DIY Mister

[WolframOmega]

Hi all,
I had an idea to cool my terrarium: if I had a mister spray water into my tank, and a fan blew into it, the evaporating water would presumably lower temps and raise humidity. Does anyone have any good ideas for a cheap DIY mister? Thanks.
WolframOmega

 

[Stranger]

How cheap are we talking about? Bearing in mind that if you just have a mister running all the time then you'll probably end up with a flooded terrarium, if your tap water is suitable then a garden timer connected to a sprinkler nozzle from a gardening store might work. Also bear in mind that you'll need some way to extract the humid air from the terrarium, otherwise it'll still heat up once you hit 100% RH.

I personally run misters and intake/exhaust fans controlled by an Arduino reading the conditions from a temp/humidity sensor, and while it's cheaper than a comparable commercial rig it still cost me a reasonable amount, excluding the stuff like an R/O bladder tank and power for the whole thing.

 

[katya_dog1]

Just letting you know, swamp coolers (basically the principle you're using here) only work if the air outside is dry. If you have your terrarium someplace where humidity is above 20 %, effectiveness will be reduced. I've researched long and hard into cooling grow chambers/terrariums, and honestly the best, easiest thing I see myself doing is getting an AC unit.

I guess what I'm saying here is that and AC unit will likely be an investment at first, but it DRASTICALLY increases the amount of nice plants you can grow. I imagine it would pay for itself in a couple of years.

My $0.02.

 

[katya_dog1]

But, for a mister, the easiest thing to do would be to get a small water pump from wherever, and get some tubing and misting nozzles. All these are available at either a Hydroponics shop or online. If you shop around, you could build the misting system for around $30. Remember to get a pressure rated pump, for fountains and such. You also want to make sure that wherever you reservoir is, the pump has enough head (vertical pumping height) to reach your terrarium.

And buy different micron size misting nozzles. You may find you want more of a fog, rather than mist, so getting a few different sizes to try would be a good idea.

 

[Eric]

Even easier than a mister would be an ultrasonic humidifier. You wouldn't have to worry about misting nozzles, and the fog is relatively cool. You can build your own system with a reservoir fairly easily, and they're not too expensive. That coupled with a small fan would probably do just fine.

 

[SubRosa]

For ultimate low cost and simplicity, I have an ultrasonic unit sitting on top of a T5 aquarium fixture on an open top tank. An unused trap part from a drain repair kit happened to fit nicely on the unit after I removed the factory regulator crap. It directs the fog straight down into the tank.

 

[charlie]

That is exactly my setup SubRosa

 

[Flip_Side_the_Pint]

Are you wanting the mister for cooling? or just to mist the plants? If you want it just for misting the terrarium "cheap" is relative. You can come up with a DIY solution but if you're wanting a true mist you're going to need to come up with a pressure solution. An alternative would be to just save up for bit and buy maybe something like the EXO-Terra monsoon RS-400. You can find them online for less then 100 dollars.

If you're wanting the mister for cooling, like stated above evaporative cooling is only going to be effective with drier air. The best solution is always going to be an A/C unit coupled with a means of humidification. they make great small compact hang on a/c units now for less then 200 dollars. Something like the Frigidaire 5,000-BTU Mini Window a/c unit it and its only 12"x16"x13" . Depending on your set up it could be hung on the side of the chamber. You just have to make sure the the cooled air outlet is walled off or sealed off from the back of the units hot air outlet...

 

[naoki]

But, for a mister, the easiest thing to do would be to get a small water pump from wherever, and get some tubing and misting nozzles. All these are available at either a Hydroponics shop or online. If you shop around, you could build the misting system for around $30. Remember to get a pressure rated pump, for fountains and such. You also want to make sure that wherever you reservoir is, the pump has enough head (vertical pumping height) to reach your terrarium.

And buy different micron size misting nozzles. You may find you want more of a fog, rather than mist, so getting a few different sizes to try would be a good idea.

Katya, do you have an example of a pump & misting head combination? Most pumps can't seem to create enough pressure for the typical misting head, but I don't know which low-pressure head works with the cheap pumps. I use MistKing, which works very well, but it is pricey. So I'd love to know a cheaper alternative.