# waterbell as water outlet



## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I have a 40gal breeder tank, and I wanted to accomplish a few things.
1. enjoy evaporative cooling to save on the cost of a chiller
2. create a high humidity island for crabs and anubias growth.
3. airborne O2 and Co2 may actually dissolve into tank water.

normally people use fans, foggers, spraybars and the like, but what if
I stole a gimmick from the pond community and use some of the 300gph
water outlet power already coming from my filter on a water mushroom!
there are so many advantages to this... no additional electric power
is consumed, water will evaporate and cool the tank, and high humidity
will be trapped inside the water dome, while light can still get through,
plus, this type of water dropping into your tank is quiet and low splash.

so I ordered some parts from a pond supplier, and will post my progress.


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## jmanofthesouth (Feb 8, 2011)

That sounds awesome...I'm excited to see the progress. The water movement might be noisy though


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

That one is not noisy. I used it on my (outdoor) pond. Maintenance is easy, too. Just wipe it off whenever the bell is no longer intact. 
There is a little sound from the water bell hitting the pond surface, and a little gurgle from the bubbles, but nothing that I would find a problem in the house. The water from the bell forms a sheet and sort of follows itself into the water. There are no individual splashes. 
Much noisier are the fountain sorts of jets that make many individual splashes and spray higher up into the air. Each individual drop makes some noise as it returns to the pond.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

this idea works flawlessly! here I have an 8" bell running directly off my Rena XP3 outlet,
in a spare 10gal tank. there are two adjustments that shape the bell, a diverter valve
that sends water to the top cone, and the cone itself that changes apature with a screw.
now the trick will be how to mount the plumbing inside the tank so I can plumb the riser,
since the bell will flow off center if the riser is tilted even a few degrees in any direction.
I don't want to glue anything down - but prefer using tubing, hoses, suction cups, etc.
the noise it makes is a very light trickle sound that will enhance my room's ambiance.

Parts List thus far; Beckett 1409 (nozzle & stem), Beckett 1440 (valve & riser)










http://www.petmountain.com/category/202/1/pond-plumbing-parts.html

to buy list; Becket 1410 (stems), 5/8" internal diameter tubing, hose suction cups.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I think it looks pretty too! You wouldn't be able to have it near kids. I can just see the mess now!


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## farrenator (Dec 21, 2008)

You could mount the riser using rigid tubing/pvc if you drilled a hole in the back of the tank and installed a bulkhead fitting. Screw in PVC nipples or glue in regular PVC to get the proper fore/aft length and then use an elbow with more straight tubing to get the height you need. That would ensure the proper alignment/angle of the riser tube, but requires drilling


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## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

This could bring a new dimension into aquascaping above the surface as well. Do keep us updated.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

sorry guys, but pets-warehouse.com screwed up my parts order, so I'm scrambling to get what I need elsewhere - will update with live tank pictures next week. the question is no longer will it work inside a tank since any DIY can come up with a dozen different ways to pipe this - I'm more curious how the water temperature drops below ambient room temperature, how much humidity builds up inside the bell, and if my crabs will accept the dry land I offer inside the bell center, and not be frightened by all the water movement around them. I will also be experimenting with various LED spotlight lighting options from both in the water pointing up inside the bell, and from above the water bell. BTW, I realized yet another benefit to doing this - no more surface protein to skim 

parts revision: a second Beckett 1409 (will explain why later), 
any 3/4" water valve to vary pressure as first valve/diverter will be buried in substrate,
and 3/4" tubing (not 5/8" - to help maximize pressure coming from filter outlet to bell nozzle)

UPDATE: I scraped enough parts together to get it working in my live tank.
I'm running a few tests overnight to see how it effects water temperature,
and to see if I can catch my crabs voluntarily climbing up to the above water
platform I made within the bell itself. While the sound it makes is pleasant,
I don't know if I can stand it all the time, so I'm seeing about reducing noise.
It sure does oxygenate the hell out of the water - it's raining tiny bubbles 

here's a "not ready for prime time" photo of this work in progress...


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

OK, so 24 hours running the bell in a live tank I can make the following observations;

1. water temperature is 4-5°f lower than it would be normal, however that is half the temperature drop I enjoy when running my quieter 6" fan at a 30° angle to the waterline.
2. humidity is greater inside the bell, as water beads and sweats all along the bell head. I do have a humitistate and probe, but for now I won't bother with exact measurments.
3. while my crabs did climb up above the waterline to this cholla bell platform I made, so all that above water activity does not deter them from seeking air. they have a choice of staying inside the bell or outside, so we'll see what they prefer.
4. the shrimp really seem to enjoy the water movement and oxidization, and seem unphased hanging out in the down flow of water along the bell tower riser of cholla wood..
5. a small amount of bubble foam has accumulated, amounts may depend on your water chemistry, but thus far it's only a few square inches on the water surface, hardly worth being concerned over.
6. the noise... yeah, it will bother you after a while - I found myself talking louder and raising the TV volume a bit while trying to understand conversation with that trickling noise.

I'm now exploring a way to quiet the bell significantly, but it requires using something I had hoped to avoid - more electrical devices making noise of their own - observe;
























When I feed water to the bell at highest pressure, then dial the pressure back about 20%, a pocket of extra air stays trapped inside the bell, making it more of a dome shape - this air pressure difference between inside and outside the bell, makes it splash significantly quieter. on the right or center photo you see me poking the bell with a stick, thus releasing the extra trapped air pressure, and changing the bell shape into more of a ball - this is the shape the bell would naturally become after a few minutes, and this shape makes significantly more noise. however in the right most or lowest picture, when i put the stick of rigid tubing under the water surface and blow bubbles into it, this re-inflates the bell, making it flow significantly quieter again.
the solution is obvious - rig up an air pump that adds a bit more air from below to inside the bell, thus keeping it's air pressure slightly higher enough to form the desired and less noisey bell (not ball) shape. FYI this issue occurs no matter what height or pressure or nozzle aperture you work from, and the noise difference is vast - between "I can't stand it anymore" to "I don't notice it anymore". so now I'll see if I can dig up one of my 10 year old air pumps back in the days when I used air stones in my tanks, and see if that reduced noise dome shape can be maintained without the air-pump noise itself causing additional grief.










above I'm experimenting with cholla surface in and outside the bell, to see if the crabs (purple left of center) show any preference. should I quiet the bell with air, I'll have to keep the above water surface inside the bell circumference, or use something smoother that won't break the surface tension of the bell enough to release the trapped air prematurely.


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## B-9 (Apr 11, 2011)

Looks cool! love it when people think outside the "box"


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## thlim (Apr 2, 2011)

Wow its pretty cool ! i wish i have that for my tank =]


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

sorry this is taking a while to complete, but I'm on a tight budget
so getting each component takes waiting for the right bargains.

this week I should get in an adjustable pressure air pump
(to keep the bell inflated and quiet)
and a few minor plumbing parts I'm still toying with.

The final experiment to determine if this is viable or not
is to find just the right air pressure to apply inside the bell,
to not only keep it inflated and quiet, but to reinflate it
quickly in case the bell bursts, collapses, and is rebuilt.
if the time it takes to reinflate a burst bell is too long,
then that intermittant noise of ball falling water could
end up being too distracting to keep this water feature.

later I will be dealing with how to light up this thing,
should I decide it's worth keeping up and running.
I don't recommend trying this yet till I worked some
more of the kinks out. Yeah, it looks cool and all,
but I'm still not sure I wanted it running 24/7.

planted tank purists will hate me for this, but I dug up an
old plastic root display I had on the shelf, drilled a hole
or two in the top, and will use this as sort of a "drilling
platform" like pedestal for the plumbing riser, and to give
my crabs something to climb around. it will also help
hide the air tubing and any submerged LED lights I try.
I think it will also look cool as the falling bell water makes
tiny bubbles that will coalesce on this root display, and
bead back up to the surface. In the meantime I'll troll
ebay for the perfect hollow log'like driftwood piece, but
usually the ones that meet my aesthetic are expensive.

_It's a shame I could not use my cholla wood, but 
I worry it may be interfering with my shrimp breeding, 
so I put all my cholla logs in dry storage for now._


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Interesting read! Instead of using an air pump to pump air into the bell, have you considered placing a CO2 diffusor (ceramic/glass) where the bubbles rise up under the bell? I suppose that is only a consideration if you are actually pumping CO2 in the tank to begin with...


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

thanks dave - I will try an airstone approach, but judging by the amount of air I had to mouth blow into the bell to keep it properly inflated during my initial experiments, I worry that the amount of air bubbles I would have to generate might distract from the air bubbles from the bell itself - but I will be trying both approaches to see what is effective at keeping the bell inflated, esthetically pleasing, less noisy, and low splash. I know this is a matter of taste, but I have always preferred bubbles that fall and rise like from a waterfall, then bubbles that only rise like from an airstone. one of my first planted tanks featured a spraybar above the water surface pointing down which created that waterfall like aeration pattern, and a pleasent trickle sound. basically this water bell is making the same bubble display mid tank around in a circle instead of along a flat tank wall like my spray bar used to do.


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