I did these a good number of years ago (around 2013 I think, if my picture timestamps can be trusted). I was experimenting with different liquid densities, colors, and lights to make something not entirely unlike a lava lamp.
An early experiment with fluid density. I believe this one was isopropyl, mineral oil, water, and corn syrup.
These used aquarium pumps with airline and stones dropped into a tall glass cylinder that I believe was manufactured to hold kitschy fake floral arrangements outside of funeral homes. They are about 40" tall, and roughly 7" in diameter at the base.
In the very bottom is a collection of plastic "gems" (we used them as tokens in table top games) mixed with some colorful dice and a coiled perforated tube connected to the airline. I ran the airline up the side, then started adding liquids.
I experimented a lot here. Anything you can think of that is marginally see through went into these before I settled on the final recipe. That was Saltwater, Vinegar, and Bleach for the bottom layer (Roughly 60%/35%/5%, although I wasn't terribly scientific about it, I just wanted to make sure nothing would swim in it). There is a tiny layer of dish soap above that. The top layer is 100% horse laxative.
Experimenting with how much air I need to create different sized bubbles.
Okay, that probably needs an explanation. You see, I wanted a clear viscous solution that would float on top of the water/death mixture in the bottom of the tank. Horse laxative is made from mineral oil, and at the time was sold by the gallon at farm and fleet for like $12. Meanwhile, plain mineral oil cost about twice that. (The economics have since changed, but it made for a good story at the time). The mineral oil was just what I wanted. It wouldn't mix with the water solution, it could handle being agitated, nothing would grow in it, and was more or less benign. I selected some dye that was water soluble but would not mix with the oil and colored the water, then floated the laxative over the top. The container in total is about 15% water solution and the rest oil.
Air is pumped in slowly through the hose and forms bubbles in the water solution that grab onto the undissolved dye and carry it to the top. When the bubble reaches the surface, the air is released, and the droplet of dye slowly sinks down through the oil until it rejoins the pool at the bottom. The effect can be mesmerizing and captures a lot of what makes a lava lamp interesting while still being a completely different take on it.
They are lit by LED rings on the top and bottom of the cylinders. The lighting does a neat job of hitting the tops and bottoms of the bubbles which give them an otherworldly vibe.
These have been sitting on either side of my piano for about a decade. They still look neat, although could probably use a refreshing one of these days.
Early build of the lamps. This was shortly after I first assembled them.
This was the final first version. A few years later, I added a second set of lights on the bottom.
This article is part of a series on LED Art as I attempt to document all of the different LED projects I have built over the years.
More will be added as time goes on. The list of currently available articles can be found here: https://dzw.zentormey.com/tag/leds/
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