Pet Tornado
I made this!
I built this little sustained vortex fountain. The tornado itself is 10” tall and 8 in” wide. It’s even more hypnotic with the little youtube-shorts-restarting-glitch
(, Fri 13 Oct 2023, 18:18, Reply)
Pretty simple actually
Sure thing. Typing this out made it seem harder than it actually was. I didn’t need a special bit for cutting the acrylic. I used a spade bit.
In the last step - polishing the top edge of the acrylic, it scratched the acrylic visibility, but the scratches disappear when wet. I suggest testing the fountain first and then deciding whether you like it as is, or want the water to flow down all the edges.
1 acrylic display cylinder
1 400 GPH pond or fountain submersible pump with a 1/2” hosebarb fitting
some 1/2 inch vinyl hose
1 1/2 inch hosebarb elbow
A sturdy planter that has a top opening larger than the acrylic cylinder that will be your fountain. I used plastic at first, but it sagged under the weight of the water. So I switch to a ceramic planter.
A smaller planter that you can turn upside down, place in the larger planter, and put the acrylic cylinder on.
My planter had a hole in the bottom. So I cut a square of plastic and used caulk to seal it.
Cut some holes in the smaller planter so that water can flow into it from the center of the top, and the sides. You’ll end up putting the pump in the larger planter, covering it with the smaller planter turned upside down, and passing the tube from the pump to the cylinder through the top or the side of the smaller planter.
Drill one 1/2 inch hole in the center. I used a spade bit and it cut just fine.
Drill another 1/2 inch hole on the same surface as the center hole (i.e. the bottom. not the side) near the side. This is the hole the water will be pumped into.
Stick the tube through the hole on the side of the acrylic cylinder. Put the hosebarb elbow on the tube that’s inside the cylinder.
Aim the hosebarb so that the water blasts along the side of the cylinder. You want it to spiral around.
Connect the other end of the vinyl hose to the pump.
Fill the planter with water. Then plug in the pump and be ready to fill with more water.
Continue filling. You’ll see the tornado form.
The surface I placed the planter was not level, so I had to make several adjustments.
The fountain looked crystal clear, but the water was only flowing over one side of the fountain. So, I took some 1000 grit sandpaper and polished around the top of the cylinder and top edge, perpendicular to the height. This helped the water flow around all sides.
(, Sat 14 Oct 2023, 3:57, Reply)