Light timer & Air Pump Questions - Orchid Board

Becca · #1 08-03-2007, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsfrid

Let me see if I understand the problem/situation...

As I understand it, the bubbler should run for the day cycle (12-14 hours summer, less in winter) same as lights. So you want the bubbler on while the lights are on. Do I understand you? Are you able to do this? A simple Radio Shack timer will do this.

The air stones need to be "off" at night to lower humidity a bit. Yes, you need them covered with water - I suggest RO or distilled water. If there's some way to run a fan (even manually) at night - or better yet, 24/7, that would be great. There are lots of cheap 12 volt 3 1/2" fans out there like Coralife 3-1/8" Cooling Fan Kit

My setup is a bit different from what you describe in that the misting system runs during "daylight" hours only, as do the lights. The inside fan, however runs 24/7 to keep fungus at bay at night. A "bubbler" should work just fine to keep up the humidity.

Ross, I have a timer for the bubbler (pump & aeration stones?), I just didn't understand why it couldn't run 24/7. If I don't use the fogger in the morning (which it is a piece of $%$##) then the humidity will stay around 70%. Is 70% to high for the nighttime hours?

The aeration stones are not completely covered in water...the tray/liner that was provided is not deep enough for this....nor it that tray deep enough for the fogger so I have to set the fogger in a container....and the fogger spits water everywhere...it is a mess! But the fogger helps with raising the humidity to 80-95 percent humidity. If I try to cover the aeration stones completely then the water would go over the liner and leak into the bottom of the cage and sit between the bottom and the liner.

As far as the fans...I have two mounted on a piece of acrylic that divides the fans and the lights (this was the design of the orchidarium) and both fans run 24/7.

I still have yet to figure out the timer for the lights (which the aeration pump is to plug into as well)....I have tried it with several different settings and still no luck!

Ross · #2 08-03-2007, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPfeiffer

Ross, I have a timer for the bubbler (pump & aeration stones?), I just didn't understand why it couldn't run 24/7. If I don't use the fogger in the morning (which it is a piece of $%$##) then the humidity will stay around 70%. Is 70% to high for the nighttime hours?

The aeration stones are not completely covered in water...the tray/liner that was provided is not deep enough for this....nor it that tray deep enough for the fogger so I have to set the fogger in a container....and the fogger spits water everywhere...it is a mess! But the fogger helps with raising the humidity to 80-95 percent humidity. If I try to cover the aeration stones completely then the water would go over the liner and leak into the bottom of the cage and sit between the bottom and the liner.

As far as the fans...I have two mounted on a piece of acrylic that divides the fans and the lights (this was the design of the orchidarium) and both fans run 24/7.

I still have yet to figure out the timer for the lights (which the aeration pump is to plug into as well)....I have tried it with several different settings and still no luck!

Sorry to hear about the mister. You may not need it all. Why not get an appliance timer from Home Depot? The kind with the little green and red pins on the front. Plug it in, set the dial to current time (the dark gray half means night and the white half is day). Run an extension cord which has multiple pluggins from the single pluggin on the timer. Then plug in both the aeration stones pump and the lights. Now they will run for the length of time you set. This is how I run mine and I have a MistKing system, 4 t5 48" bulbs and a cooling fan on the lights all running from this timer. The MistKing is actually using an interval timer that is plugged into this same appliance timer.

Try running without the "mister". 70% is high enough except for real wet growers. Everything from Phals to Cats to Phrags to Paphs all will love 70%. Let the bubler go off with the lights so this dry out a bit at night. Humidity should still stay over 50-60% because it will be dark. The lights warm things up and cause humidity to drop, thus the bubbler. 70% at night is fine as long as fans run.

Why not pull the pan you were provided and get Tupperware ice cream container. This way you can hold a gallon or so water (use distilled or RO) for the bubblers. They are primarily a way to evaporate lots of water into the tank. Let us know how it works. It still sounds like a great orchidarium that just needs a little help.