Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)
- Thread starter nineball
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mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Mr. Wilson,
Has the team decided on what type of output each pump will be rated at? Were you all trying to design for a circular pattern along both "legs" of the tank? How will rockwork be stacked and where? My biggest question is will pump C have enough output to keep eddies and "dead spots" in flow from forming around the rockwork along the long leg? Aside from that it seems like a good design.
I love this build, there's a wealth of knowledge to this board. Keep up the good work. :beer:
-Eric
If we can acquire the DC pumps we are after, each closed loop pump will put out 11,000 GPh @ zero head, and the sump return will put out about 5,000 GPh @ zero head. We will be using them all on a VFD so the flow rate will vary.
We are treating it as two tanks. The middle bend is a dead end but there will be four 45˚ elbows directing water up where it will be redistributed down the west and north wings by the sump return at the surface.
No matter how strong your pump is, you lose control of your flow after 8' of travel in and around rock work, so you need more jets to pass the torch too. The longer leg (the north wing) is 16' long but 3' of that is shared with the 8' long west wing. That leaves us 13' to cover with two sets of jets. The first jets in that run, starting at the overflow are marked "output port #4". It's located 32" in from the end of the tank. The water has to make it 87" before it gets picked up by the next set of jets "output port #3". peter is planning a canyon along there so we are hoping that we don't need to direct water at the rock work inlet and it will get enough flow as the water swirls past.
We may have to use diffusers of some sort on the closed loop effluent/out ports, but not penductors. All of the plumbing will be accessible for fine tuning so the rock & water flow mesh well. In the end you can't have optimum flow and pretty rock formations, but none of us are entirely obsessive compulsive abut it so we won't lose any sleep
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Thanks for posting the video, that is exactly how we want Peter's flow. He said "Niagara Falls"
I will be contacting Abyzz in the next few days. I haven't heard back from Sido (Aqua-Forte) yet so we need to move on. I would like to know the quality difference between The Aqua-Forte, Abyzz, Royal Exclusive, and Vertex offerings of the DC pumps originally designed by Schunk Modultechnik/Honcar. They all claim to have corrected the shortcomings of the first generation RE Red Devil, but there must be some performance difference between the brands.
We are looking for two of the large pumps 10,000+ GPH, and one of the smaller units 5,000 GPH.
Bigez
New member
Sounds like you guys have got it covered. I can't wait to see the results.If we can acquire the DC pumps we are after, each closed loop pump will put out 11,000 GPh @ zero head, and the sump return will put out about 5,000 GPh @ zero head. We will be using them all on a VFD so the flow rate will vary.
We are treating it as two tanks. The middle bend is a dead end but there will be four 45˚ elbows directing water up where it will be redistributed down the west and north wings by the sump return at the surface.
No matter how strong your pump is, you lose control of your flow after 8' of travel in and around rock work, so you need more jets to pass the torch too. The longer leg (the north wing) is 16' long but 3' of that is shared with the 8' long west wing. That leaves us 13' to cover with two sets of jets. The first jets in that run, starting at the overflow are marked "output port #4". It's located 32" in from the end of the tank. The water has to make it 87" before it gets picked up by the next set of jets "output port #3". peter is planning a canyon along there so we are hoping that we don't need to direct water at the rock work inlet and it will get enough flow as the water swirls past.
We may have to use diffusers of some sort on the closed loop effluent/out ports, but not penductors. All of the plumbing will be accessible for fine tuning so the rock & water flow mesh well. In the end you can't have optimum flow and pretty rock formations, but none of us are entirely obsessive compulsive abut it so we won't lose any sleep
nineball
New member
Okay, nine months into 9 Ball's aquarium project and we finally have a plan and a drawing
http://gallery.me.com/mr.wilson1#100104/9-20Ball-20flow-20plan
http://gallery.me.com/mr.wilson1#100104/9-20Ball-20flow-20plan-202&bgcolor=black
Sorry, I don't post pics much so I need to remember how I did it last time
nineball
New member
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Sorry for the confusion, we will be using the pump manufacturers controller, not a VFD if we can get the DC pumps.
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Alright genius, what was I doing wrong??
muttley000
MTS Sufferer!
I'm sure there will be at some point! I have read so much about flow in the last hour (haven't been able to sign in for a couple of days) that my head is swimming! The diagrams have helped me understand greatly. I hope a way to easily visualize the actual flow in the set up works out (along the lines of the bobblehead idea a few pages ago) so us with less experience can visualize what these theoretical numbers actually look like. Keep up the good work guys!
nineball
New member
After you get the copy in memory you have to hit the yellow box with the mountain and sun in it and hit paste but I am using phanfare which appears to be more web aware. To save time just put up the links like you did before and I'll convert if you wish...............
Peter
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
That's what I did, but it came out as ? boxes for some reason. Thank God I'm at least a good dancer
You can hold my hand for the next pics.
nineball
New member
I do plan to put up both a literal as well as a graphical representation of how to judge adequate flow using some sort of a quantifiable scale. Mr. Wilson and I will consult and offer the results to you folks for refinement. We will end up with a shareable scale that anyone can use to describe their flow simply and easily!!!!!
Peter
What about incorporating a "remote" surge device
What about incorporating a "remote" surge device
What about incorporating a "remote" surge device
This is what I like to see. New ideas from new people. We lost some momentum with 40 pages of elevator conversation, but we can finally move past the weather or temperature in our case
I was not aware of the 6 hour tide rule of thumb. I agree that our wave devices have cycles that are not realistic to natural conditions. I believe that corals need more time to read the conditions and ascertain where to expend energy to feed.
The flat wall (dead end) comment is also bang on. I would like to experiment with curved bottom edges where the vertical panels meet the bottom of the tank. This kind of smooth transition does wonders for Jellyfish kreisels. Eliminating friction where possible can direct water where we want it and literally save energy. Acrylic tanks are easy (but expensive) to bend into curves at the bottom, but for glass tanks you would need to use a solid plastic insert shaped like a skateboard (1/4 pipe) ramp. This may sound like a big project, but it can be easily worked into the design of an acrylic end overflow.
From an aesthetic standpoint, I personally don't like the mechanical look of Tunze wave box "waves". Corals gently sway in nature, while the Tunze wave box is a much faster cycle that is more abrasive than relaxing in my opinion but I can't deny that they help slough off coral slime with constant agitation.
Our sump return pump will be on a VFD (variable frequency drive for those who are not familiar with it) so we can create small surges at the surface followed by a calm period where the overflows can drain a thinner skin off of the surface.
As it stands we are not equipped to change the direction of laminar/pseudo laminar flow but it is still remotely possible. We could use a revolving bulkhead on the bottom that rotates 180˚ every 6 or 12 hours to change flow direction, or we could use a revolving valve that changes the in & out ports on a timer. The latter is easier. If we had more holes in the tank we could use a standard 4 way or 8 way Oceansmotions wave device to change direction every six hours.
nineball
New member
That's what I did, but it came out as ? boxes for some reason. Thank God I'm at least a good dancer
Are they in your album???
Peter
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
We ordered too much
No, seriously it is a remote DSB. Real estate is getting tightfor us and the two overflows offer about 40 gallons of DSB in a nice dark area with passive flow passing over it.We added a breather/feeding tube to potentially add a carbon source and monitor dissolved oxygen. The perforated tube will allow for a passive exchange of water that we can increase with an airlift or heater. Heat rises and pulls water with it. This action very slowly draws water down into the DSB.
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Yup. I tried linking them from my public album and my private one. maybe it was a glitch. I'm working on your simplified flow diagram so the viewers at home can follow along. i have a chance to redeem myself with the IMG command.
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Alright, it still won't happen. I use the URL below with the (IMG)http://gallery.me.com/mr.wilson1#100104/Flow-20Pattern&bgcolor=black(/IMG) but with square brackets instead of rounded. What am I missing?
http://gallery.me.com/mr.wilson1#100104/Flow-20Pattern&bgcolor=black
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