chask said:
Here ya go Charles... a little Japanese eye candy for the soul.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=441773&highlight=japanese
Brett
A pair of EcoWheel tanks in the making
- Thread starter Putawaywet
- Start date
Here ya go Charles... a little Japanese eye candy for the soul.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=441773&highlight=japanese
Brett
matt & pam
Member
I thought if the eco-wheel hasn't been harvested and is overgrown in algae it will stop?
Flatlander
Premium Member
matt & pam said:
It seems thats common now with most retailers of algae filtration systems. Shame. Makes one wonder? Hmmmm
Agree with Brett, seems like we are a small cult group. :lol: I dont even fit in that one, as I still use a skimmer also.
Brett,
You said that you had added a drain to the eco-wheel filter, could you post a picture of that? I guess its to drain any detritus build up at the bottom of the filter? It sounds like you do all your water changes by emptying the eco-wheel filter box? have you found another source than A.E. for a backup airpump? Your setup looks outstanding, meticulous detailing on that plumping!
Tim
You said that you had added a drain to the eco-wheel filter, could you post a picture of that? I guess its to drain any detritus build up at the bottom of the filter? It sounds like you do all your water changes by emptying the eco-wheel filter box? have you found another source than A.E. for a backup airpump? Your setup looks outstanding, meticulous detailing on that plumping!
Tim
Tim,
To answer your questions....
Sure, no problem
No, not really - pretty much water only
Yes
No, not yet but I'm still looking
Many thanks.
Doug,
There's always one in every crowd.
On the other hand, you know what they say about the company you keep...
So as long as you're buying feel free to pull up a chair
Not pictured is the quick disconnect I added for the hose to the end of the ball valve - something I can't say enough good things about. The only drawback is it's about 25' to the nearest drain and since that adds up to a whole bunch of 3/4" hose I'm having to tuff it out with a couple of 5gal buckets and some old fashion muscle.
Brett
To answer your questions....
Sure, no problem
No, not really - pretty much water only
Yes
No, not yet but I'm still looking
Many thanks.
Doug,
There's always one in every crowd.
On the other hand, you know what they say about the company you keep...
So as long as you're buying feel free to pull up a chair
Not pictured is the quick disconnect I added for the hose to the end of the ball valve - something I can't say enough good things about. The only drawback is it's about 25' to the nearest drain and since that adds up to a whole bunch of 3/4" hose I'm having to tuff it out with a couple of 5gal buckets and some old fashion muscle.
Brett
Brett,
Thanks Brett.
I like this too. Have you seen Ken's Reef (http://www.kensreef.homestead.com/) ? Another one I really like, and what got me thinking about this in the first place, is Terry Seigel's tank shown on page 27 of Michael Paletta's Ultimate Marine Aquarioms.
I was kind of thinking something like Steve's or Ken's but with a little more (and steeper) rock structure in a couple of places - probably best described as a transition between what these two have done and what is more common now. A little of the in your face look but well back from the glass. I want to show a pinnacle reach the surface in the middle, a couple of caves and arches off of it and off one of the taller structures down at the unopen end (tank will be visible in one room on long and short side, along the other long side from another room). To acheive this and make it look good I think I will need as much square footage as I can get. After seeing Steve's efforts (6' x 7.5') I am seriously thinking about a 4.5-5' depth. I have a post in the Large Reef tank section and am getting the strong idea I should not go above my arm's reach anywhere in the tank. With a DSB, this will probably keep it down to 38-40" tall.
I do not think that I realized this until your post about the "in your face, overwhelming, use every last bit of space" design concept most use (well maybe not to the extent that I had tried to verbalize it anyway). It seems like most reef tanks I have seen over the years looked like what you descirbed. Few have tried to show a larger picture of the reef. I hope to acheive the affect by using smaller fish (3-5" max) along with appropriate scale and shape of rock structure. Space the corals out a little giving them room to grow out like they do in nature (at least in some places anyway). Can't use as many different species as I would like and probably will not have any bigger fish (>6") but I may see a few that make me give in on this one. Think I need to see the thing up and running before I finally decide. My big fear is that the corals will grow out of proportion and kind of destroy the affect.
Have you tried shimming the cabinet? You might try making a couple of really long tapered shims out of some reasonably hard (not too compressible) wood. Use a thin but heaevily tapered metal wedge to get the tank up on one corner and perhaps a pry bar to get the cabinet up a little more than necessary. Slide the shim in as far as possible then hammer the sucker firmly into place. I know you tiled around the base and carpet underneath. This will be difficult without redoing someting. Maybe it can be done from inside the cabinet though I cannot imagine doing anything to that magnificaent display underneath your tank.
Hadn't thought of it before but it seems logical that with the extra weight in the big tank on one end this might happen. Hmmm.
This is not a comforting thought for someone just starting out. Are those of you running the Eco-Wheel really happy with your filters and results? Would you buy one again?
I would hate to set this up and then have problems with no one to provide any support or spare stuff needed to get mine running again. Guess I could always go back to the more tried methods. Or is this why you suggested a more generic room design Brett?
On a side note - I do not understand why someone would purchase the rights to make something then not make it. Not that I'm a great businessman but the economics of this escape me.
Charles
Thanks Brett.
I like this too. Have you seen Ken's Reef (http://www.kensreef.homestead.com/) ? Another one I really like, and what got me thinking about this in the first place, is Terry Seigel's tank shown on page 27 of Michael Paletta's Ultimate Marine Aquarioms.
I was kind of thinking something like Steve's or Ken's but with a little more (and steeper) rock structure in a couple of places - probably best described as a transition between what these two have done and what is more common now. A little of the in your face look but well back from the glass. I want to show a pinnacle reach the surface in the middle, a couple of caves and arches off of it and off one of the taller structures down at the unopen end (tank will be visible in one room on long and short side, along the other long side from another room). To acheive this and make it look good I think I will need as much square footage as I can get. After seeing Steve's efforts (6' x 7.5') I am seriously thinking about a 4.5-5' depth. I have a post in the Large Reef tank section and am getting the strong idea I should not go above my arm's reach anywhere in the tank. With a DSB, this will probably keep it down to 38-40" tall.
I do not think that I realized this until your post about the "in your face, overwhelming, use every last bit of space" design concept most use (well maybe not to the extent that I had tried to verbalize it anyway). It seems like most reef tanks I have seen over the years looked like what you descirbed. Few have tried to show a larger picture of the reef. I hope to acheive the affect by using smaller fish (3-5" max) along with appropriate scale and shape of rock structure. Space the corals out a little giving them room to grow out like they do in nature (at least in some places anyway). Can't use as many different species as I would like and probably will not have any bigger fish (>6") but I may see a few that make me give in on this one. Think I need to see the thing up and running before I finally decide. My big fear is that the corals will grow out of proportion and kind of destroy the affect.
Have you tried shimming the cabinet? You might try making a couple of really long tapered shims out of some reasonably hard (not too compressible) wood. Use a thin but heaevily tapered metal wedge to get the tank up on one corner and perhaps a pry bar to get the cabinet up a little more than necessary. Slide the shim in as far as possible then hammer the sucker firmly into place. I know you tiled around the base and carpet underneath. This will be difficult without redoing someting. Maybe it can be done from inside the cabinet though I cannot imagine doing anything to that magnificaent display underneath your tank.
Hadn't thought of it before but it seems logical that with the extra weight in the big tank on one end this might happen. Hmmm.
This is not a comforting thought for someone just starting out. Are those of you running the Eco-Wheel really happy with your filters and results? Would you buy one again?
I would hate to set this up and then have problems with no one to provide any support or spare stuff needed to get mine running again. Guess I could always go back to the more tried methods. Or is this why you suggested a more generic room design Brett?
On a side note - I do not understand why someone would purchase the rights to make something then not make it. Not that I'm a great businessman but the economics of this escape me.
Charles
Thanks for the suggestion but even if I could reach the right rear corner of the reef tank I doubt I'll be shiming my stand anytime soon. Way too risky to mess with the dynamic load of a couple thousand pounds after the fact. Besides, much easier to lengthen the grating openings with a file. Hindsight being what it is... what I should have done was just take the time to rip out the carpet and padding - but oh well.
Yes, I'd buy another EcoWheel in a heart beat. Not only are the things built like a M1 tank, but the only long term probs I have ever heard of are from people looking for replacement air pumps or light bulbs.
Out of the entire design you really only have 3 mechanical pieces of equipment.... the rotating wheel, air pump and lighting unit. The first of the three I highly doubt you'll have any probs with. The second, while taking a bit of work, is not impossible to replace. And the third, easily replaceable with any number of offerings from numerous vendors.
Ref Chris purchasing the rights but not marketing it - I'd like to think it's a simple matter of him not wanting to see a decent piece of equipment dissapear from the hobby, but being stretched too thin and not having sufficient capital to really run with it. But that's just speculation on my part.
Brett
Yes, I'd buy another EcoWheel in a heart beat. Not only are the things built like a M1 tank, but the only long term probs I have ever heard of are from people looking for replacement air pumps or light bulbs.
Out of the entire design you really only have 3 mechanical pieces of equipment.... the rotating wheel, air pump and lighting unit. The first of the three I highly doubt you'll have any probs with. The second, while taking a bit of work, is not impossible to replace. And the third, easily replaceable with any number of offerings from numerous vendors.
Ref Chris purchasing the rights but not marketing it - I'd like to think it's a simple matter of him not wanting to see a decent piece of equipment dissapear from the hobby, but being stretched too thin and not having sufficient capital to really run with it. But that's just speculation on my part.
Brett
Brett,
How many rpm are you getting on the eco wheel. The manual state 4 rpm is optimal fro algal growth. When I frist started mine I was getting about 6 to 8 rpm, Chris Limcaco suggested placing some screen material on the centre section of the wheel to slow it down. This works reasonablly well until, the screen becomes, too covered with algae, to the point that even regular removal does not allow enough water flow to move the wheel.
I was just wondering what you did in this regard.
How many rpm are you getting on the eco wheel. The manual state 4 rpm is optimal fro algal growth. When I frist started mine I was getting about 6 to 8 rpm, Chris Limcaco suggested placing some screen material on the centre section of the wheel to slow it down. This works reasonablly well until, the screen becomes, too covered with algae, to the point that even regular removal does not allow enough water flow to move the wheel.
I was just wondering what you did in this regard.
Brett,
I probably should have added drain a lot of the water out of the tank for a short period of time. Looking at your pictures you could probably get about half out of there with out surfacing your corals. It would make it a lot easier. Also, I was not thinking about getting it up a couplke of inches, just the major part of the load off the floor or a fraction of an inch, just enough so that a wedge could be hammered in underneath. But you are right about the risk of the dynamic load. Tough deal. Sorry you have a problem and I hope whatever course you take it gets resolved without too much aggravation or effort.
After seeing they way you do things I put a lot of faith in your recommendation.
Anybody else?
RE: Chris Owens and the future of the wheel.
Is there any work out there to substantiate its effectiveness? Seems like if it were a good idea and a proven one, it would not take much to develope this into a line of filters for various sized tanks.
I have read some stuff by Sprung and Delbeek indicating that the ATS type filters need something more than just the filter - micro nutrient additions through supllement or water change. However, I don't think they mentioned the Eco-Wheel specifically. I think I also read that there was some question about the natural food source produced by ATS's not being exactly what corals need but I could be wrong about that. I have read sooo much in a very short time.
On the other hand the back of the inside cover of Eric Borneman's book says he has a 500 gallon, three tank setup that does not have any type of conventional filter. He uses a sea weed tank, one that sounded like what many call a refugium (mangrove), and a display tank. I have not read anything in his book yet that describes the setup nor the normal maintenance and feeding regimens.
From everything I have read it certainly seems like this type of filter shows the best promise to achieve the low effort good results method everyone would like to find.
Charles
I probably should have added drain a lot of the water out of the tank for a short period of time. Looking at your pictures you could probably get about half out of there with out surfacing your corals. It would make it a lot easier. Also, I was not thinking about getting it up a couplke of inches, just the major part of the load off the floor or a fraction of an inch, just enough so that a wedge could be hammered in underneath. But you are right about the risk of the dynamic load. Tough deal. Sorry you have a problem and I hope whatever course you take it gets resolved without too much aggravation or effort.
After seeing they way you do things I put a lot of faith in your recommendation.
Anybody else?
RE: Chris Owens and the future of the wheel.
Is there any work out there to substantiate its effectiveness? Seems like if it were a good idea and a proven one, it would not take much to develope this into a line of filters for various sized tanks.
I have read some stuff by Sprung and Delbeek indicating that the ATS type filters need something more than just the filter - micro nutrient additions through supllement or water change. However, I don't think they mentioned the Eco-Wheel specifically. I think I also read that there was some question about the natural food source produced by ATS's not being exactly what corals need but I could be wrong about that. I have read sooo much in a very short time.
On the other hand the back of the inside cover of Eric Borneman's book says he has a 500 gallon, three tank setup that does not have any type of conventional filter. He uses a sea weed tank, one that sounded like what many call a refugium (mangrove), and a display tank. I have not read anything in his book yet that describes the setup nor the normal maintenance and feeding regimens.
From everything I have read it certainly seems like this type of filter shows the best promise to achieve the low effort good results method everyone would like to find.
Charles
caevan said:
I'm nowhere near 6-8rpm / more like 3 maybe 4 on a good day. If I valve the thing back I can get like 6, but I wind up with like half the flow.
There are even times when the water level is a little low, the wheel is full of algae, and I can actually stand there for what seems like an eternity waiting for the wheel to decide if it's going to make another trip around.
On the other hand, if I increase the water level so it's above the overflow grating the wheel will turn faster but then I lose surface skimming in the tank. Also, you've probably noticed the water coming in from your influent box(s) seems to have more "kick" to it if it has a little distance to drop before it hits that water in the tank. Raising the water level in the tank reduces the distance the influent water has to fall which takes away some of the "ooomph"
It's a real catch 22.
About the only think I have been doing is trying to service the wheel on a regular basis, remove as much corraline as possible to reduce excess weight and keep water levels as consistant as possible. That seems to work but it requires that I stay deligent.
I still get a bunch of algae, so all things considered, my rotation must be OK.
I take it you wheel has the screening that wraps all the way around? Mine doesn't - my algae grows directly on the PVC wheel itself.
Brett
Brett,
I noticed in the picture above you had no screen, my ecowheel has a screen wrapped around either side of the wheel leaving the centre ( about 1 third of the wheel width) open. I presume this is a design change in yours, I would be interested to know why.
Due to distance and cost of shipping, I only purchased the wheel assembly, the surge boxes and some plumbing parts, along with plans to build the eco wheel tank. Everything else was built or sourced locally. As there was no way to get a seeded screen for the wheel, I had to let the algae grow by itself. Regardless of the water level I was getting quite high rpm, so Chris Limcaco suggested covering the bare section with more screen material, this gave me a similar rotation to what you have described.
I have no idea why the design change. Other than a little extra time scraping in and around the blades on the wheel I guess it's all same.
FWIW, Imagine even growing your own algae from scratch you're no worse for wear. It's not like Turf algaes come from some secret part of the world. The idea of getting them from Inland is just a time saving measure more than likely.
How much effort does it take for you to stop your wheel? I mean, can you hold it in place with a single finger?
Brett
FWIW, Imagine even growing your own algae from scratch you're no worse for wear. It's not like Turf algaes come from some secret part of the world. The idea of getting them from Inland is just a time saving measure more than likely.
How much effort does it take for you to stop your wheel? I mean, can you hold it in place with a single finger?
Brett
I read somewhere else here on RC about corraline algae. Several posters said that keeping their Ca down to around 400-410 significantly reduced their corraline algae growth. They also commented how they could not understand those who kept their Ca levels in the upper 400s to 500+. I think that there was another factor they also mentioned that they claimed assisted in lower corraline growth but it doesn't come to mind what that was now. I can find it again if this is something you guys do not already know about.
Charles
piercho
New member
Caevan,
with regards to increased efficiencies using a "ring" injector vice a single injection point:
I ran two tests using a 4', 1.5" lift with lots of 2" external plumbing and bends (like the ecowheel plumbing has). One test was with a 8-point injector made by AES. The second was with the homemade injector with the many tiny holes shown in the thread you linked. I did get a better flow rate with the homemade injector with many tiny holes. However, the plumbing was similar but not identical, so plumbing head may have played a significant role. I never tested a single point injector like the one showed in the ecowheel schematic for performance. I don't know if you would get a significant improvement, if any improvement, going with a multi-point injector in your arrangement.
Basic air lift design is that fewer, larger bubbles produce more lift if the lift pipe has vertical head. Do fewer, larger bubbles produce more flow against plumbing loss? That is, is plumbing head equivalent to vertical head with an air lift? Don't know.
The obvious advantage of many, tiny lift bubbles is more gas exchange. The water coming out of my lift pipe (many tiny bubbles) is pretty much foam. It does not form a standing head like a skimmer, and no "crust" of skimmed life forms. But every 45 seconds, or so, the RCSD exhaust fires into this area, and this may keep it clean.
What I can say is that I measured 20GPM flow at a 1.5 GPM air injection rate. That is the same flow as the ecowheel unit produces with much more air injection at a similar lift height. Why? I don't know. I did learn in my experiment that plumbing resitance plays a huge role in lift performance. The energy it takes to drop the water over the weirs, the resistance of input strainers, the loss from the tight 90 degree bends in the plumbing all add up.
My suggestion, for those of you silly enough to muck about with air lifts, is to set up the system (or a mock-up of the system) on the back patio and experiment. ABS plumbing, what I recommend because it comes in large diameter sizes and has readily available long sweep elbows, is cheap. "Quick fit" rubber fittings make joining together trial sections a breeze. Just try different plumbing arrangements and lift injectors to see if you can milk more performance out of the system.
I can safely state that doing any of the following will increase lift performance:
-Reducing plumbing runs.
-Increasing plumbing size.
-Replacing sharp bends with slow bends.
-Reducing vertical head, like the drop over a weir.
-Eliminating input strainers, or at least increasing their size.
Brett,
wow. At heart, you are an artist, with the meticulous nature of an engineer. Thanks for keeping the thread moving and taking time to respond in detail to the questions. Its still an interesting thread.
I finally gave in and installed a overflow with a beefy return pump on my system. I just had to get more flow through the vegetative filter. The action of my RCSD is to make the overflow run fast then suddenly stop flow, run fast..., etc. So I'm using that action to "surge" a little homemade alga scrubber. I'm calling it the motionless, surged, alga scrubber. So far I'm likeing it.
Sadly, the air lift/RCSD/scrubber experimental tank is likely to end next year as we plan to radically remodel our home or move. I'm feeling attached to some of these creatures I've kept over 3 years, so I hope I can keep some sort of tank going for the favorites. The good part is I feel I have enough time under my belt to take on a project the size of yours once our housing is resolved. Keep this thread moving, I'm sponging lots of ideas up!
with regards to increased efficiencies using a "ring" injector vice a single injection point:
I ran two tests using a 4', 1.5" lift with lots of 2" external plumbing and bends (like the ecowheel plumbing has). One test was with a 8-point injector made by AES. The second was with the homemade injector with the many tiny holes shown in the thread you linked. I did get a better flow rate with the homemade injector with many tiny holes. However, the plumbing was similar but not identical, so plumbing head may have played a significant role. I never tested a single point injector like the one showed in the ecowheel schematic for performance. I don't know if you would get a significant improvement, if any improvement, going with a multi-point injector in your arrangement.
Basic air lift design is that fewer, larger bubbles produce more lift if the lift pipe has vertical head. Do fewer, larger bubbles produce more flow against plumbing loss? That is, is plumbing head equivalent to vertical head with an air lift? Don't know.
The obvious advantage of many, tiny lift bubbles is more gas exchange. The water coming out of my lift pipe (many tiny bubbles) is pretty much foam. It does not form a standing head like a skimmer, and no "crust" of skimmed life forms. But every 45 seconds, or so, the RCSD exhaust fires into this area, and this may keep it clean.
What I can say is that I measured 20GPM flow at a 1.5 GPM air injection rate. That is the same flow as the ecowheel unit produces with much more air injection at a similar lift height. Why? I don't know. I did learn in my experiment that plumbing resitance plays a huge role in lift performance. The energy it takes to drop the water over the weirs, the resistance of input strainers, the loss from the tight 90 degree bends in the plumbing all add up.
My suggestion, for those of you silly enough to muck about with air lifts, is to set up the system (or a mock-up of the system) on the back patio and experiment. ABS plumbing, what I recommend because it comes in large diameter sizes and has readily available long sweep elbows, is cheap. "Quick fit" rubber fittings make joining together trial sections a breeze. Just try different plumbing arrangements and lift injectors to see if you can milk more performance out of the system.
I can safely state that doing any of the following will increase lift performance:
-Reducing plumbing runs.
-Increasing plumbing size.
-Replacing sharp bends with slow bends.
-Reducing vertical head, like the drop over a weir.
-Eliminating input strainers, or at least increasing their size.
Brett,
wow. At heart, you are an artist, with the meticulous nature of an engineer. Thanks for keeping the thread moving and taking time to respond in detail to the questions. Its still an interesting thread.
I finally gave in and installed a overflow with a beefy return pump on my system. I just had to get more flow through the vegetative filter. The action of my RCSD is to make the overflow run fast then suddenly stop flow, run fast..., etc. So I'm using that action to "surge" a little homemade alga scrubber. I'm calling it the motionless, surged, alga scrubber. So far I'm likeing it.
Sadly, the air lift/RCSD/scrubber experimental tank is likely to end next year as we plan to radically remodel our home or move. I'm feeling attached to some of these creatures I've kept over 3 years, so I hope I can keep some sort of tank going for the favorites. The good part is I feel I have enough time under my belt to take on a project the size of yours once our housing is resolved. Keep this thread moving, I'm sponging lots of ideas up!
Hi Howard, always nice to hear from you.
Thanks for the kind words and for taking the time to drop in and clarify a few things.
If it wasn't for you and your ideas I probably would have wound up plumbing this thing with PVC and tight 90 degree bends.
Ref the ring injector: I have always had the possibility of the holes becoming clogged with calcification somewhere in the back of my mind as well as how I will deal with it if and when the time ever comes. I figure the easist will be to just drill through the double wall of the pipe and glue a hose barb into the injector. At that point I will be back to single point injection, but at least I will still have the ABS sweeps working in my favor.
Brett
Thanks for the kind words and for taking the time to drop in and clarify a few things.
If it wasn't for you and your ideas I probably would have wound up plumbing this thing with PVC and tight 90 degree bends.
Ref the ring injector: I have always had the possibility of the holes becoming clogged with calcification somewhere in the back of my mind as well as how I will deal with it if and when the time ever comes. I figure the easist will be to just drill through the double wall of the pipe and glue a hose barb into the injector. At that point I will be back to single point injection, but at least I will still have the ABS sweeps working in my favor.
Brett
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From speaking with Chris Limcaco, the reason for this is, to maintain the sort of flow rate without reducing bubble size required a much greater air flow, I know a lot of effort was put into the design to maintain planktonic life within the system.
Could someone post a site for ABS fittings, trying to source these locally in (Australia) could be difficult.
caevan,
I do not know what you are looking for but try McMaster. I did a search for ABS and it came up with several listings for fittings, sheets, tubes, etc.
http://www.mcmaster.com/
Glad to help if you have any trouble geting anything from them.
Charles
I do not know what you are looking for but try McMaster. I did a search for ABS and it came up with several listings for fittings, sheets, tubes, etc.
http://www.mcmaster.com/
Glad to help if you have any trouble geting anything from them.
Charles
Where ever you find them make sure your elbows are "sweeps" which are longer and have a more gentle radius. Get the longest radius you can find.
If you haven't already figured it out, the general reasoning behind the ABS stuff is that the sweeps are an off the shelf plumbing piece where as the same sweep in PVC is more of a specialized item at like triple the price.
Brett
If you haven't already figured it out, the general reasoning behind the ABS stuff is that the sweeps are an off the shelf plumbing piece where as the same sweep in PVC is more of a specialized item at like triple the price.
Brett
I got a call from Chris Owens with AE this morning. He was very nice and very helpful. One of the topics we touched on was the size of the tank and amount of flow it would require to handle various corals. Apparently the larger model can be configured to handle up to about 700 gallons (may have been 750 but I cannot remember for sure). This was surprising to me as my prior information indicated that 300 gallons was the upper limit. I believe I mentioned the 1200 gph rate I had heard before and I think he said that was a median flow. Anyway he did not think there would be a problem going with one unit (though he thought two would be much better in case I might want to add more corals and/or fish later) because there were things he could do to tweak filter for higher the flow.
This is more to the point of your recent posts and the main reason for this one. It is more expensive but using flexible tubing runs can provide a signinficant flow improvement. 15% comes to mind but we talked about a lot of things and a lot of numbers were mentioned. Unfortunatley I did not write any figures down. At the time I was more interested in my project and forgot about the flow stuff going on in this thread. If there is crawl or any other space underneath the tank and filter going through the floor to get more vertical difference in the flow path also provides some significant increase as well. I got the impression that there may be another method or two but I suspect from your posts you may already thinking of these things.
We also talked about some occasional auxilliary flow (to stir things up a little) via gentle methods similar to the air lift pump currently used. Though he seemed hesitant to do it (said he did not think it would be necessary) it sounded like he had some ideas.
Chris did mention that they were wokring on some new marketing things regarding the tank and associated items. I do not think they are any great secret but will not mention them because I am not sure how much he wants out yet. Glad to ask him permission though if anyone is interested. From the way he talked it will be out soon anyway.
Charles
This is more to the point of your recent posts and the main reason for this one. It is more expensive but using flexible tubing runs can provide a signinficant flow improvement. 15% comes to mind but we talked about a lot of things and a lot of numbers were mentioned. Unfortunatley I did not write any figures down. At the time I was more interested in my project and forgot about the flow stuff going on in this thread. If there is crawl or any other space underneath the tank and filter going through the floor to get more vertical difference in the flow path also provides some significant increase as well. I got the impression that there may be another method or two but I suspect from your posts you may already thinking of these things.
We also talked about some occasional auxilliary flow (to stir things up a little) via gentle methods similar to the air lift pump currently used. Though he seemed hesitant to do it (said he did not think it would be necessary) it sounded like he had some ideas.
Chris did mention that they were wokring on some new marketing things regarding the tank and associated items. I do not think they are any great secret but will not mention them because I am not sure how much he wants out yet. Glad to ask him permission though if anyone is interested. From the way he talked it will be out soon anyway.
Charles
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