auto misting machine

I'm sorry all this back and forth is kinda funny. To make things short and sweet. Habba Mist SUX. Sorry I wouldn't use it for anything although Vegas Chad has suggested some promising uses. Nightcrawler, stick to your hand misters and drip bottles for now and save up for pro misters. The two links below will give you some idea of cost. I currently use the Promist stuff and I love it. Talk about super silent operation, you hear absolutely nothing (unless your sticking your ear right at the pump). The mist this thing creates literally evaporates into a fog near the basking spot lamp. Just truly amazing, and talk about no water waste! The humidity level can be attained with less water going down the drain.

My vote is to save up your money and buy a Promist (http://www.pro-products.com/promist.html) or the Rainmaker kits from cloud tops (http://www.cloudtops.com/misting_system_index.htm). Don't get suckered into buying the HabbaMist, or even the Big Apple Herp system. Those mid ranged systems are terrible.

My reasoning is, if you plan on keeping chams for a while and have a passion to grow your collection, buying anything other than these two systems now will prove to be a waste of money well spent. Stick to the hand pumps until you can buy these misting systems - now lets talk about inline heating systems......lol

Nate
 
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mightyzug said:
dude, i realize that you are trying to make sales, but 10 hours is a totally ridiculous overstatement. settle down with the sales pitch already.

for nightcrawler my vote will always be DIY, skip the habbamist, but if the more realistic 2-4 hours of your time isn't worth it, then yea, go buy one coz they are great to have.

if you're REALLY short on $$ then can't you just upgrade your dripper so it won't run out of water so quickly? the habbamist is not totally worthless, but not really worth it either considering what you could make yourself for the same price tag.
Click to expand...

Did you one time here him in the statement that he made to the boy on his opinion... he did not one time try to sell him anything, he was telling him of when he had one... lighten up.. not to mention Laser sells a good product and has had many good reports from a lot of folks on here.... I intend on buying one from him in the very near future...
 
misting system and heaters

We have been using a pump sprayer just like you Herpluva. Before that we used a little hand sprayer. And before that the infamous HabbaMist. Thanks for the ideas for its usefulness, Chad. We agree! But now we are ready to go much more professional with either a ProMist or a Cloudtops. But I really need to stir up some more discussion about this.
1. Hot water - how to you get the Promist to spray hot, or warm water out of a 5 gallon reservoir?
2. Which nozzle is the best and why?
3. I was considering using a Rainbird irrigation type sprinkler timer and valves with 1/4" poly lines and spray heads. And then the domestic water pressure provides the pressure instead of a pump. And I would draw water out of a hot water heater set on its lowest temperature setting. Please tell me if there are disadvantages here that I am not seeing. I would still use the cloudtops misting nozzles because I don't think this type of mister is available in the irrigation industry.
4. How are you catching all the extra water under the cages. We give them a LOT of water and we keep our chams well hydrated. So just a few minutes of fine mist won't be enough. We agree with the 10-15 minutes per cage idea. But what about all the extra water? Has there been a thread about this idea in the past?

Thanks for the help guys. You folks are the best!
Elliot
 
-A simple way to keep your misting water warm is to use a fish tank heater inside your reservoir, mount it flat on the bottom so as the water lever drops you will not expose it to open air… They really don’t like that; the fish tank heater that is. You can try other things, however I think this is the most cheap and easy way to go. If you choose to heat it at all.

-I like the red nozzle. The only difference is the mist pattern and drop size… I would say just go with the red.

-I’m not totally sure of the common house water PSI, it varies widely! You ‘could’ hook up a misting system to a home water line, but you would still have to turn it on and off by hand or rig up some sort of solenoid to turn it off and on for you… I think that this is a bit complex for most people as opposed to a herp mist or promist type system that are more plug and play, where it’s rather hard to mess it up. If you go this way, things could go south fast, but then again it could work great!

-I have my timer set for several short 2 minute mistings throughout the day. You will be surprised how much water is actually pumped out in that super fine mist. 2 minute worth of mist is enough to totally soak all the leaves and leave them dripping for several minutes. If the cham has not gotten enough to drink he can catch some the next mist and the next. Plus this way the humidity is kept up. The time between misting usually lets most of the water dry, if not it dries during the night. As for cages that do something with the extra water; im working on it! ;-)

Hope that helps a little
 
I use an inline heater (Hydor - http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/9092) no submersion, no taping, clamping, gluing, or anything - lol. Just plug the connections and it works it magic. Great precise control as well. I love it. I have it setup on its own timer and it runs a few minutes before misting time so that it heats up in time for when my misting cycle runs.

As for water collection. I drill drainage holes on the bottom of my enclosure and the entire enclosure is raised using blocks that are hidden from view. Then under each drain I place a large flat collection basin to collect all water. I run 3 cycles a day.

8am - (15min - on) (5 min off/on alternating)
12noon - (15min - on) (5 min off/on alternating)
5pm - (15min - on) (5 min off/on alternating)

Keep in mind I have a large enclosure 6'wx3'dx6'h. I also change my misting cycles seasonally as well. The fine mist is much less wasteful in terms of water because the mist is so damn fine (almost foglike). Oh and I use the ProMist system.

Nate
 
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I have yet to hear back from anyone at Hydor about carrying those heaters myself, despite several emails. They look like a great product, but they're not what anyone would call "responsive".
 
Ahh, I purchased mine from a reseller so I didn't have to deal with Hydor directly. Wonderful product all around over submersible heaters.
 
Howdy,

Back in 2005, I contacted the Hydor technical person and he promptly responded to my questions.

I purchased mine through Amazon. The prices vary all over the map. If anyone is looking for one, always get the 300W unit. The Hydor inline heater is not a perfect solution but it does have its benefits and I haven't yet found a better commercial solution :).
 
Vegas Chad said:
-I’m not totally sure of the common house water PSI, it varies widely! You ‘could’ hook up a misting system to a home water line, but you would still have to turn it on and off by hand or rig up some sort of solenoid to turn it off and on for you… I think that this is a bit complex for most people as opposed to a herp mist or promist type system that are more plug and play, where it’s rather hard to mess it up. If you go this way, things could go south fast, but then again it could work great!
Click to expand...

Using the basic word "Common" the house presure is usually around 50-65 PSI. Older houses may actually run a higher pressure than newer ones.

I've just recently finished hooking my misting system up to my house. I put a splitter off my hot water line going to my washing machine and ran that through the house (hidden of course!) up to my cage. I purchased a $30 electric soloniod to turn the water on and off 3 times a day for 5 minutes at a time.... the only thing is that it stopped working so I have to return that one and try another... so I'm just turning it on and off by hand and use an egg timer. Still, beats the heck out of having to stand there or have a resevour :)
 
BIGGUN said:
What about the chlorine, floride and????? in the water?

Kevin
Click to expand...

depends on your area..
I guess you can put reptisafe if you need to remove the chlorine..
or you can use your drinking water (use Brita water purifier if you have)
but I live in SoCal, so far i don't see the need to put reptisafe.
I try once, and the next day after, my cham just keep snorting salt and calcium
out of his nose. I think there is some calcium and minerals in reptisafe. So, it messes with my supplementing routine.
So I stop..
 
Smitty said:
Using the basic word "Common" the house presure is usually around 50-65 PSI. Older houses may actually run a higher pressure than newer ones.

I've just recently finished hooking my misting system up to my house. I put a splitter off my hot water line going to my washing machine and ran that through the house (hidden of course!) up to my cage. I purchased a $30 electric soloniod to turn the water on and off 3 times a day for 5 minutes at a time.... the only thing is that it stopped working so I have to return that one and try another... so I'm just turning it on and off by hand and use an egg timer. Still, beats the heck out of having to stand there or have a resevour :)
Click to expand...

Hey, this is the best way of all to automate your misting regime, although you will as previously mentioned, need a RO purifier to reduce the nasty's in your supply water and a reducer for the flow,ie I think you will find that 50-65psi is far to strong a flow for most misting heads, well the ones we use anyway. Read the specs and it usually tells you the optimum flow rate. I'm sure I have read a previous thread on here with all these specs.
Some one here will remember it! :)
Cheers
Scott...
 
Would the outlet side of an RO filter produce enough pressure to run a mister?

I have an RO filter for my Reef Tank and a homemade misting system for my Dart Frogs. I just replace the water in the bottom of my refugium once a week and recirculate the water with a waterfall and the misters.

It would be easier to put a drain under the false floor of the refugium and have the misting nozzles run right off of the RO if it would make enough pressure. That would eliminate having to change the water weekly. Right now I just turn a valve on the misting nozzle line, manually turn the timer on and let the water pump out instead of through the nozzles. Then I refill with the RO filter. close the valve and the timer does the rest for the week.

Kevin
 
Hmmmmmmm, your right BIGGUN, the pressure from the RO may be too weak!

My RO unit runs into a holding container that has a bladder inside it that you pump up, this in turn pressurizes the container and hence forces the RO water out under pressure, albeit not that much pressure.
It may still work as most nozzles don't need too much pressure to operate, BUT it would depend on the length of the tubing from origin to enclosure!

Come on everyone, i'm sure we can put our heads together on this one and come up with a mains pressure fed, free from nasty's, heated, automatic misting machine, that costs sweet FA to make! lol :cool:
Cheers
Scott.
 
I can give a tip on what solenoid to use. I tried one from a refrig water dispenser. It worked great for about 2 weeks then melted. It wasn't meant to be on for long periods of time. I then tried one from a washing machine figuring that it needed to stay on longer to fill a clothes washer. It has been working for two years. I use it to topoff my reef so it needs to run for 2 hours a day to make up for the 3 gals I evaporate. It also comes with 2 separate inlets and outlets. One for hot and one for cold so if the one you're using goes bad you can switch it and keep going.

Good luck,
Kevin
 
My only issue with misters is that the water will sit at room temp until its used. I use a cheap Dollar General spray bottle.

My cham really doesn't like cold water sprayed on him. He heads for the hills. So I try to get his water bottle in his cage out of the way so it can stay a little warmer.
 
If you're using a bucket to draw from you can put an aquarium heater in it and insulate it to make it more efficient.

Kevin
 
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