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Post by vraev on Apr 3, 2007 21:17:45 GMT -5
now thats insane. now that will be real useful. Okay so this si how I can make a water setup for the terrarium.....can u reroute the water pipe tp 3 different ones so that u can water 3 setups at once??
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Post by vraev on Apr 3, 2007 21:20:12 GMT -5
why are you using a secondary reservoir...why don't you have the pump directly in a 19l single reservoir??
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Post by funkytechnician on Apr 4, 2007 5:19:55 GMT -5
now I'll try to explain some more before I go to work The pump simply plugs into the wall to turn it on....so thats where your timer comes into play, a digital timer can cycle down to 1 min cycles, so if you set your timer to start at say 7:00, and then set to turn off again at 7:01, then the sprinkler sprays for 1 minute, and you do that however many times a day or week you want it to water your plants, (one minute is the least amount of spray time that you can get with this setup). Now, there are two different setups you can use, one has the tube comming from the pump, to the rain rail, and endes in a plug at the end of the rain rail (pictures after work ;D) this setup creates the most pressure in the rain rail and produces a higher pressure spray out of the holes in the rain rail, this setup is ideal for one rail, if you want to run more rails, instead of pluging the end of the rain rail, attach a tube where the stopper goes and run it back to the resivoir, the will creat an open loop system that returns the un-sprayed water that doesn't get sprayed out the rail, back to the resivoir. This setup creates a lower pressure system (the rail will drip rapidly rather than spray under pressure) but you can run more than one rail because your trading pressure for flow, I hope this makes sense to everyone Oh ya, and the reason I used a smaller resivoir linked to the main tank is because for mine, installing the small pump at the bottom of the primary resivoir whould have been very difficult and would have required me to cut it open and then try to re-assemble it all again without leaking PS rememeber not to place the rail to much higher than the pump, or you will use up all the pumps power pushing the water up the tube, I'll explain more later, I have to go to work now
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Post by funkytechnician on Apr 4, 2007 16:42:07 GMT -5
hears a picture of the rails I have, you can see the red stopper in the end of the rail, I used white plastic tubes I bought at a local hobby store for the rain rails, but I suppose you could use straws, and I drilled holes with a hair sized drill bit and finger drill (that took some Patience) but I suppose you could heat up a pin and push the tip through, the holes would be fatter, so you just make less of them hears picture of the small reservoir next to the main tank, as you can see, I also have a fountain pump in this tank, but its much larger and is for another watering system that maintains the terrarium's water level you can see where the top of the terrarium is in this picture, and that little pump is able to lift the water this high to reach the rain rails(about 24")
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Post by Flytrap on Apr 4, 2007 17:42:48 GMT -5
Hey Funkytechnician - Thanks for sharing your clever ideas! It's always great to see bright minds at work. Your display was impressive enough, and now, your "life support" systems really make it incredible. Great work. I can see you have a lot of fun putting all of this together.
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Post by vraev on Apr 4, 2007 22:52:28 GMT -5
thanks for the explaination funkytech.....I will try designing a system for myself this summer based on this. I will make some plans after my exams are over and if you have some time to spare we can discuss the possibilities. One thing is for sure...I am planning to keep the reservoir and the pump at near the level of the rail as I want enough pressure such that instead of plugging in the other end, I can run another pipe out of the terrarium and make a similar rail on top of the nepenthes section.....or maybe...Its just easier to run a single pipe directly into the top of the soil mix of the nepenthes which atleast ensures that the plant gets water to its roots if not maybe a little skimp on the misting. However, humidity shouldn't be an issue once I get the mini greenhouse like setup which vincent has. Then I can just put basically a foil all the way down on the floor and put the rain system on top so the water can drip down but will still evaporate in the container keeping the relative humidity high.
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Post by funkytechnician on Apr 6, 2007 9:59:44 GMT -5
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Post by vraev on Apr 6, 2007 10:14:16 GMT -5
nice pics dude. If I am able to replicate atleast 10% of the automation in your tank....I'll be happy
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Post by mabudon on Apr 6, 2007 10:14:35 GMT -5
Okay, those pics are maybe the coolest yet man, you have a SWEET thing set up there...
Question- WHAT is making that effect in the 4th pic- it looks like a splash, but I can't tell for sure, either way them last few shots are COOOOL- thanks for posting these (and all the others, natch)
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