Dripper + Drainage questions?

[Fretfreak13]

I can see where this wouldn't work, but if it could, this would be amazing.

Is it possible (and safe) to have a continuous dripper that works from the drainage? Basically the bottom of the cage will be used as a reservoir for the drip system, but will have a few layers of filter material in between to catch dirt/feces so it doesn't get into the water. Eggcrate will be installed to hold up the filter, which will then be covered with some paper towels for easy waste removal.

The only problem I could see with this is that when the mister goes off and if there's poo at the bottom, it would rinse some bacteria into the water no matter how much I filter it with pads and stuff. I'm always coming up with whacky ideas like this. Can someone think of a way around it?

Here's a side view of a cage that would be set up like this.

 

[Kaianuanu]

Its not a good idea to reuse water that you plan on having your cham drink. You can get run off from the plants, not to mention feces and dead feeders. You should see how brown and nasty the water collected in my drainage system is. Not safe for your cham to drink at all. And as for the the filter in the bottom of the cage, that will hold water and become a breeding ground for bacteria, which is also very dangerous to have around a cham. So for the bottom of your cage, try to find inspiration from your shower. The only way I could see a reclaim watering system like that working would be is you had a little still distilling the dirty water (i know, ridiculous). you would also lose a lot of water doing this so you'd be refilling the system just as much as if you had a normal dripper.

 

[Fretfreak13]

Thats what I figured, but my brain goes nuts with this kind of stuff. Thanks for confirming my fears about it!

I still would love to see aqua lifters be used a bit more in the cham world though! They're a very inexpensive pump that can move both water and air (can run dry) and rather than having a cup sit on top of the enclosure, having a reservoir behind the cage out of site would make for a clean-er looking set up! Attaching a little aquarium air valve at the end would allow for control on how fast the drip is.

lol can you tell I'm excited to set up my enclosure?

 

[Kaianuanu]

Thats what I figured, but my brain goes nuts with this kind of stuff. Thanks for confirming my fears about it!

I still would love to see aqua lifters be used a bit more in the cham world though! They're a very inexpensive pump that can move both water and air (can run dry) and rather than having a cup sit on top of the enclosure, having a reservoir behind the cage out of site would make for a clean-er looking set up! Attaching a little aquarium air valve at the end would allow for control on how fast the drip is.

lol can you tell I'm excited to set up my enclosure?

You sound like a tinkerer like me. I know exactly what you mean about your brain going nuts. For practical purposes, you are over-thinking things. But for the sake of the idea, you've really got my gears turning on the still idea now, I'm thinking just maybe, it would be possible to heat up that drained water with an aquarium heater, then seal the top of that container that holds the dirty water, run a tube from the top of that container to a coiled copper tube in an adjacent bucket of water. with an aquarium chiller cooling the water in the bucket, and then have a tube at the other end of the copper coil going to the aqualifter pumping it back into the cage.

Not practical at all but possibly possible

 

[Kaianuanu]

rather than having a cup sit on top of the enclosure, having a reservoir behind the cage out of site would make for a clean-er looking set up! Attaching a little aquarium air valve at the end would allow for control on how fast the drip is.

This idea could certainly work assuming you mean with a reservoir of clean water. The only downside i can think of is if the pump is noisy. However this would be really cool because you could have a reservoir of say 5 gallons or more so you have to refill less often and then, you could run in on a timer with your lights so it automatically turns off at night.

 

[Fretfreak13]

I use an aqualifter now for water changes on my nano saltwater tanks. The pump is pretty quiet unless its sucking air, which in this case it would be a sort of alarm to refill your reservoir. However, it wouldn't be bad for the pump to run dry.

Haha, the chiller and coiled wire idea is nuts. I have a seahorse tank that needs a chiller, and I run a micro that was $120 and can only chill the water about 6 degrees from room temp. The bigger chillers are easily over $300. lol

 

[GabeCastro]

Cool idea...Reminds me of bear grills when he filters his water with dirt, mud, and his jacket lol.

Only problem with what you're doing is, bacteria may be vulnerable to grow in-between the layers.

Maybe if you had a fishtank filter running on the bottom it could work well.

I wanted to put a fishtank pump in my drainage so i don't have to pull the tray out to empty the water. BUt it would be cool if it was filtered and re-used for my dripper because I hate refilling that aswell haha. So great idea! Hopefully you can figure out how to do it safely. I think the fishtank filter may work.

 

[Kaianuanu]

I use an aqualifter now for water changes on my nano saltwater tanks. The pump is pretty quiet unless its sucking air, which in this case it would be a sort of alarm to refill your reservoir. However, it wouldn't be bad for the pump to run dry.

Haha, the chiller and coiled wire idea is nuts. I have a seahorse tank that needs a chiller, and I run a micro that was $120 and can only chill the water about 6 degrees from room temp. The bigger chillers are easily over $300. lol

Oh I know how pricey those chillers can be. I too used to be an avid aquarist, at one time I had 3 55 gallon tanks and like 3 other smaller tanks. Like a year ago I built a whole DIY nano reef setup, it was a 6 gallon cube tank I built out of glass from broken 10 gallon tanks I found on the side of the road. I built a PC fixture to fit it and had a DIY turf scrubber on it with a pipe overflow. I also had a mini HOB filter that had mangroves growing out of it. Between the mangroves and the turf scrubber, i could put a relatively huge bio load on it and it always had ZERO nitrates. I barely did any water changes over the year and a half I had it running, just top it off with distilled. And the corals I had did great. Those included a bunch of zoas, a few LPS, and a couple small anemones I collected, I also had a little perc clown, a cool little WC goby, and a couple crabs among other things. It was an awesome little setup, and other than the live rock and livestock, it was super cheap. I ended up just selling it for a couple hundred bucks.

 

[pepezkakap]

Hi,

Just want to share my thought. Well, for the sake of complexity and science it would be cool to have what you said. I have always imagining a self sustaining ecosystem for my panther to free roam. But again it's almost imposible.

To comment your thought, that will be too much time and cost spent. It will be much practical and economical to just refill the water. The most important thing is that you will know that your cham drinks from the known reliable source of clean and healthy water

 

[RoskaL]

I had set up a top tank with a level switch so when the level dropped to low the tank would pump water from a big tank on the floor back to the top to refill itself and I'd use a big tank to collect the waste water. It was a easy way to have a dripper going g without the weight on top of the tank and one I didn't have to fill continuously