A cheap DIY rain system

[zaroba]

made a rain system in my viv a few days ago. its simple and it works well. better then expected actually.



all it is is a simple pond pump pushing water threw two garden sprinklers attached to the top of the tank. thought i'd need a large pump but the single 12ft head 250GPM pond pump i have already has no trouble pushing water to both. also didn't even have to adjust the valves to direct the water to the the further sprinkler. despite how it looks in the above pic, the water actually covers nearly all the plants and landscape due to it splashing off the taller plants and logs.




approximate costs:
2x round garden sprinklers - less then 5 bucks
15ft section of hose (for this viv anyway) - less then 10 bucks
splitter and hose ends so it could be screwed together - less then 10 bucks
250gpm 12ft head pump - think it was around 25 dollars (a smaller rain system would need a much smaller pump though)

having it all work perfectly fine without a single issue or other problem the first time you set it up and turn it on....erm...unexpected :P

[Green Ghost]

score!

[Layna]

Looks cool. Now is it automatic or do you control is manually?

[zaroba]

its not automatic until i buy a 2nd pump and maybe put it on a timer :P

[Layna]

Ah ok I see. I don't know, maybe it's not the "mist" I am seeing instead, falling water. It seems like you maybe overwatering. Has this issue come up?

[zaroba]

lol...what makes you think its being over watered?

the tank has a false bottom that drains into a 40gal reservoir underneath and theres nothing else putting water into the soil (is no misting system). besides that, i mainly put in the rain system for looks and to wet down the plants once in a while. if ever make it automatic, it'd only run a few seconds every day to stop mold from building up in the sprinklers. it seems that if its left off for a few days, a strong mildew smell will come out of it when its turned on.

[Layna]

Originally Posted by zaroba

lol...what makes you think its being over watered?

the tank has a false bottom that drains into a 40gal reservoir underneath and theres nothing else putting water into the soil (is no misting system). besides that, i mainly put in the rain system for looks and to wet down the plants once in a while. if ever make it automatic, it'd only run a few seconds every day to stop mold from building up in the sprinklers. it seems that if its left off for a few days, a strong mildew smell will come out of it when its turned on.

"Being Over Watered" I guess it's just the fact that I am used to seeing misting systems rather than a "watering can" effect. Thinking about it more, I doubt you are over watering, but it just seems that way with all of that water in the picture.

It's a great sytem by the way. Is there anyway you can make a step by step tutorial on how you made it?

[Rainfrog]

Im sure you have put it up before but What size is that Viv and what do you have in it? it looks impressive.

[zaroba]

is about 6ft long by 2ft deep by almost 4ft tall. roughly 360 gallons.

theres actually, nothing in it yet :P
hope to get some leucs for it eventually.

[Red Eye]

Very Cool!