homemade humidifier

My idea well my version of someone elses idea lol.
Materials
500ml wide mouth pyrex bottle
Medical tube
fish tank air pump and proper fittings

Run tube from pump to bottle have the end of this tube
at bottom of bottle.. run another tube from top if the bottle to a T fitting run 2 tubes from the T too your tank one in each side .. fill bottle with water and bingo.. would this work or is it just a fail idea

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Originally Posted by strikerball21

My idea well my version of someone elses idea lol.
Materials
500ml wide mouth pyrex bottle
Medical tube
fish tank air pump and proper fittings

Run tube from pump to bottle have the end of this tube
at bottom of bottle.. run another tube from top if the bottle to a T fitting run 2 tubes from the T too your tank one in each side .. fill bottle with water and bingo.. would this work or is it just a fail idea

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It works to an extent.. I made a how-to vid of this recently. My enclosure is rather large, and it doesn't pump a ton of air through the tubes. It does generally keep the humidity levels above 50% @ about 82-84F..

Here is the video if you are curious. I would suggest using different tubing than I did, as the tubing from wal-mart blows pretty hardcore. Other than that, it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Cgx4x0F_g

I have access to very nice tube :)and thank you for the vid

I was thinking of using di water think that's a good idea

I actually just made one of these, it works pretty good but a humidifier would better and more convenient. It raised the humidity by 20% and is sustaining it well.it seems to work better with warm water inside the bottle surrounded with ice.

Wouldn't a humidifier raise humidity too much?

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Originally Posted by strikerball21

Wouldn't a humidifier raise humidity too much?

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put it on a timer? never used one so i wouldnt know.

When I used a tank instead of tubs/racks, I used a homemade humidifier like that one. It worked quite well for keeping the humidity up without having to use a huge water bowl or covering the screen. One word of caution: Cover the bottle so that the water isn't exposed to light and change the water often to control algae/bacteria growth.

Hmm for same price u cab just get a even warm mist humidifier what to do what to so

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Originally Posted by strikerball21

Hmm for same price u cab just get a even warm mist humidifier what to do what to so

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im sure most of us who made this had the materials laying around, not bad for free since it maintains humidity in the 50%.

How long do u have it running? If I just get a humidifier should I get a norm ir warm mist one

@ strikerball your welcome. I'm sure Distilled water would probably work well. It doesn't use a ton of water. I had about a liter to it a week ( it's a 1 gallon jug).

I leave it running 100% of the time.. I do keep a close eye on it though.. With it running day and night, with no misting, It peaked at 60% and bottomed at 45%. It does work better the more water and less air that is in the container. It will work better with the warm water mentioned before.

It's not like a regular humidifier. You will see no fog or mist coming out of the tubes. You barely feel any air. It took it about 4-6 hours to bring the humidity up from about 30% ( just had the front off the terrarium for a little while during set-up) to where it currently sits.

I imagine it works really well in a much smaller enclosure or across a few tubs.

hmm what size pump did you use? could u wrap heat tape put a tank heater on the bottle?

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Originally Posted by strikerball21

hmm what size pump did you use? could u wrap heat tape put a tank heater on the bottle?

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I just bought a pump made for a 20-60 Gallon.. It was only like 11 bucks at walmart..

I'm sure you could use a heat pad or something like that.

My enclosure was once a TV amoire that I converted over, so it's rather large. I just put it in a corner and set up a little 'corner room' behind it. I was having some issues with heat once it started cooling down outside, so I put a UV heat lamp outside of the back of the cage, and closed the area off in the corner so the heat didn't escape. This heated up the back wall of the enclosure and raised my ambient temps. So decided to put the pump and water back there so it was a bit warmer also. Seems to help =)

Why does warm water work.better

I think it has something to do with the molecules of warm air being less dense compared to cooler air. Therefore it can 'hold' more water vapor. I know that the humidity tends to drop in the colder months here and rises during the summer months. I am not sure on exact reasons though to be honest. Don't hold me to any of that..haha.. If your really interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humidity

I'm sure there is more on that page about humidity than you care to know haha..