amount of water, so I am not worried about heat buildup, etc. I tried making a little plexiglass box for it, but the fog does not seem to escape through the holes in it. I also tried placing the fogger in a variety of enclosures sealed off with window screen, and, again, very little fog escaped.


I have searched the forum, but, aside from the water bottle trick, didn't find many suggestions on how to incorporate one of these foggers into the terrarium. Could you guys please tell me how you keep your frogs away from the fogger.

Thanks so much!

-Tom


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

How much water is covering your fogger? In the Sunbeam US Humidifiers that are commonly used for fog, there's at least an inch covering the US device. I've never tried seeing how the fog flows without the water container, but I'll give it a try. It may just need a definate path to follow to work properly. 

Also, if you're going to be using this with water from your tank, I think you will be bound for problems with deposit buildup. Perhaps making a small clean water reservoir within your false bottom would be possible. Something along the lines of a glad container with your US device inside it with a small access line to add more clean water.



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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I've been puzzlying out this same problem... I wanna use my ultrasonic fogger on my zaparo tank since its been recomended, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it out of tank and have it flow in, which is what I prefer so the frogs don't go near it.

I theory, and what I've seen of the fog, it tends to be heavy and flow down given the chance. I was hoping to have a container sit on top of the tank with an "overflow" tube just above the water line. The fog would, again in theory, build up, and flow down the tube to escape since its going down, and would flow into the tank. Zaparo would be happy. I would be happy. We all live happily ever after.

The zaparo seem to be one of those frogs that just don't look up. I'm not worried about them trying to crawl into a random hole at the top of the tank like I would my thumbnails. Unfortunately the FFs will. I was thinking a bit of fiberglass screening would fix that... but would the mist build up enough on the screen that it would eventually have so much water on it it would block it? Or would it just flow right thru for the most part?

This idea allows me to have whatever container and what not I want, and be able to refill it without distrubing the tank. I was just planning on using distilled water from the supermarket.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I think an experiemnt will have to be done to answer you question about the fog condensing on the screen, but here are my initial thoughts. 

From the physics side of it, condensation only occurs when you take a cold material and put it in a warmer humid environment. Also running time will be of concern. If you run the humidifer device for an extended period of time, other phenomon might start occuring, like the water getting "stuck" to the imperfection of the screen, thus providion a surface for more water. If you could run it intermittantly then the screen would have an opportunity to dry out in between cycles. 

Another thought, is putting a fan in the mix. Say you have a Y connection. From the main trunk of the Y is your fog source. One leg of the Y leads to the exit for the fog, and the last leg of the Y has a small (40mm) computer fan blowing into it. The fan will accelerate the fog, and it will also reduce the proverbial "thickness" or "concentration" of the fog, which will decrease the relative humidity. Both of which will help prevent condensation. 

If you wanted to put your fog source below your tank, you could simply increase the size of RPM of the fan to provide the lift needed to move the exit point.



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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

Defaced,

You have come to the same conclusion that I did when I was trying to figure out whether to buy an ultrasonic fogger or an ultrasonic humidifier. 

In the end, I decided to go with the humidifier. After all the ultrasonic humidifier is nothing more than a contained fogger with a water reservoir and an air pump.

If you already have a fogger and want to set it up to work in a tank, I would recommend using a container in which to hold the water, a float to keep the fogger the same distance from the water surface (regardless of the water level in the container), and an air pump or fan to push the fog up out of the container so that it spills down into the tank or gets pumped up a tube into the tank.

When I thought about all the hassle that would go into constantly refilling the reservoir, making the apparatus, etc., I thought that the extra $10 for the humidifer was worth it.

I think that Alexander Stubbs made a working self-contained fogger setup that would be safe for frogs. You might want to see what his design looked like.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Color me intersted. Is his stuff in the gallery? I'd like to see it. 

My next tank will (hopefully) have a common water vesavoir. So my waterfall, misting system, and foger will stem from one point, making water fills easy. I could see how refilling would be a major hassle as my humidifer will run dry after 12 hours of use.



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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

defaced said:


> Color me intersted. Is his stuff in the gallery? I'd like to see it.
> 
> My next tank will (hopefully) have a common water vesavoir. So my waterfall, misting system, and foger will stem from one point, making water fills easy. I could see how refilling would be a major hassle as my humidifer will run dry after 12 hours of use.


I think Alexander's design was created and shown before Dendroboard existed. I think I remember him showing a pic on Kingsnake. He can correct me if I'm wrong.

Is refilling after 12 hours of use really such a problem? 

Fogging for 1 minute, 3 x daily= 3 minutes per day
12 hours = 720 minutes on one fill = 240 days at 3 minutes per day

At that rate you would have to fill the reservoir twice per year. Things don't get much more low maintenance than that.

Plus, if your waterfall is going to run in the same reservoir as your fogger, it is likely that it will shorten the life of the fogger disk, as the water will be acidic with the tannins from the soil.

Just some thoughts.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I hadn't done the math, but only twice a year isn't bad at all. I'd probably change the water monthly though. I think the resavoir on it is around one gallon, so it's very possible to scale it down and put the resavoir in the false bottom. I might have to try that on the 25g I'm redoing right now.



> Plus, if your waterfall is going to run in the same reservoir as your fogger, it is likely that it will shorten the life of the fogger disk, as the water will be acidic with the tannins from the soil.


I haven't gotten that far yet, but thanks for the thought. I probably wouldn't have thought about it.

I posted the idea in the parts forum last week and didn't get any real responces. I'm thinking of using mechanical, biological and chemical filtration for the main water tank, then having a side shoot from that with an RO unit in line for my fogger and misting system. I haven't worked out the details because of time (school just started back up), but I'll be posting in my thread as the idea develops. Hopefully with this design the only thing limiting the running times on my fogger and misting system will be the RO membrane, and that still may not be an issue.



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## mnchartier (May 9, 2005)

As far as what Corey was mentioning about covering a hole with fiberglass screen to allow the fog to come in through an overflow works on my ultrasonic humidifier. I have it turn on twice a day for 5 minutes (72 gallon bow front tank) which will fill most of the tank to about half way, using a small 1/2" tube for the overflow. There is no problem with the screen clogging up, but you need to make sure that there is no flat areas in the tube that water will sit hindering the flow of the fog. I have the tube (flex tubing) in almost an upside down V shape instead of a U shape. I have had this running for the past 6 months. 

On my next one I am thinking of passing the tube up through the bottom with a fan to push the fog up. The tube will come out of the background near the top of the tank. I am going to test it on a smaller scall to see if it works or not before trying it on a large display tank.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

I moved this really excellent exchange of ideas about foggers into the Parts section of the board because I wanted to make sure that future users of the board while reading through the Parts section for ideas on vivs would find it. Otherwise it might get lost in the Beginner section.

Bill


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

> I've never tried seeing how the fog flows without the water container, but I'll give it a try. It may just need a definate path to follow to work properly.


So I have it a try last night, and it was a bit of a mess. First the fogger splashes alot, so if your fog tube has flat areas (already mentioned) or is too short, you may have some problems. Second is the fog doesn't flow in a particular path, it just kinda disburses in a circular fashion. 

If I had the money/materials, it's be possible to see how high the fog could go without a fan. Just treating the fogger like a water pump and testing it's vertical head would do the trick. To test it one would just need a fogger and a long piece of tubing. Simply turn the fogger on and with the tubing connected slowly raise the tubing above the fogger. At some point fog won't be able to come out of the tube, there's you max height. Anything above that height would need some more airflow and a fan would need to be introduced into the system.



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## AlexanderStubbs (Feb 18, 2004)

I posted my fogger design to frognet when I first got into keeping frogs, not sure if it still exists in the archives…

I constructed mine by placing the fogger in a Nalgene bottle (although any other airtight container would do) and drilling 3 holes. One for air in, one for air out, and one for the power cord. Then, you can attach standard aquarium airline tubing to the bottle by drilling two holes just larger than the diameter of the tubing (the air in, and air out holes). Then, attach an air pump (for fishtanks) to one end of the tubing to pump air into the fogger, this air will be filled with the fine mist, and can be pumped into the tanks. Thirty minute epoxy works quite well for holding the airline tubing in, you can use standard silicone, but it is a bit more prone to leaks. Avoid quick setting epoxies, as they tend to generate enough heat to melt some plastics. You are really just pressurizing the air inside the Nalgene, which forces out fogged air through the other tube. The nice thing about aquarium airline tubing is that there are lots of ready made splitters and valves which allow you to run quite a few tanks off one fogger. The limitation is really the amount of air you can pump out, and for a modest $40 investment you can fog all the tanks you want. I have set up a few tanks where fog comes out the back wall, this can be a nice effect, as the airline tubing is a small enough diameter to be self clearing when the condensation builds up, and can act as a drip system to flush out broms. It is possible to cut holes in the bottom of the nalgene, and put it in an even larger water reservoir, so that the pressure is maintained and you do not run out of water for some time. If you weight the bottom and float it to keep the transducer at the correct water level the system can run for a very long time without needing topping off.

Hope this helps, let me know if there are any questions. I will try to get some pictures up again.

Alexander


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## tivas (Nov 23, 2005)

Alexander,

That helped a lot. I will have to try it out tomorrow. How did you "float" the fogger?

Tom


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## AlexanderStubbs (Feb 18, 2004)

I just used some styrofoam epoxied to the top.

Alexander


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Wow, that's a great idea and at an incredible price. You could easily make one out of great stuff too. I might have to give that a try when the time comes.



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## jhupp (Feb 27, 2004)

I have an effective DIY design for a larger setup. I use a 12" bathroom vent fan to push fog from a large reservoir up through 2" Pool-and-Spa line to two outlets in the top of the tank. The fogger is mounted in a buoy available from mainlandmart.com, which allows for any size water reservoir you desire to be used as the fogger is always positioned at optimal depth. The air to fog ratio is controlled by a fan speed control switch, which allows me to adjust the rate and amount of fog pushed into the tank when the system is on. The fan and fogger are both operated by an Intermatic timer, and run from 5 to 15 minutes 4 times a day. I have been running this setup for close to two years now with very good results. The original design used a 5 gallon bucket as a reservoir. But this summer I had a nice stock pile of spare acrylic and up graded to the reservoir shown below. It is plumbed in line with my RO system through an irrigation solenoid soon to be controlled by a float switch mounted in the reservoir.










The way it is currently adjusted it will completely fill my 135 gal viv with fog in about 2 minutes. Admittedly this type setup cost more than the ultra-sonic humidifiers, but its much more adaptable to the users needs. And with a 5 gal bucket as a reservoir (what I originally used) refilling was only needed every couple of weeks.

Jay


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