rain simulator in reef tank?

[living_waters]

I am planing on buying leds that will simulate thunder and clouds so I said what the heck all or nothing right maybe a auto top off rain simulator, or water change rain maker?

 

[snorvich]

I vaguely recall that Profilux controllers have that option (or at least they did). As a diver, I can tell you that the effect is a rather pretty one, but unless you are using saltwater may crease a salinity issue.

 

[smb2415]

i'm planning on building one myself. I was just going to tap into the return with 1.4" ro line, use a ro solenoid and mini lawn sprinkler heads.

 

[TommyP]

such a cool idea... following this for sure!

 

[living_waters]

I searched on google and saw an lfs with a rain simulator in there main display if anybody has one please chime in with there build

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

This sounds amazing. How romantic to cuddle up in front of the tank and watch the thunder storm? This is going to be gorgeous. I'd love to copy this idea in the future when I get a bigger tank and when you get all the bugs worked out.

 

[living_waters]

What if I connected a auto top off pump to a timer and calculated how much top off the tank consumes a day and let it rain throughout the day....

 

[smb2415]

I would think that it would be safer to use a float level to trigger the rain. If the sump is low then it rains until the sump float say sump is level. Calculations will quickly become complicated and I'd imagine almost impossible to calibrate.

with some creativity you could program it to rain every xx hours or days. you could also configure it to use a switch whereby you if you flip to on the switch the ATO is rain and in the off position it is a regular ATO.

Randomizing or sync with geographic weather is more tricky.

 

[_shorty_]

It sounds cool, but I'd imagine a lot of salt creep/splash created from this, I'm not sure you'll want all your top off water delivered this way long term... And that maybe it should plan for it to be more of an occasional thing.

 

[tommer725]

Personally, this sounds neat, but the biggest issue is salinity. If you get past that, I say go for it!

 

[ohioreefer]

i have kicked this around for a few year my worry is salt creep i was just going to run my ato this way and when i wanted to show off use my lights for a storm

 

[sunil6784]

What about a separate pump in your sump plumbed to sprinkler heads above the tank ? That way salinity won't be an issue, and the pump fan be controlled by your controller.

 

[living_waters]

Sounds like a good idea

 

[disc1]

Sounds like a good idea

Until it clogs up with salt.

 

[Allmost]

not that hard to implement.

basically u want 2 floats, and a reservoir as large as the difference of the 2 floats !

so when water goes below float 1 on top, system does nothing but to wait for water to go below F2.

when below F2, turn on the ATO pump and sprinkler, dump the ATO water in tank [which would bring the water level in sump back up to float 1.]

in case of mistakes, and filling the RO reservoir too much, the system would shut off if water passes the higher switch.

can add another switch to auto fill the ATO as well.

 

[Dashylock]

I would think that it would be safer to use a float level to trigger the rain. If the sump is low then it rains until the sump float say sump is level. Calculations will quickly become complicated and I'd imagine almost impossible to calibrate.

with some creativity you could program it to rain every xx hours or days. you could also configure it to use a switch whereby you if you flip to on the switch the ATO is rain and in the off position it is a regular ATO.

Randomizing or sync with geographic weather is more tricky.

With the Apex, you could program a statement that would also turn on the storm lightning effect whenever the ATO switches on.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Any old timers remember that ICe Cap controller that did this?

 

[FullBoreReefer]

I'm building also...

I use 2 AI Hydras with the wireless controller. I limit the storms to one hour a day. Then plumbed into my return manifold I have a solenoid on a basic timer that will turn on for that same hour. So it's only cycling tank water. And since my sump level will drop some, which would cause my ATO float to open, I installed a solenoid on that line also, so 10mins before I have my ATO turn off. It storms. 10mins after my ATO opens again. So then it doesn't try to top off during the storm. Even if it does top of during it wouldn't be any more than a gallon of ro/di. Basically use as small piping/tubing possible.

Hope that makes sense...

 

[Bilk]

I am planing on buying leds that will simulate thunder and clouds so I said what the heck all or nothing right maybe a auto top off rain simulator, or water change rain maker?

Not to rain on your parade , but this just seems like a bad idea all the way around. Saltwater spray is not a good idea in a closed environment such as a house. JMO

 

[rfgonzo]

What is the point of this? Just for a cool affect? I see no point other then that and a lot of splash on the floor. Same with the T-storm light all I see it good for is to scare the fish and make them dart around the tank. Just sayin