Bleaching a misting system?

Here’s a question for you. Do you ever run some bleach solution throughout your misting system? Our vet said the only drawback to a misting system like ours for a whole lab full of chams is that you can develop a bacteria within the distribution lines and hence distribute it to all the chams. Not what I wanted to hear. What do you guys think? Tonight I opened the small filter assembly which comes with the valve assembly. I cleaned the little 5 micron screen. Then I poured a couple of teaspoons of bleach into the canister where the filter goes, put the filter back in and reattached the cap. Then I disconnected the heads on that circuit from their cages, put them in a bucket on top of the cage, and ran that circuit until I was sure the bleach was all the way through the system and to the heads. I let it sit about 20 minutes or so, then I ran the circuit again until I was sure all the bleach was purged out of the lines. Seems like a lot of work but then no work is too much for our chams, right?
So, do any of you guys with a lot of cages and a misting system ever do that? Have you ever had a vet tell you something like this? Or have you had any illness issues with your chams due to the misting system? I would like to hear some feedback on this. I would really like to obtain the equipment to test for bacteria in the water, or a cham’s throat, etc. It would eliminate the guesswork and save some trips to the vet, and help us keep our chams happy and healthy!

That would be too risky for me. I would be too worried to try this. I wonder if running lemon juice or vinegar through the lines would kill bacteria. Also I would think that as long as you keep a clean filter, bacteria build up will be less common. Especially since most of us run the misters 2-3 times a day. It is easy to have bacteria build up when it is either hot or sitting there for a long time.

It's so interesting that this was brought up, because I was just think about the possibilities of this (the bacteria not the cleaning) with a misting system.
Trying to determine how it is different from a waterfall (aside from dead crickets and poop) you would still get , IMO, a decent amount of bacteria growth in the hoses regardless of how often you ran it.
We're not going to (any of us) ever have completely sterile environments .. and I don't think you want that anyway .. but I am going to stick with my misting by hand. There's a tube on that as well ...and on the drippers ... these pieces all fit in my dishwasher tho

-Brad

Howdy, Elliot,

When I put together my mist system, I was concerned with the issue of bacteria in the holding tank, pump and lines. I decided that I would clean my holding tank every few weeks with diluted bleach or Nolvasan. I flushed the lines only once in a couple of years though . I used diluted Nolvasan since it is very good at killing bacteria and other various bad things with minimal risk of residual issues. I just put a quart of diluted Nolvasan in my empty holding tank, put a cup under each nozzle, ran the pump until Nolvasan came out of each nozzle, let stand 10 minutes, and then flushed with water. If I only had bleach to use, I'd read-up on using a weaker but effective dilution of bleach other than 10:1 just because there is the slight possibility that some materials might be damaged by it. Long story short, rightly or wrongly, I haven't worried much about anything more than algae in the tank since then .

I would just replace my tubing line after a while

The final step of installation of a PEX household water system involves sterilizing it with a weak bleach solution, so it shouldn't be that dangerous to do with a misting system. If you have a lot of nozzles, just do it in stages. Run until the bleach appears at the nozzles, shut it off, and flush after ten minutes or so until you don't smell the bleach. Of course, it will be much easier to flush the bulk of the solution out of the line if you remove the last nozzle, then replace it to flush the nozzles.

If you're using translucent tubing, the algae growth will let you know when it's time to do this, anyway.

That is one reason I was considering plumbing my misting system directly into the water line. The only disadvantage I could think of was the temperature of the water directly out of the well.

I clean my nozzles with CLR. I let them soak for a while..... then I run them under water for a long time. I install them and run water through them to clean the insides.

I have no cleaned my system out since I built it about 10 months ago. I have been changing the system so much I don't think much bacteria can grow or stick around.

One change I have made is how the system flows. I now run it like Dave Weldon. The valve is at the end of the line, when closed water flows out of the jets. When I open my valves all the water drains from the lines. Wouldn't partially filled or mostly empty hoses be more susceptible to bacteria and algae growth? Maybe I shouldn't drain the pressure off at the end of each misting session?

What type of heater is that in your diagram? Is it inline?

rcmike said:

What type of heater is that in your diagram? Is it inline?

Click to expand...

I will be an inline. I don't have it yet. Dave Weldon posted a link to where it can be purchased. I just can't remember what the brand or the website at the moment.

Do you still have the link Dave?

It wouldn't be a hydor would it? I have been looking at those but I don't think it would handle the pressure I was going to put through it.

Misting

I have fully adjustable mist heads from the mist king in my cages. Usually about once a month I take them apart and let them sit in vinegar water over night. This also gets rid of any calcium and or fluoride build up. Now as for the 1/4" tubing I usually replace it every 4-6 months. It's pretty inexpensive...20 meters for about $13. I use vinegar because I do not trust bleach or other cleaners. I wouldn't want any left overs for my chams to drink and get sick from. Now as for the reservoir it usually gets emptied about once a week and cleaned thoroughly.

Bleach is pretty safe if it is rinsed well. In my aquariums if I clean something with bleach I usually put some dechlorinator in the final rinse and that gets rid of any residue.

summoner12 said:

I will be an inline. I don't have it yet. Dave Weldon posted a link to where it can be purchased. I just can't remember what the brand or the website at the moment.

Do you still have the link Dave?

Click to expand...

Howdy,

The one that I use is the Hydor 300W (skip the 200W unit) inline unit. I run it between the tank and the pump so that it is on the low pressure side. The heater is not designed to take any pressure. I also used a 1/4 pipe tap to put threads on the inside of the in/out ports so that I could use 1/4 male to quick-connect connectors. I'm still waiting for the team at www.herpmist.com to design or OEM a better solution to inline heating at the nozzle .

Example (don't pay more than $45 for it): http://www.amazon.com/ETH-Line-Heater-16mm-Tubing/dp/B0002Z7VQE

Dave Weldon said:

Howdy,

The one that I use is the Hydor 300W (skip the 200W unit) inline unit. I run it between the tank and the pump so that it is on the low pressure side. The heater is not designed to take any pressure. I also used a 1/4 pipe tap to put threads on the inside of the in/out ports so that I could use 1/4 male to quick-connect connectors. I'm still waiting for the team at www.herpmist.com to design or OEM a better solution to inline heating at the nozzle .

Example (don't pay more than $45 for it): http://www.amazon.com/ETH-Line-Heater-16mm-Tubing/dp/B0002Z7VQE

Click to expand...

I am not sure why I didn't think about putting it on the low pressure side. THANKS!

How warm does the water get? Do you think having the water recycled through the tank is over kill?

I was wanting to hook directly into a water line so it would have high pressure all the time. I did come across this which might work. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/36257-diy-external-heater-56k.html

rcmike said:

I was wanting to hook directly into a water line so it would have high pressure all the time. I did come across this which might work. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/36257-diy-external-heater-56k.html

Click to expand...

I had thought of something like this. My idea was to put the heater in the tank keeping it warm.. But when the water level is pretty low I thought it might cause issues (yes, they do make heaters for the bottom of tanks).

If you were tapping into the water in your house directly wouldn't you just tap from hot and cold? Using valves to adjust how much hot or cold came out?

nozzles are so cheap, i move all my old cham ones to the landscape i just don't like the idea of bleach, and even after i flush for rediculous amounts of time using very mild solutions it makes everything smell bleachy and its hard to get out, and even if you do get it out it may still smell a lil bleachy from your hands or the area or whatever and it causes you to question, you can cut yourself all new tubing for under 100 bucks even if you are a chameleon dope slanger

summoner12 said:

I had thought of something like this. My idea was to put the heater in the tank keeping it warm.. But when the water level is pretty low I thought it might cause issues (yes, they do make heaters for the bottom of tanks).

If you were tapping into the water in your house directly wouldn't you just tap from hot and cold? Using valves to adjust how much hot or cold came out?

Click to expand...

I thought of that too but there isn't a hot water line near where my cages are. It would also take a while for the water to heat up. Of course the water in the lines would be room temperature. Hmmm....

i wonder how well these inline heaters work. With my setup I have the pump and heater come on together and flow water through the heater for a couple of minutes before the valves close and water sprays out of the misting jets.

I do not have a heater yet to see how well it heats the water.