Zoo Med Dripper Mod! (step by step)

Kaianuanu

New Member
Okay, so just about everyone on here has at least tried the zoo med drippers, and many complain about problems with the valve, such as the drip rate slowing drastically by the end of the day due to the lower level of water, and therefore water pressure. I experienced this during my first attempt at cham keeping 3 years ago with a "little dripper." Despite this, I still bought one one of these for a few reasons: they come with a very sturdy handle on the lid that is very secure if you want to hang it, and the valve has threaded ends that mount to the bottle using a rubber gasket and a derlin nut, whereas most diy drippers have glued in valves with barbed ends, that can easily spring a leak. I am preparing to get another cham and have been testing out this dripper for a few days. Here is an improvement that I have found to make the dripper much more effective and easy to use.

Benefits of this mod:

-More consistent drip rate throughout the day as opposed to using just the factory valve.

-Easier and more precise fine adjustment of the drip rate.

-You do not have to readjust the drip rate every time you want to turn off the drip in order to refill

-Thinner IV tube means smaller holes in the screen if you like to have the tube actually inside the enclosure.

-The IV tube is much softer and more flexible than any airline tube.

So to do it, all you need is:

-the zoo med dripper and tubing that comes with it**
-A medical IV drip

**I recommend "the Big Dripper," having a larger amount of water, even if you only use a fraction of it over the course of the day, it very beneficial because it minimizes the relative change in static pressure of the water as the water level falls, resulting in a more consistent drip. So even if your dripper only uses a small amount of water during the day, its best that you keep it filled to the top. Also, the big dripper comes with a spare valve(w/ hardware) and tube, which is nice if you want to make another using another container for a reservoir.

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You know where to get the dripper. I ordered mine with my cage from LLL for about $9 i think, my local stores sell them for like $16! And you can find the IV's at hospitals, most nurses will give you one if you ask, your vet, and pharmacy will probably have them. I got mine a year or two ago when my grandmother was ill in the hospital (she's fine now), the nurse had dropped it under her bed and forgotten about it. It was unused and sealed in the package, I'd advise against using a used one, even if it was just used for saline solution. It had been laying around my fish room unopened since then. They cost less than $2 so its no big deal.

NOTE: the IV's come with a much longer tube than shown in the pics, but mine was already shortened to the length I needed, I just made it look uncut to illustrate this step by step.


Now let's start:

Step 1: cut the drip chamber off of the IV. Its the big clear rubber thing with the white plastic spike on it. You can toss this, as I have not found any use for these.

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Step 2: See the white plastic thing, its a clever little device that allows you to fine tune the constriction of the tube, its called a "Roller Clamp" and it is much more precise for fine adjustment than the Zoo Med valve. Anyway, slide it off, flip it around, then slide it back on, so the big end is now on the side of the tube with the little clear plastic tip that the hypodermic needles screw onto. This is kind of common sense but make sure the tube is under the wheel, like how it came. I honestly don't think this step makes a difference but that's how it was meant to be oriented by design so that's how I do it.

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Step 3: The IV tubing is too small to fit over the tip on the dripper valve. So now we take the original black tube that came with the dripper, and cut off a section of about 3 or 4 inches. And slip it onto the clear plastic tip on the IV tube. If for some reason, you need a really long tube, longer than the IV comes, you can leave this tube uncut, or even use a length aquarium air line tubing, however, do not use the soft silicone airline tubing, in my case, it would not fit tight enough over the clear tip on the IV, YMMV.

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Step 4: Now, all you do is slide the other end of the black tube we just cut onto the dripper valve.

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To use: Just close off the valve, pull off the black tube, fill, replace tube, and hang. Now, you put the end of the tube wherever you want it to drip, and now fully tighten the roller valve buy rolling the wheel all the way down (towards the smaller end). Then turn the valve to the fully open position. Now slowly roll the wheel on the roller clamp upward until you achieve the desired drip rate. You might want to momentarily open up the roller clamp to get all of the air out of the tubes. Once set, you can leave the roller clamp in place, now you can shut off the drip by just closing the valve every time you have to refill it, as opposed to having to readjust the valve every time.

Tip: The handle that comes on the dripper is kind of thick, if you don't want to have a large hook in your ceiling with a gap wide enough. Just pull off the handle, and slip on a ring, I happened to have this solid brass ring laying around, a more readily available alternative would be one of those split rings you use to hold your keys.

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Another tip, the lids on these drippers have a hole in the center so it does not create a vacuum inside, stopping your drip. Sometimes, these holes can be clogged with excess plastic from the molding process, or a pet shop's price sticker might happen to obstruct it. Just check the hole and make sure its clear. If you bought a big dripper and are making another dripper with the spare valve it came with, make sure you drill, poke, or ream a similar hole in the lid of the new jar.
 
Great information shared! Thank you for taking the time to write that all down and give us the step by step. I know personally that the Little Dripper gives me nothing but pain. I shall definitely consider this project next time I have a free day on my hands!
 
Great information shared! Thank you for taking the time to write that all down and give us the step by step. I know personally that the Little Dripper gives me nothing but pain. I shall definitely consider this project next time I have a free day on my hands!

don't hold out too long for that free day, if you have the stuff, you could knock this project out and have it adjusted and dripping in less than 10 minutes (less than 5 if you've already read over the tutorial a few times and have everything you need to do in your head already) , throw on another 10 if you need a new hook in the ceiling.
 
Nice...

Just walked into my local ER with nothing but sandals, boxers and a mustard stained wife-beater on... "Yo man...you got any I.V.'s?" Make sure to scratch my arm a lot and to look around suspiciously. "Its for my chameleons bro...for the... uh color changing!"


*JK*
 
Well, I just walked OUT of my local ER (got diagnosed as having diabetes today) and the wonderful nurses let me take my IV roller drip valve with me when I was discharged. So now my Little Dripper has been modded -took all of 5 minutes to do- and it works GREAT!! Kaianuanu, Thank you for this awesome solution to my dripper issues :D
 
now that a few people have done this, let me ask ALL OF YOU who have done it..... does it keep a steady drip? I currently have a little dripper, with 1/4" tubing running to an AccuAir 2-Way Aquarium Gang Valve.... I keep the ball valve on the little dripper open all the way, and control water flow with the gang valve.

With the Little Dripper ball valve itself, I could never get a good drip. It was either too fast, or too slow. Never a medium area. And it always seemed to speed up or slow down, or even stop completely, all on its own. That's why I hooked it up to a gang valve. USING THE GANG VALVE, I can fine tune the drip a little better. Can get a nice steady drip. But I'm still having the same issue with it losing drip rate. I set it to drip every 15-20 seconds, and by the end of the day, sometimes it is dripping every 40-50 seconds, sometimes even more. I've even came home to the thing not dripping at all before.

I know that less pressure inside the container as the water drains is one of these reasons, but that's why the Little/Big Dripper units come with a hole pre-drilled into the lid right? So that SHOUDN'T be an issue. In case it is, I'ma drill a few more holes in my lid tonight.

Even so, I'm looking into a way to make it better. My gang valve seal started leaking today and instead of getting another one, I was considering the I.V. idea here. How well does it work, and does it EVER lose the drip rate at all?

As I currently stand, I turn off the ball valve to my little dripper every night and turn it back on all the way in the morning. Then I fine tune it a bit with the gang valve, which as I stated before, tends to lose drip rate by the end of most days. So this IV idea sounds neat.... but I need something where I can set the drip rate and leave it, never having to fine tune it every day (once a week or once a month would be okay, but this re-tuning it every day crap is getting old)

I also thought about something like a precision needle valve, but a needle valve is basically what the AccuAir Aquarium 2-Way Gang Valve runs on.

this is what my Little Dripper is currently connected to : http://www.amazon.com/JW-Pet-Compan...d=1452784549&sr=8-2&keywords=2+way+gang+valve ---- and then the 1/4" tubing runs from that, down into my cage.

would this work better: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vertex-precision-needle-valve.html

??? they sell them with barbed end fittings too. I just like the push-to-connect style better.

It is a PRECISION needle valve. Which like stated before, is the same concept a gang valve runs on isn't it? (a gang valve is a "gang" of two or more needle valves basically, right?) I don't know if it would work, but it definitely looks of higher quality than the cheap plastic AccuAir I'm currently using. The Precision needle valve (lots of different places that sell this one) is made out of PVC.

I need ideas here peeps. Help me out please? I need a way to make a steady drip and not have to always re-adjust it. That gets old. And it always worries me when I leave the house that my dripper might stop and my lil dude will want water that is no longer dripping. I have a mister, but he typically drinks from the dripper 90% of the time instead of licking off the leaves.

Please help. Any input would be great. Sorry to wake up an old thread but this is really beginning to bug me sometimes. I need something to change it and make it better.
 
Well, if you do have a mister and your dripper does happen to stop, your cham still has a source of water droplets in a pinch. I think, given that he is already "aware" of the mister water he may stoop to drinking after it mists instead.

About those Little and Big Drippers...I've used them both and hated them. It drove me nuts to keep fussing with the drip rate and various leaks. Yes, pressure from a fuller reservoir affects the drip rate but I think temperature does too. I also wonder if layers of particulates in the water eventually build up in the valves and tubing and affect how well they work. I have used one or two aquarium gang valve assemblies with more success but didn't experiment that much. However, the IV setups were much more reliable for a longer time. I bought my first one in the days before herp supply drippers were even thought of and kept going back to them when I lost patience with the drippers. As they are made up from touted "medical supplies" the materials and manufacturing controls are probably a lot more precise, meaning things fit and function better.
 
Just did the mod today, already can see an improvement. I bought an IV off Amazon and the one I got came with a dial that lets me adjust the rate if the droplets. And it actually works!

Setup took under 5 min.

I.V. Administration Set with GVS Easydrop Flow Rregulator,
 
Oh wow, this is brilliant. I don't have a dripper at all, but I took it one step further and used the entire IV system. I took an empty bag of IV fluid, rinsed it out and cut a slit near the top of the bag, into which I poured distilled water. Plugged in the IV tubing, stuck the dripping end into the top of the screen, adjusted the clamp to the drip rate I liked, hung the bag, and and its awesome. Norman is ever so much more into this drip than he is his mister. I think this is the answer to our hydration concerns for sure! I will need to get a smaller IV bag in the future, but I had the liter size on hand (medical folks in the family). It's too long for the space inside the cabinet, so as soon as I can I'll replace with a 100ml size bag. I'm so excited about this! Thanks for the fantastic idea!
 
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