Home made air diffuser.

[daninthesand]

Well, er work made actually :D

I made a bunch of these air diffusers at work the other day. It was a slow day. ;) They were made following a prototype one I made about 2 months ago.

It is made of bits of PVC tubing we throw out and I got to tinkering one day and came up with it. The centre speckled wider area is tubing poked with a bunch of tiny holes made with a 22 guage hyperdermic needle. I've done it with basic sewing pins as well.

Why did I bother? Well, I was getting really tired of having to clean commercially available ones I've been using. I've tried many different kinds and have found they all need cleaning eventually. Some as often as every 3 to 4 weeks. Now that i have a few tanks going, each with two sponges in them, it just does not make sense to be taking the filters apart all the time to clean those little (**&*&^%%^^%$@# things!

The prototype is still going strong after 2 months without so much as a wipe or a soak or anything. And it works just as well as the day i put it in.

I thought maybe some of you could make use of this idea and adapt it to whatever you might have lying around. It might be a little @n@l , but ANYTHING that makes me spend less time doing routine maintenace the better. :)

And you can catch mice in that?

[Fish_Fin-atic]

*LOL* Edibill! Cool Dan! Where do you come up with these ideas??!! You may just be the next Thomas Edison of fish-keeping :D

[daninthesand]

When it gets slow at work, which it does from time to time, my mind tends to wander. Invariably it wanders to my fish room and how I can improve on my current setup.

People at work think this "fish thing" as they call it is just plain crazy.

That's OK though, they just don't understand ;)

But I have to admit there are a LOT of oohs and aahs when they overlook my shoulder as I scan the 'net for pix of discus.

[jouniv]

I've seen similar type, but filled with coarse gravel, used in fish laboratories. Work just great, sink easily, basically free.

Jouni

[daninthesand]

Well....its been close to a year. My homemade diffusers are simply going strong. They do need occasional cleaning which consists of simply taking the hydo sponge apart (simple enough ;)), and giving the outside of the diffuser tube a simple wipe with my fingers. I do this about every couple of months or so. (btw I clean the sponges more often than that!) Simply put it back together and off we go for another year! I have these in all my sponges now. Simple!

Daniel

Dan: That cap came from a suction port of a trach connector Isn't it? Be careful!! I invented a few medical devices for the Vietnam War during spare time at work. My workplace wanted a share of the profit and we had to go to court to settle the dispute. It was the Winliz nubulizer (Winnie and Elizabeth, 2 ex-girl friends) for aerosol therapy. You probably heard of it in your school days and also apply the atomizer principal to make a first fuel injection jeep to run under the hot weather in the mountain. Otherwise all their jeeps would stall in extreme heat. I'd pattened it and the workplace stole it from me.
Jimmy.

[Mr. Limpet]

Jimmy, it's in the fine print. If they are paying you when you invent something, It's theirs.
Dan, in this case it is just an improvement, and probably not patentable, so you shouldn't have to worry. Anyway, there is no profit in it, you just showed everyone how to make it themselves.
Now to go off on a tangent, has anyone figured out if an air diffuser actually pulls more water through a sponge filter than just a open hose?
Just thinking out loud. Paul.

[daninthesand]

Hi Jimmy. Yes the WIN LIZ!!!!! I remember that floating contraption. THAT WAS YOU!?! Hahahahahah. Are you just pulling my leg about the jeeps? ::)

The cap is from the prssure port of a disposble ventilator circuit. Its only 1/4 inch diameter. You could use whatever you have handy as a plug. (the plug below is an IV port plug) The best part is the materials are stuff that get thrown away so there is no cost to me except my time. I could make a dozen of these in just a few minutes. I have a more recent design pictured below.

According to some, just an open airline actually pulls more water through the sponge. I choose to use a diffuser because its less noisy, and the back pressure makes it easier to adjust all the sponges running on a central air system. I have my doubts as to whether ther is less water flow with the diffuser. Even so, mine seem to work to my satisfaction with a diffuser. And I use the diffuser for other things as well.

Paul, yes, it is true. I did research for a physician for a new mode of ventilation and other things

http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/full/156/1/304

(Jimmy you may have heard of it, PAV proportional assist ventilation)I was paid and therefore stand to make no gain, and neither does the physician since he got univeristy grants for the research money.

Daniel

It's Venturi principle. More pressure gradiant will increase without a diffuser and the longer the extension the air have to travel upwards. The higher the negative pressure will be generated by the vacuum. I've seen most people take the extension tube away from their sponge filters. That's the reason to put them back.HTH

Dan: The Jeep was truth. They had all the engine stalled whenever they step up the gas until the atomizer spray fume into the caburator. That was the first fuel injection jeep before the big three auto makers start using it.
Jimmy.

[daninthesand]

Haha. Jimmy. You never cease to amaze me! :)

Dan: You seem to know the basic principles of ventilation from the old school. Not the recent new grads only knows about diseases and medicines with Stethoscope hanging around their neck. Can't even tighten up a loose screw. Keep up the good job. Do you know the Winliz is unbreakable? They dropped thousands of them from the Helicopter to the battle fields. They had every soldiers using them. What a joke. ;D I love to see them with masks on their faces.
jimmy.

[daninthesand]

Hey Jimmy. You got any of them winlizzies lying around? You gotta send me a couple! LOL!