A Free Range Habitat for Meller's and other Large Chameleons

Step 10 Misting system: overview

OK gang. Here we go, this section describes the basic anatomy of our Chameleon misting system.

This is an extremely Ying/Yang duality, in that the theory is simple as can be, yet execution can be extremely complicated.

This is because it's water. Water is one of the critical elements of all life, it boasts a unique set of chemical properties to do what it does, yet for all it's importance, it is extremely annoying when it gets somewhere you don't want it. Water damages most of the things that houses are typically made of, and here we are building a system to make it rain in your house.

Your chameleons need water, which is why you're building all of this. Mold also thrives on water, which is why you're trying to keep it from seeping into your carpet and walls. It's a careful balance to strike.

The mechanics of a reptile misting system are straightforward: there are essentially three parts:

1: A source of water.
2: A valve to control the water flow.
3: Misting nozzles.

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IN REALITY:

1: Source of water. It can be a hand-carried pump sprayer, a reservoir with an electric pump or the plumbing in your house, but that water's gotta come from somewhere. I think tapping off your house plumbing is the best and most reliable source of water, assuming you pay your water bill on time. You'll never have to fill it up, and there are no pumps to run dry. There are no tanks to clean or store or take up space.

But then again.....

• City water has a bunch of chemicals in it- you need to do your own homework to make sure your water is SAFE for your reptiles. Some reptiles are sensitive to chlorinated and flouridated water and "hard" water will eventually calcify (read: clog) your misting nozzles, leading to annoying maintenance. On the other hand "soft" water may have too much sodium for your chammys.
• You'd better be sharp on your plumbing skills before screwing around with something like this. You're risking flooding your house. We've been there and done that, and we can tell you: it sucks. On two occasions with our first experimental design, we had so much water leak on the bedroom floor, through the floor and into our 1st floor light fixture, we could have raised goldfish in it. And that's just the water that the light fixture RETAINED. It sucked.

2: Garden timers. Garden timers are real handy for watering your garden as well as your reptiles...until you try to adapt garden hose thread to something usable indoors. Take a good hard look at the photo- the industry didn't make it exactly easy to adapt to the stuff your house uses. Garden hose fittings aren't as leak-safe as indoor plumbing items...they were meant to be used outside!

• Here's the breakdown of adapters I used: coming out of the top: A male/male Garden Hose adapter connects to a Garden Hose/1/2" NPTF adapter which is screwed to a 1/2" NPTF/press-fit 3/8" ice maker line adapter. The 3/8" ice maker line goes over the attic and into a bathroom faucet supply line. On the bottom side of the garden timer, it's the same, you can omit the male/male GH fitting. This is the SIMPLEST method I could figure it out.
• Garden timers are battery powered. We found the batteries last a very long time- over a year. Eventually they will die however, and there's a 50/50 chance that their last operation will close the valve.....or open it. Again, we've been there and done that. We've beefed up our drainage system so it can handle an all-day rain without backing up, but we don't dare go on vacation without changing the batteries.

3: Misting nozzles and tubing. The best place to get them is greenhouse supply places. There's a nifty place in Maryland called Ecologic Technologies but I have to admit their turnaround time on orders is just about glacial. Do a search for "misting nozzle" at your local search engine and shop it out. We like the "red nozzles", which sprays a nice wide 115 degree pattern and don't use too much water.

• Misting nozzles are a pain in the neck with hard water. Every six months or so you should count on pulling all the nozzles and soaking them in vinegar overnight. When a nozzle clogs, sometimes it will shoot a stream of water at a very odd angle- straight at a wall, out into the hall, or, gulp, right into the middle of your bedroom floor.
• Actually, those nozzles burn a lot of water- in our house we have 12 nozzles, and at 5 waterings a day, it's like having a teenager who showers 4x per day! We're on city water and the cost adds up. To compensate, I added a pressure regulator to the line with drops our house pressure to 21psi- which cut the free range water consumption by more than half, yet the nozzles still mist nicely.
• If you use chlorinated city water for your misting system, the nozzles and tubes will likely remain sanitary and low-maintenance. Much or our tubing runs right under the UV lights and we've never had a speck of algae or anything. If you use untreated water or a storage tank and an electric pump, you're going to want to "blow the lines" with highly chlorinated water every six months to kill bacterial buildup. This is REALLY important with chameleons, which are highly susceptible to infection of all kinds.

4: Yeah, I know I said there were only three concerns. In reality there's a Four. Get a Floodstop device- it will cut off the water of there's a leak. After multiple nightmares with bad leaks, we laced our free range room with sensors all over the place. As soon as water hits the floor, the source is cut off until I can get in there and troubleshoot what went wrong.

• The floodstop is composed of three parts: a solenoid valve, a console, and a sensor. We installed the valve right at the sink supply line so the only unprotected point of failure is the supply line itself. The solenoid is powered by the console via a short wire...normally.
• The console is installed in the chameleon room. It houses the brain of the floodstop as well as all the controls. It has outputs for home automation system such as X10, so theoretically your home computer could call or email you in the event of a leak.
• The sensors are simple resistive circuit boards that can be expanded (greatly! I've got 12 hooked up to one console!) by wiring them in series. In addition to all the sensors on the bedroom floor, I insisted on having a sensor in the sink cabinet as well. I had to be a little creative with the wiring. I already separated the console and the solenoid by splicing in nearly 20 feet of wiring, but now I had to send and return the sensor signals too. 6 conductor Thermostat wire proved perfect for this. Label the conductors appropriately: Power +, Power -, Send +, Send -, Return +, Return -. It doesn't matter what colors you use, of course. Just that you line them up right.
• The Floodstop was the best $90 I spent on this project. The sensors can detect slight dampness in the carpet and immediately shut the valve. It takes a minute for the pressure in the whole system to decline, but serious damage will likely be avoided.
• Floodstops are available for most plumbing fittings in your home. They were designed for washing machines, ice makers, hot water heaters and sinks. We got the sink model- it screws right onto the supply line, and then a brass "T" screws onto it. This splits the water up to the sink and over to the free range and protects the whole thing.

Materials:

A Garden Timer
A Floodstop model that matches your plumbing supply and as many water sensors as you like.
A Brass tee to split the water under the sink.
An plastic compression sleeve for polyethylene tubing. The brass sleeves will fail eventually!
Enough 3/8" polyethylene "ice maker" tubing to get from your plumbing to your garden timer.
About the same length of 6 or 8 conductor thermostat wire.
A 20' roll of 3/8" PVC tubing.
As many misting nozzles as you want for your free range (1 for every 2-3' of free range will work.)
Make sure you get the all the necessary parts for the nozzles. You'll need the female fittings and the barb fittings
An array of adapters to get ice maker line into and out of the garden timer (see photo notes)

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PROCEDURE

Run the ice maker line and thermostat wire first. We had to cross the attic to get from the chameleon room to the bathroom, but it wasn't an ordeal because our attic is spacious and has floorboards installed. If your attic doesn't have a floor, it's important to know that you can only stand on the rafters- the drywall won't support a petite girl carrying a bunch of helium balloons. BE CAREFUL. Find the location of the wall leading down to the bathroom cabinet, and drill a hole. Thread the ice maker and thermostat wire together.

From under the bathroom cabinet, I drilled a 1.5" holesaw straight through the back, taking care not to nick existing plumbing. It took a little trial, error, and yelling some slightly regrettable things to my wifey to get the line run down the wall and through the hole, but we got it threaded through and that was that. I connected the plumbing and wired up the solenoid (Power + & -) as well as the sensor (send and receieve + & -)

Shut off the water to your house. Go get your wrench set, a bucket and a couple towels. It's go time. Lets do this thing.

WATER SUPPLY: Bathroom Faucet Supply Line.: Make sure you tap off the cold water. Under the sink of the bathroom turn the cold water off at the wall. Open the sink valve. Position the bucket and towels to catch the inevitable mess...and undo the compression fitting for the line up to the faucet. This is where you are installing the Floodstop solenoid, and if you bought the right one, it'll screw right on. Right after the floodstop, install your brass T. Reconnect the faucet supply line to one outlet of the T. The other outlet goes to your newly run ice maker line. USE THE PROPER COMPRESSION SLEEVE! This the voice of experience speaking here. In the last free range, we used the wrong sleeve- the one for metal tubing. It'll hold for awhile....but at 1 year and 6 months, that sucker popped right out and flooded the house.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

VALVE TO CONTROL WATER FLOW: Time to assemble all your adapters and timer in the chameleon room. Take your time...use teflon tape where you need it and work methodically. You don't want to break the timer, and you really really don't want this thing to leak. Cut your tubing at 90 deg. angles, and once everything's connected, use the tacks that Cable installers use for cable TV lines to fasten it to the wall. Be clever when fastening the timer to the wall.... we bent up a clothes hanger for a mount and you can't even see it in the picture.

Lastly...

MISTING NOZZLES: You know what? It sounds crazy, but I don't want you to install this permanently yet. Measure out how much tubing you'll need to get from the timer to the end of the free range, and then add five feet. Cut that length and drape it haphazardly across the lighting cage.....

...and add just one misting nozzle to the end. Use this to test your plumbing-fu, and make sure your drainage system is doing what it should. Troubleshoot your leaks and get the kinks unkinked. We can and will add more misters later when we're really happy with the location of all the plants....

...which is exactly what we're going to do next!

Comments

[pcastle-1]

Thank you for posting this. I have been looking to develop a misting system for my little greenhouse that I built myself! This is a very detailed explanation, I appreciate it.