Entrainment system

Nan's NookArchives : Grow Chambers : Projects : Humidifier tek : Entrainment system
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Who's got a good idea for a 100 cake incubator?  8 02/09 11:14pm Joe Mamma

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 08:52 pm:

I think that's the right term. I was hoping to find some information on an automatic system that would take the place of fanning. Thanks!

By quote: (Quote) on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 09:12 pm:

most use cool mist humidifiers.

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 09:14 pm:

That replaces humidifying AND fanning (air exchange)?

By quote: (Quote) on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 09:19 pm:

correct.

By Mr. Tambourine Man (Tambourine_Man) on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 10:11 pm:

Cool, are there any cool mist humidifiers that have a water reservoir that lasts a LONG time or is there any way to rig one up like that?

By frodus sudorf (Frodus) on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 11:02 pm:

yes there is
search a little in the archives
under humidifiers

thats where i started
and if you look, there's been a lot posted on here asking about it, when all the information is here!

someone talked about a cool mist (i used a vicks cool mist humidifier in my setup) and he attached a 2 liter bottle def through a tube to the water chamber, so when the level got low, it emptied a little at a time into the resevoir.

With mine, i usually fill it like every 2 days
run 24/7
and i have 3/4 inch tubes going into it

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 03:46 am:

www.myco-tek.com/MC this has the full plans for an entrainment system. look up my setup and you can see pics of my entrainment system under the archives.

By jim brown (Shrhobbyist) on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 08:33 am:

I was going to buy a cool mist humidifyer but decided to stick with perlite for the time being. I might use it forever, it sure does the trick, except you have to fan, but I don't mind. Anyways I looked at the cool mist humidifyers. I had planed to drill a hole in the bottom and a tube would connect it to a hole in the bottom of another big water container. That seems like it would work to keep it fuller longer. Just make sure the water level of the add-on container isn't higher than the first's.

By ggg (Ggg) on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 09:42 am:

perlite

humidifier

By J. Tay (Recombinant) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 08:43 am:

Anyone's guess as to what the maximum volume container a cool mist humidifier could provide ample humidity for? (in cubic inches/feet)

[scheming on a "custom" terrarium]

By plinkerdink420 (Plinkerdink420) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 02:26 pm:

according to kaijan in another post... one could humidify several terrariums with one humidifier... i really don't think that there is much of a restriction... hell, you could probably keep an entire room humid enough with one of those puppies

By quote: (Quote) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 02:31 pm:

the humidifier's manual should give an indication of it's capacity, mine does a 10x10 foot room.
and sealed environments like terrariums should be even easier to keep humid than a room.

By Kaijan (Kaijan) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 06:57 pm:

Heres the instructions if you missed them in the other thread:

"Get yourself another bin (the ones you use for a terrarium) then drill 2-4 holes on the side 2-3 inches from the top, and 1-6(maybe more) in the front about 3 inches off the bottom.

Get some silicon glue and seal on the lid tight.. next get your humidifier with all the hoses coming off it (2-4) and plug them into the large bin... next take that bin your using and elevate it above your terrariums... then plug in hoses (with valves if you like) and hook up 1 hose per terrarium...

Anyway, the point of this extra bin is to act like a resivour for the humidity (to build it up).. You'll notice it get quite moist in there.

The perlite in the bottom will absorb and evapourate excess water which will run down the sides. so you dont encounter pooling of water (contam grounds).

Elevating it will allow gravity to suck down the humidiy to the bins....

Anyway... this helps in many respects..

a) You'll have a "cleaner" humidity. By this i mean less larger droplets of water in the air.

b) You'll have much more humidity to spread out into more bins. With just the humidifier, you get 2, maybe 3 bins going..with alright air exchange.

Using this resivour will allow you to greatly increase the amount of terrariums used.

In the past I've had no problems running 5 bins off 1 resivour. Although I'm sure I could have easily gotten away with 6+. And these bins arent that small.. they held 15 cakes each.

A humidifier is supposed to humidify a whole room... yet by hooking up hoses and blocking off the large output, you'll limit the amount of air that will go out.. but if you put too many hoses (say 4) running to different places, each hose will get 1/4 the humidity. But if you ran each of those hoses to one main area.. your not going to loose anything really. From there it can keep that main bin extremely humid (dripping).

Anyway. Thats the best what to make efficient use of a single humidifier. "


I'll try to find some pictures of my old setup i had once upon a time...

If you want to have better control of humidity w/o having to cut back on the airflow, you could put a valve near the bottom of each terrarium.. excess c02 and humidity will drain out through there.


kai.

By Cbee (Cbee) on Saturday, December 01, 2001 - 01:10 am:

cool mists work pretty good, but it takes time to see how often to have it on, etc... if your space is small you dont need it on 24/7... a foaf has a setup that is about 6 cubic ft and he runs it 12 hours a day around... he also added a little tray of wet perlite to add to the humidity, this worked great... as soon as he put in the perlite, when the humidifier isnt on during the night, noise reasons, the perlite keeps it nice a moist... I nice warm light helps out too, he foudn that when the light is on it gets alot muggier in the setup.. i dunno why this is maybe the perlite evaporates more water when its warm...anyways thats my 2¢

By Tripitydoodah (Tripitydoodah) on Saturday, December 01, 2001 - 09:46 pm:

forgive me if i didn't look hard enogh, but I have been looking everywhere (even the archives) for the instructions on how to build your set up. am impressed with your results and you don't seem to encounter too many contaminations. you posted it months ago but was just starting then. please help, i believe there are many others who would also appreciate this info. thanks.

By SYDYSTYK (Addict) on Sunday, December 02, 2001 - 01:16 am:

eatu were you taz at the old site?

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Monday, December 03, 2001 - 06:00 am:

no i joined the board around the time that quote was leaving i would say maybe a week before the site went down. but i was eatyualive then also. tripidydoodah,
this site has all the info on how to build my terrarium. http://www.myco-tek.com/MC

Enjoy. if you email the people on the site i am sure they can give you better advice than i. I would suggest asking the pros so to speak.

By Tripitydoodah (Tripitydoodah) on Tuesday, December 04, 2001 - 04:29 am:

thanx for the tip. and i do ask the pros. it's just that i have a limited space in my closet and your setup would fit nice in the space that i have. also, the way i have been doing it is causing too many incidents of contamination. i just bought a cool mist and i don't want to have to open a terrarrium all the time for any reason. it is the source of my problems. so an enclosed shelf system in my closet is the best for me. thanx again. i'm even gonna make a collapsible tent out of pvc and visqueen to put up around it for harvesting.

By jared (Jared112) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 04:20 pm:

Umm, Eatu, is that link your site or something? Did you design that thing and are currently selling it. or is it just one that you purchased?

By Tripitydoodah (Tripitydoodah) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 06:56 pm:

hey eatyu, that is not the setup im talking about, i'm talking about the pix you posted with the shelf inside the plexiglass box you built sometime back. the front appears to open via swinging doors.

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 09:21 pm:

ok, the mycotek website is not mine. it is mcman's and he didn't even design it. the design originally was based from the mushroom cultivator. i don't believe those are for sale but you need to ask him. i say why buy it when you can build it. kinda helps you understand the engineering purposes of the air flow and humidity. also, mcman just explains the whole entrainment process with that site so that you can build your own. it is a little more in depth and easier to understand than the mushroom cultivator but the basic same principle at a smaller scale. Mcman, did design the ones on his site. he figured out the distances of ducting to cropping surface and air flow patterns. he also figured out where the air streams will meet at the bottom of the chamber. so i would say he did design those chambers following the mushroom cultivator principles.
trippidy doodah,
that chamber i built is directly from the mycotek website. i just designed my own. i would say it may be easier for you to find a rather large rubbermaid and figure out the dimensions and so forth. the best humidifier in my experience has been the vicks, kaz v400 available at any wallmart, target, and sometimes kmart.

By Tripitydoodah (Tripitydoodah) on Saturday, December 08, 2001 - 05:44 am:

thanx for the response, will try to wing it myself. got a few ideas, i just have to think on them a little bit more before i commit to construction.

By Eatyualive (Eatyualive) on Saturday, December 08, 2001 - 10:34 pm:

let me know and post. if you have any questions i will be glad to help.

By SYDYSTYK (Addict) on Saturday, December 08, 2001 - 10:59 pm:

if you read all mcmans entrainment pages you will see a sideways bucket system, i wanted to try this but i buckets' lids' are a pain in the ass, well i was thinking about the lids for a while and i went out and bought the stuff to make a sideways trashcan setup but then it got cold early so i have to wait but if anyone wants to try this i think its a bad ass idea and all it would cost is a coolmist(which will still be useful even if this idea sucks),a trash can(10 bucks for good one,a couple chunks of scrap 2x4(to keep it level), some plumbing, and something to hold your cakes/casings,and i havent quite figured out lighting(plex is no fun) ill try this when it warms up here