Okay, there was some interest in my watering system for my rabbits so I'm going to cover what did and did not work.
Below is a picture of my water resevoir. It was orignally 10 gallons, down to about 8 with the foam cap protruding in. I stuck a 5 gallon bucket upside down in there, cut a flat piece of cardboard the ID of the cooler, then put a trash bag in as an easy to remove liner. I hot glued two sections of pipe insulation in, one shorty for wires and a full length for the hose. only spray the foam in 1 layer at a time, it needs air to cure. Then I ran plugs through the short hole for a 50w temp controlled heater, and an aquarium pump. The 5/16 hose ran out the long insulation piece.
The original plumbing had a 5/16 hose out from the pump, tee'd off at each water bowl. Then it looped back down the insulation and into the bucket. In there I had a piece of plastic wedged into the open end so water sprayed out. This created backpressure necessary to push water out the valves. You have to design some back pressure into this circulating design, or the water will not come out when the girls use the valves. The red arrows show flow. When it got about 16-20° out the water froze about where the green line was. There was not enough turbulence to make the water go down the tee and keep it thawed.
Below is a picture of my water resevoir. It was orignally 10 gallons, down to about 8 with the foam cap protruding in. I stuck a 5 gallon bucket upside down in there, cut a flat piece of cardboard the ID of the cooler, then put a trash bag in as an easy to remove liner. I hot glued two sections of pipe insulation in, one shorty for wires and a full length for the hose. only spray the foam in 1 layer at a time, it needs air to cure. Then I ran plugs through the short hole for a 50w temp controlled heater, and an aquarium pump. The 5/16 hose ran out the long insulation piece.
The original plumbing had a 5/16 hose out from the pump, tee'd off at each water bowl. Then it looped back down the insulation and into the bucket. In there I had a piece of plastic wedged into the open end so water sprayed out. This created backpressure necessary to push water out the valves. You have to design some back pressure into this circulating design, or the water will not come out when the girls use the valves. The red arrows show flow. When it got about 16-20° out the water froze about where the green line was. There was not enough turbulence to make the water go down the tee and keep it thawed.