# Aquarium/Vivarium/Terrarium Air Humidifier, smoke on the water..



## zozo (24 Jul 2015)

I guess we all who like me are into open top aquariums or open top paludariums what ever. May have noticed that not all plants do equaly well when placed emersed. Some are harder some are more sensitive to air humidity. Now i came to think how can we get around that there must be a way to make those plants feel happy as wel without having to take the spray botlle 10 times a day. 

now i found those little $ 5,- usb mist makers and thought that might do what im thinking of. So i bought me one, they come in all shapes and sizes floating models pen models to put in a glass of water and humidify your room.

No to see how it works, it's fun and a laugh for i short while to have a floating duckling in your tank blowing steam out of his head.





It works, the kids love it, but rather looks silly after a while.




So it thought lets do some dissection on ducky to see how it actualy works and what to make of it. 



And it turned out to be a real Eureka!! they are so simple straight foreward and perfect for the job.

I only took of the head off and the water vaporising module is nothing more than a 21mm coin shape membrane.
Unfortunately i forgot to take pictures of that before i glewed it into a 1/2 inch plastic socket, but the pictures speak for them self i guess.

How does it work? Very simple actualy, it's nothing more than a high frequent ultrasonic permeable membrane. A 10mm cotton tampon is used as a filter and water (sucker) supplier. if you hold the wet tampon against the membrane the high frequaent vibration sucks out the water from the tampon and blows it as a very fine watermist out of the other side. There is nothing more to it. Did cut the cables soldered a new lenght to it and that's it.




So glewed the coin shape membrane in a 1/2 inch socket with some silicone kit. And at the other end i used a 1/2 inch hose connector as inlet and to keep the tampon in place against the underside of the mambrane.




Screwd it togheter and did put a suckercup from an old heater on it.




Did put a very small piece of extra filtersponsh in the hose connector to give some more support to the tampon and pushes it up a bit and keeps contact with the membrane.

Now i got a tiny 2 ich long humidifier which i can easily put away in a corner on the side of the tank.
Now the thing is designed to work with Usb power which is 5 volts, i'm using a old 5 volt phone charger with an USB socket which works as good. I measured the output voltage to the membrane which is 1,5 volts. So i guess in the body of the duckling is a voltage regulator to get the voltage down from 5 to 1,5 volts. Actualy i don't care whats in there so i didn't look, kept in intact and just soldered the cables to it.

Now pictures don't say much to see it work so i made a few video's of it. Then you'll see what it does and what i mean.

This is in the aqaurium.. It gives a rather nice mistyque appearance even better when the room is dark and the lights are low.


I did build this myself for my new nano paludarium and it does exactly what my intention was. Keep my paludarium open top and somewhat moist. Putting it on a timer and your good to go.. 
And pleace bear with me, this is all just testing. Quality sucks for now, see it as a sneak peek. I'm doing it all in my hobby room which alway looks kinda messy, instead of my living room. always trying all sorts of new things and ideas.. So what you see are just idea's which aren't fully finnished and yet not ready for living room eye catchers, but yet only practicaly working. And didn't spend more than $ 5 on it..  lol... Oh! And it uses only soem milliliters an hour..


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## Vinkenoog1977 (24 Jul 2015)

Great idea, might steal it.


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## zozo (24 Jul 2015)

Be my guest..  That's why i'm sharing... Don't forget to post and share the results..


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## Vinkenoog1977 (24 Jul 2015)

Found some donut shaped floating ones, look pretty inconspicuous, so I'll put an order in for two, for both of my open tops with emersed growth, bit more expensive at ~ 10 Euros, but well worth it if I can finally ditch the spray bottle routine!


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## zozo (24 Jul 2015)

Yes i've seen those donuts, they would do a great job.. I was thinking of ordering me a white one and glew some hygrolon to it. Let grow moss on it as a disguise.


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## zozo (24 Jul 2015)

Look here..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191581485994?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390990095129?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Now i can fix ducky again. My brothers son called me a murderer...


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