# Plan on making a rain system



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Watch out for splashing. You'll have as much water out of the tank as in the tank. It's best to have the rain head below the tank.

THe real trick to this is to have the head not block your lights.

A small pump should work or some how tap into your filter. There's a free pump there.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Sure looks like a canister with a spray bar, to me. Just aim the spray bar higher than the water, and maybe drill more holes, but rather small ones.


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## owenprescott (Aug 7, 2012)

mistergreen said:


> Watch out for splashing. You'll have as much water out of the tank as in the tank. It's best to have the rain head below the tank.
> 
> THe real trick to this is to have the head not block your lights.
> 
> A small pump should work or some how tap into your filter. There's a free pump there.


Yeah at the moment I am considering raising the height a few inches, I have thought about the light and I am thinking about simply using a rain shower head lol. The one I am looking at could easily be attached to the back by a suction cup and faced forward to disperse from front to back and underneath the light (Cant post a link to it as its on Ebay). I would have to make sure it does not have copper etc of course. 

It would be a better idea to use an external filter and flow that water to the rain system saving on a pump come to think of it, I assume the shower head or a DIY diffuser wont disrupt the filter media doing its job. Any recommendations of good external filters for 90 - 120 litre tanks?




Diana said:


> Sure looks like a canister with a spray bar, to me. Just aim the spray bar higher than the water, and maybe drill more holes, but rather small ones.


This illustration does not show it but I would like to cover the depth to, I was looking a spray bars but ideally I want to create the effect on as much of the surface area as possible. I might have some plant growth outside of the tank which I forgot to mention.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

To cover more surface with a spray bar drill more holes front and back, and center it. The holes could spray pretty much horizontally, if they do not spray too hard, or you could aim them upwards a bit (Covered tank, of course!). 
You want to have enough holes so they water is not coming out too strong, but strong enough to scatter over most of the tank.


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Here's a video of a rain/mist/fog system that i had in my 90G riparium about a year ago when it was set up (rain starts at 0:30): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryZpGXAsAzM

Also, here is a short description with some pics as to how i built the DIY rain system: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1637386&postcount=1137

It wasn't perfect, but it worked well for what i was trying accomplish.


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## owenprescott (Aug 7, 2012)

Thanks for the replies, drilling holes into a spray bar seems like a good way to go. I could probably direct the water into two multiple spray bars too. I am also wondering if I could wrap some fabric around the bar to diffuse the water a bit more randomly. I will probably buy one of the rain shower head too just to see if it works.




AzFishKid said:


> Here's a video of a rain/mist/fog system that i had in my 90G riparium about a year ago when it was set up (rain starts at 0:30): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryZpGXAsAzM
> 
> Also, here is a short description with some pics as to how i built the DIY rain system: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1637386&postcount=1137
> 
> It wasn't perfect, but it worked well for what i was trying accomplish.


I was watching this on Youtube earlier, do you think adding fabric to the end of the nozzles would change the direction of the flow? You should try it.


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

owenprescott said:


> Thanks for the replies, drilling holes into a spray bar seems like a good way to go. I could probably direct the water into two multiple spray bars too. I am also wondering if I could wrap some fabric around the bar to diffuse the water a bit more randomly. I will probably buy one of the rain shower head too just to see if it works.
> 
> I was watching this on Youtube earlier, do you think adding fabric to the end of the nozzles would change the direction of the flow? You should try it.


I wouldn't recommend using a spray bar. Even if the pump attached to it had a low GPH rating, you would likely still get a stream of water instead of drops. Same with the shower head. I used the irrigation drip nozzles because they are actually built to drip. 

I took that tank down several months ago. I like your fabric idea. If it was still up and running, i would definitely try it!


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I would probably split your canister outflow, one to a main flow back into the tank and then 1 to your rain system so you can use adjuster valves and get the rain effect to a trickle without impeding the flow too much by having almost full power going back to the outflow in the tank, whether nozzle or spraybar or whatever.

Throw a solenoid on it with a timer and can rain. Program a Arduino board for random rain or really program a Arduino and have it grab local weather via a network connection and make it rain in your tank when it's raining outside. lol.


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## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

I wanted to do something like this on one of my tanks, but it just seemed too complicated for me! Good luck, don't forget to show pictures when you're done!


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## owenprescott (Aug 7, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> Throw a solenoid on it with a timer and can rain. Program a Arduino board for random rain or really program a Arduino and have it grab local weather via a network connection and make it rain in your tank when it's raining outside. lol.


If I were that capable I would probably have a job with Nasa lol. Anyway I will try splitting it as your suggested. Once I have the filter and components such as the tubes I can look at various ways to achieve rain. :fish:


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## Elppan (Aug 21, 2012)

I second the idea of dripper nozzles, super cheap,available at almost any local hardware store for cheap.. this seems like a really neat idea, I looove the sound of rain


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## owenprescott (Aug 7, 2012)

I have decided on a dripper system, I am going to have a pump that splits one lot of water to a standard filter diffuser and the 'Rain System 1000™'  will be connected to a cut off valve. That way I can turn off the rain, I might even have some of the drippers feeding down into the water too. At the moment it is just a matter of finding the most stylish and unobtrusive parts. I am looking forward to setting up my first tank even more now. I will have a journal up in about a week when stuff starts getting delivered.


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## koumchev (Aug 12, 2012)

As I can see on your picture you planning to use a external sump or water container. I was thinking for the same but to have the rain as automatic top up system, mimic the Mother Nature. I would use a water level magnetic switch witch is almost invisible, connected to solenoid valve connected directly to my RO system. You can use a small pump and a level switch, so it will rain when the water in your tank is below desired level. The drop bars are simple straight pipes which are pierced here and there more holes hevier the rain  . They should be below your lighting system for sure. And make sure the water will not splash around the floor and the cabinet. You can adjust the height of the drop bar or lower the desired water level in your fishtank. For fancier rain effect use some light controller (Arduino or other) and sound system to mimic thunders and lighting. That will be very interesting project , I cant wait to see results.


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