pump for waterfall

[yonark]

hi,
i am new to all this and need some advice. i am building terrariums for my gargoyles and would like water features inside their enclosures, now the best way i can explain is i have a reptile terrarium which is 180cm long x 45cm deep x 100cm high, the base will be filled with water around 12cm deep?(or whatever you recommend), then egg crate, hydro ball etc will be added on top. then it will be separated into 4 terrariums each 45cm long. so i just want a smallish water feature in each one to help keep humidity up. i thought if there was a way to have one pump branching off into the 4 instead of 4 separate pumps it would be better. and also the best way to do this.
please advise as i want their new house to be as natural as possible.
thanks
amanda

[brp4e.]

You can get one of exo-terras new repti flo pumps since they have filter media in them, then you would need some kind of splitter to split the one tube into 4 different tubes. The pump will have to be in a bucket outside the terrarium. Here's a little drawing i made in paint to give you a picture to follow.


you guys better not laugh at my drawing >.>

[beckdg]

my first thought is you'll need to divide the parts with something that will allow the water to get back to the pump from every section. plexi glass comes to mind immediately because you can cut slits in the bottom to let the water pass through.

otherwise you'd need separate pumps or another plan.

you could easily just do a drip wall in each with a manifold and some airline hose. they sell manifolds at black jungle who easily enough should be advertising just to the left of this post.

another way would be to put your water feature in one tank and circulate the air through all sections and back to the first to even out the humidity in all the sections.

if you are not sure of what i'm saying and are completely new to this idea please take a look through the stickies at the top of each section. also there are build logs and what not on the black jungle website, in my favorite link, on other sites such as dendroboard. i believe marty has a rack on the home page that should give you some ideas also.

welcome to the site in any case. enjoy.

[yonark]

hi,
each section will be separated with perspex (plexi glass) but only down to the top of the egg crate or top of filtration, which means the water will fill the whole of the bottom and won't be going into individual sections.i will go and have a look at those sites mentioned.
i think i will experiment to see what the best solution will be.
thanks for the advice

[Epiphile]

Welcome to the forum, yonark.

You'll want to ensure that your current pump is powerful enough to run to four outputs (it doesn't have to lift the water too high in your case, so you'll likely be OK), and go to the hardware store for a few T dividers to match the diameter of your tubing (being on the other side of the pond, it'd be a waste to pay the post just for a little piece of plastic). Then again, if you like the idea of the nine-outlet manifold as purveyed by our fine sponsors, you may be able to find someone perverse enough to sell irrigation equipment in the UK.

[yonark]

hi,
i managed to find someone selling those manifold things (dartfrog.co.uk), it wasn't easy though.
what size of pump would you recommend. would an Eheim Compact 600. be ok or something a bit bigger.
thanks

[Epiphile]

Maybe plan ahead and get something a bit more powerful, just in case. You wouldn't want to come up short...

[beckdg]

i believe that eheim is rated at a 4 foot plus head so that should be fine. you may even have to throttle that back with a valve on the output.

epiphile brings up a good point with the manifold being that for what it is most likely it's over priced. consider the alternatives though. t splitters create back pressure and if you split one into 4 lines and the water has to rise after ward you now have 4 times the weight to push as well as the back pressure created by the t. i prefer y splitters in most cases because the shape lends itself to a better flow rate by creating less back pressure... it's a more linear flow. now in the case that you'll have one line up to the highest point and split as the water comes back down that would help with back pressure and choking the pump.

one could make their own manifold with pvc pipe and some fittings. you would have to cap off one end of the pipe and convert the other end to a hose barb to accept your hose. after that you could add barbs for your smaller hoses or drill tight holes and cut angles into the ends of your airline hoses and shove them into the holes.

also keep in mind black jungle retails for pet owners. it's likely their prices are high in the first place and places selling irrigation equipment would be cheaper.

another thing to consider is when you split a line or reduce hose size how flow rate is considered. the manifold is made pretty much mathematically correct in that sense. when you halve the inside diameter of a hose it'll carry i believe 1/9 to 1/16 the volume with the same resistance. it's been a while since i was piping commercial buildings but i believe that's the jest of it.

that manifold should be real easy to hide, access, work with and so on if you think things through and make sure to leave access for maintenance also. rigging up a system will not only be more complicated to start with but also to maintain.

also i believe that manifold has adjusters for every output. that can be relatively important. if you were to run the same diameter hose to every water feature you would not get even flow for each output. length of hose and gravity will play big roles on that. a manifold with valves on each output address that issue without the need to pay for more equipment or search out products to keep things relatively evened out.

while i don't believe in paying mark ups for a relatively simple product i believe the manifold or a manifold is a very effective yet simple solution to a lot of problems we can create when splitting outputs on our pumps.

[Epiphile]

Good points all.

That is pretty much the going rate for 9-outlet manifolds, too, surprisingly, so don't any one feel they've been had in that case.

[beckdg]

why thank you epiphile.

and really, no mark up? i guess just having the right equipment around is the catch then. it really does suck paying shipping and gas to get everything everywhere... plus wasting time finding it. kinda like having a veggie section in the grocery mart. they lose money on them but bring in more customers so they gain in the long run. ahhh... retail. lol